22 replies to this topic

[Turbo]

Sorry for the silly topic, but this has always bugged me. Here is the USA, announcers have said "Ayrton" (and not in a couple other series "Airton") differently.

Bob Varsha, who used to do the ESPN broadcasts and now does Speedvision, says "aye-AIR-ton."

Many others say "AIR-ton."

I've also heard:
"AIRT-on"
"air-TONE"
and other variants.

So which is right?


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[magnum]

It's pronounced Bob
I think it is aye-r-ton

[doohanOK]

Both pronounciations are widely used.

They are:

AIR-TON Senna.
EYE-AIR-TON Senna.

Murray Walker uses AIR-TON, Varsha uses like you said, EYE-AIR-TON.

regards,
doohanOK.

[Laphroaig]

Murray Walker isn't a good one if you want to know how to pronounce names, he also talkes about 'Schoemaker' (haven't heard him recently tho).
On the whole I think Dutch commentators are best in pronouncing foreign names (I can only compare it to English, French, German, Italian, American and Belgian TV.)

Depends on who you've got tho, Dutch female speedskating commentator is over doing it, she's trying so hard she starts to pronounce all the names wrong!

[molive]

IMO it should be somethink like:

Ah-eer-ton Scenah dah Seel-vah.

try to say it 5 times very quickly..

[mel]

There's an old joke around here regarding racing drivers who have Scottish towns in their names- Stirling Moss, Jim Clark etc...

The punchline is, of course, Ayr Town Centre!

[John]

The pronounciation that I thought was correct was like "I-yair-ton"

Cheever was asked to make a tribute to Ayrton Senna at a motor racing awards event (shown on speedvision recently I believe) and during the tribute he kept saying "artin".

!!!!!

[Ricardo F1]

John - you're correct. Murray actually changed to that pronounceation in 1994. It annoyed the hell out of me for the few races that happened (Brazilians saying it is one thing - Murray . . .)

[Kai]

Correct. In 1994 during the Brazilian Grand Prix, Murray said that he had an 'audience' with Senna and that Ayrton told him that it was pronounced 'eye-air-ton'. Murray even kept it up for about half the race before reverting back to 'air-ton'. As mentioned above, Bob Varsha was about the only announcer who correctly pronounced Ayrton's name on a regular basis.

[Lamont]

Wow, that's one of the few things Varsha actually gets right during his broadcasts!

[Turbo]

Thanks for the replies. Molive may well have the most accurate of the bunch (since Montreal & Brasilia are listed as your locations in the profile), and Kai's information was interesting. I suppose the English-language approximation of the name as eye-AIR-ton is probably in the right ballpark (rather than simply AIR-ton or AIRT-on, which are the other two popular ones).

So congratulations to Bob Varsha I guess.

By the way I like Bob, glad to have him back on the F1 broadcasts for Speedvision. He makes mistakes, but I like his general style and he pays attention to the details of the race more than the average US commentator. I still enjoy old tapes of his CART broadcasts with Danny Sullivan as sidekick, though I really like Jan Beekhuis on the current broadcasts and Paul Page is a good guy and has become better as an announcer over time (though he still yells a bit too much for my personal taste). Tommy Kendall was great as a color commentator in the past, hope we see more of him.


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[Turbo]

...by the way, anyone notice how on one of the FIA season review tapes (forget the year, 1992 or 1993?) the commentator consistently refers to MS as "MIK-hi-ul" Schumacher? Is there any reasonable justification for that whatsoever in the German language? I don't remember anyone else ever saying it that way. I've watched that tape twice and both times laughed every time I heard it.

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[Elspeth]

My German friends say Mis-hi-ul is the German pronunciation of MS first name.

And there is an old tape a friend has wherein Ayrton says his name is Eye-AIR-ton, the last syllable pronounced rather like the french 'bon'.

[Turbo]

Interesting, Elspeth. Sounds kind of like the lesser prefered pronunciation of "missile." Rather appropriate.

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[kenny]

ok..my mom grew up in Brasil, Ive been there acouple of times, and the way you say it is the way you see it actually
AYRTON, soa ctually AIRTON, you just pronounce it letter by letter...
take care all

[Holy Driver]

Elspeth: Are you sure your friends are German ?

Written in English, MS first name is spelled somehow like
Me-[ch]uh-el
where "Me" is spelled like the word "me", [ch] is like in the Scottish word "Loch" and "el" like the beginning of "elegance"
The rest then is Shoe-mu[ch]er (which means shoemaker, by the way).

[doohanOK]

I've heard "Mikhail" Schumacher used often.

regards,
doohanOK.

[Turbo]

Gosh darn it! If Kenny is right, this is still unresolved. Whadya think, Molive?

Come on Brazilians, step forward and confirm one way or the other for the rest of the world:

AIR-ton

or

eye-AIR-ton?

Germans--Michael (English pronunciation) or Mikhail?

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[kenny]

most english people say ayeairton
In french it is Erton

but in Brasil they say Ayrton

In an interview of Austrlaia 93,
Jackie Stewart says 'Well Eye-AIR-ton' you can say your comments in your own language.
And Senna replies' well then I will first start by saying Ayrton and not eye-air-ton'...
that was pretty fun, hearing Senna say Eye-air-ton...

[Turbo]

Okay, thanks for the replies, but I'm still confused. Kenny & Kai's anecdotes seem opposite. Announcers disagree, and some of those on this thread disagree.

SO--Any actual born and raised Brazilians want to resolve this for us please?

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[kenny]

well TUrbo, I am 110% sure it is AYRTON, just the way it is...

Oh, I forgot, Didnt you hear any interviews with Rubinho, he also said AYRTON...and he knew the great man...

[schumilover]

Ayrton is my middle name and i say it aye-air-ton just not in public

[PeaQ]

My first name is Hannes, if you pronounce it backwards, it will be Sennah... pretty cool hu?