Helio

[BSchneiderFan]

Used to be Castro Neves, now Castroneves. Which is right, and why the change?

[Kicking-back]

His surname is Castro Neves, without a hyphen.

He allows the Americans to call him Castroneves because they couldn't quite get it.

Reference also - Massimiliano Papis becoming Max and Alessandro Zanardi becoming Alex.

[marcus]

Toranasuke Takagi becoming Tora

im sure theres a few more but I cant think of any just now ????

[Alex K]

because that minus (-) was 'slowing' him on track -- he told it to Polish Auto Sport few years back

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by Alex K
because that minus (-) was 'slowing' him on track -- he told it to Polish Auto Sport few years back

His name never had a hyphen in it, apart from those who spelt it wrongly.

So changing it left them with no opportunity to use one.

[Testure]

Didn't Kenny Bräck change the pronunciation of his name a couple of years ago? I seem to remember that "brak" is an Americanisation of the correct pronunciation of Bräck ("brek?" Perhaps one of our Swedish members can assist.)

I wish people would just learn the correct way to say names. Things like that drive me insane. Worse, many Asian people I know choose silly European/American first names because so many western people won't learn to correctly pronounce their "real" name, which is just dreadful behaviour.

[/RANT]

[Kicking-back]

I've always heard Kenny's name pronounced Brek not Brak.

[BSchneiderFan]

Glad I've been getting Castro Neves right all this time. I had wondered if Castroneves was correct, but I thought I remembered seeing "Castro Neves" on his overalls, and that would be properly written, surely!

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by Testure
Didn't Kenny Bräck change the pronunciation of his name a couple of years ago? I seem to remember that "brak" is an Americanisation of the correct pronunciation of Bräck ("brek?" Perhaps one of our Swedish members can assist.)

I wish people would just learn the correct way to say names. Things like that drive me insane. Worse, many Asian people I know choose silly European/American first names because so many western people won't learn to correctly pronounce their "real" name, which is just dreadful behaviour.

[/RANT]

Lighten up Testure.

Did you ever think its the drivers that are changing the pronunciation of there names and not the fans or the media? Maybe they feel its better for there image, or it helps them to fit in, who knows.

Personally, I think that Americans can handle pronouncing Brack, as Breck, or Castro Neves, as Castroneves.

[jenna]

the umlaut (those two little dots) over the a does change the pronounciation, it's not quite "brek" but that's close. it's hard to explain unless you speak German or something similar...

[MLM]

I'm a student of languages since high school and yes, I sometimes get picky over pronunciation, grammar etc...
However, I sometimes think it IS laziness on the part of SOME Americans not to try to learn subjects which don't pertain to their particular situation (and Lord knows, this can cover a lot of aspects of life in general...IMHO)

Names like "Kanaan, daMatta, Fittipaldi,Andretti,etc..." are not, IMO, that difficult to say.
No more than "Foyt, Rutherford, Earnhardt, Labonte (the correct French pronounciation, BTW ),Kahne, etc"...
To me, it's just making the effort to TRY and UNDERSTAND the differences in language, culture etc....
That's, BTW, is IMHO

[climb]

About Helio, is real surname is Castro-Neves, but he changed into Castroneves in order to delete any reference with Castro, which, we all know , is not very popular in the States.

[rustyfan]

Trying to explain how ä sounds is quite hard, but if I had to try, I'd say it's like a combination of a and e - so the correct pronunciation of "bräck" isn't "brack" or "breck", but rather... ehh... "braeck", or something

And don't even get me started on our Swedish å and ö..

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by rustyfan
Trying to explain how ä sounds is quite hard, but if I had to try, I'd say it's like a combination of a and e - so the correct pronunciation of "bräck" isn't "brack" or "breck", but rather... ehh... "braeck", or something

And don't even get me started on our Swedish å and ö..

Now what would a Swede like you, know about pronouncing Brack anyway!

Hey, how do you get those little dots on top of your letters anyway? You got a special keyboard or something? :confused: