Sure, sometimes letters are silent, or certain consonant combinations are tricky. Although Giannis was born in Athens, Greece, he is of Nigerian descent. This would make the pronunciation of Antetokounmpo AH-ded-KOOM-poh. But Giannis seems like an easy-going guy. As a child, he and his family struggled financially. Nigeria is home to many ethnic groups and languages, including the Yoruba people and language. There are two particular phenomena in the history of the Greek language that we need to understand to explain the spelling of adetokunbo in Greek: (i) the change of stop consonants to fricatives and (ii) nasal weakening. "The most important thing is you cannot lose yourself in it. Well, to answer this, we need to have a little lesson in historical Greek phonology and scribal practices. Sometimes when you're the MVP, you're the leader of the team, you've got to do a photo shoot and all that, you lose yourself, and whenever I'm with my family, I'm myself.". "I have complete confidence that if there's a way for us to return to basketball, return to play, in a healthy and safe manner, for our players and for the public and people that would be involved, that our league will figure out how to do it," Horst said. And that's exactly what happened. As the NBAs reigning Most Valuable Player, Antetokounmpo is one of the sports most prominent players. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. Giannis and three of his four brothers were considered stateless because the . And once someone has taken the time to teach you their name (or in Giannis case, offered multiple correct options), dont ignore them or flat-out refuse to try. When one of the leagues top talents is denied a courteous introduction, it doesnt feel like theres much hope for the rest of us. Giannis Antetokounmpo, original name Giannis Adetokunbo, nickname Greek Freak, (born December 6, 1994, Athens, Greece), Greek professional basketball player who led the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA to a championship in 2021. It is no surprise that a name like Giannis Antetokounmpo would be difficult to pronounce by many commentators in the sports world. Giannis himself seems to be flexible in this respect when describing how to pronounce his name: Although it is undoubtedly the last name that gives people most trouble, the first name also deserves a few comments. Manage Settings It is no surprise that a name like Giannis Antetokounmpo would be difficult to pronounce by many commentators in the sports world. Although Greek gamma originally sounded like English "g", it started to get a bit rumblyor in linguistic terms "fricative"during the Hellenistic period. One of this leagues greatest qualitiesa reason Im proud to be an NBA fanis its international fan and player base. The reason for this transliteration is that Greek lacks a separate character for the [d] sound. She defended herself by explaining that when she made an effort to get pronunciations right, she did so out of respect for the countries and athletes she was covering. from the second division of Greek basketball with a name that most Americans didn't know how to pronounce . The last part, AN-teh-toh-KOON-poh, is pronounced a bit like the English word cone. The nickname was given to him because of his unique set of skills for a player his size, and his African heritage. Can you pronounce Giannis last name? Kenny Smith dared his Inside the NBA co-host Shaquille ONeal last week, during TNTs coverage of the 2019 All-Star Game draft. Thanks for signing up! Rams defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh (en-DOM-uh-ken SOO) said in a radio interview last spring that hed started going by Suh rather than Ndamukong because he was tired of hearing his first name get botched. Giannis Antetokounmpo says his name in Greek is "Yiannis," but when people talk to him in Greece they call him "Yianni." He says a lot of people in American don't understand this, but he's. Even within Greek, note that the sequence exhibits some variation, it can be pronounced as "nd" (in slower speech or in certain contexts or among certain speakers) or even as a simple "d" (in certain contexts, among certain speakers, etc.). So we end up shortening and mispronouncing our own names to accommodate other people, losing pieces of our heritage in the process (see the Dear Abby advice columnists recent recommendation that future parents eschew ethnic names altogether). Its the league of Larry Bird and Hakeem Olajuwon, John Collins and Hamidou Diallo, Kevin Love and Arvydas Sabonis, and its a far better league for that. Second, the "o" near the beginning of the name dropped out. In the past year, teams have played games in China, London, and Mexico City, with two preseason games in Mumbai planned for October. Those of us with long ethnic names get it. Its really that simple. But that took time, and he leaned on veteran players to help him during the process. But note that in Greek gamma-iota is not quite "y" but "y" with a little bit of a rumble, also known as a voiced palatal fricative ([] in official linguistic notation). The same thing happened with the name Giannis. He is 6 feet 11 inches tall, and his nickname is the Greek Freak. Shaq took the bait: Giannis Ante-ka-noon-po. All Rights Reserved, {{app['fromLang']['value']}} -> {{app['toLang']['value']}}, Pronunciation of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO with 1 audio pronunciations. anukah? The result was the following transformation: yoanan/yoanna became (in English letters: ioannes). We can see this illustrated in English with the words rag and rage. It left behind a bit of a remnant. Here, I'm going to take you through a bit of a lesson in historical Greek phonology to explain not just the pronunciation of Giannis's name, but also why it is spelled the way that it is and how it came to be spelled that way. How to Choose a Dining Table - Tips for Selecting the Perfect Table for Your Space. On Tuesday night, Antetokounmpo's commitment to the city that . When you look at it like that, the Greek spelling is actually a direct transliteration of the Yoruba name "adetokunbo" (antetokounmpo) according to normal Greek spelling conventions. If not, hed better keep practicing. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Hopefully Shaquille ONeal will figure out how to say Antetokounmpo very soon if he hasnt already. First on the list was two-time league . Both guys have been amazing, in very different cir.. Giannis Antetokounmpo reacted to a reported online, saying he would not pay to read his piece on him back for a game back in December. You can see this quite clearly in the spelling of a name like "David Beckham", which is spelled in Greek as , the English-letter equivalent of which would be Nteivint Mpekam. Chicago Bulls color commentator Stacey King tried and failed spectacularly with the five syllables, ending up with something to the effect of Anagarunbo. Marv Alberts no less than a dozen attempts at the 2017 All-Star Game ranged from Anchootekembo to Antetokooko. Kevin Hart, in charge of introductions at last years All-Star Game, didnt even bother to try. Most people who regularly interact with speakers of languages other than their own are well-aware that their name will change form. His parents are Nigerian immigrants who moved to Greece in the 1980s. Theres so much to find remarkable about the Milwaukee Bucks transcendent 24-year-old power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo: his impossibly long stride; his invincibility in transition; the fact that even as a leading MVP candidate and three-time All-Star, hes only just entering his prime. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the best basketball players in the world. Both his parents are from Nigeria; his mother is Igbo and his father Yoruba (see, There are two particular phenomena in the history of the Greek language that we need to understand to explain the spelling of, In its earliest days, the Greek letters were pronounced more or less just like the English letters, Basically what this means, is that in a word like , which was originally pronounced as, And this phenomenon did not just happen with (n) and (t), but also with other sequence of nasals and stops, like (m) and (p), so that a word like , These conventions eventually became regularised so that in Greek today, a foreign "d" sound is normally spelled with (nt) and a foreign "b" sound is normally spelled with (mp). We and our partners share information on your use of this website to help improve your experience. judy norton children; court ordered community service california Taking the time to learn a persons name is a bare-minimum show of respect for their family, faith, and identity. He is 6 feet 11 inches tall and his nationality is Greek. Giannis Antetokounmpo is a clear favorite to win MVP this season, but should he also pick up Defensive Player of the Year honors? Already in Koine Greekmeaning Greek that was spoken from around the 4th c. BCE to the 4th c. CEsomething was happening to the letter/consonant gamma , which often corresponds to English "g". While the more popular pronunciation of the Greak Freak's last name is "Antay-tu-koompo," Ruocco says it is actually pronounced "Adedo-Koonbo." His first name, meanwhile, is pronounced "Yonnis". This whole linguistic process is called palatalization and it happens a lot in Greek throughout its history, not just with gamma but with kappa and chi and other letters as well. Subscribe to learn and pronounce a new word each day! Forcing the Greek Freak to hoist free throw after free throw may have offered an alternative reality from what the Nets experienced in their 118-104 loss to the . His last name is a little more complicated. . Giannis Antetokounmpo (4p/4r/4a in 6 min) exited the game with 1:13 remaining in the first quarter. Shortly after being crowned the NBAs Most Valuable Player f.. All fair game. Part of the problem is thatmanyannouncers during NBA games, highlight shows, and talk showsmispronounce the last name. Oh, and he can block shots too. Learn more here. Fast forward to 2021 and Giannis has signed the most lucrative contract in NBA history - a five-year deal worth $228.2m (170.1m). Bucks keep good vibe going, minus Lopez bros. You can contribute this audio pronunciation of GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO to HowToPronounce dictionary. Look no further than here for a few examples of some pronunciations of the name: While Giannis tends to be quite gracious about mispronunciations of his Giannis has two older brothers, Thanasis and Kostas, who also play professional basketball. NOW WATCH: How basketball players get turned into video game avatars for NBA 2K. 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