Hieronymus of Hesselink wrote:

QUOTE:
It always cracks me up how everyone in America pronounces "Caitlin" as "Kate-lyn", even though the original is supposed to be pronounced "Cathleen".

Really though...would you expect someone to pronounce it with an "H" after the T, just looking at the spelling?

QUOTE:
Sean looks more like Seen than Shawn.

Which is why my wife pronounces Sean as "seen" when talking about the actor Sean Bean.

The diaspora have lost their way a bit . . .

Getting back to Reed's comments about Shawn Johnson, I hate how NBC and the rest of the media always seems to pick out one female American gymnast as The One, the darling that we all have to root for. It's definitely her this year.

Inca wrote:

QUOTE:
Hieronymus of Hesselink wrote:

QUOTE:
It always cracks me up how everyone in America pronounces "Caitlin" as "Kate-lyn", even though the original is supposed to be pronounced "Cathleen".

Really though...would you expect someone to pronounce it with an "H" after the T, just looking at the spelling?

We're splitting hairs a bit here.

Caitlin is an Irish name, and its closest English equivalent is Cathleen.

I'd imagine someone in America saw it written down, began saying it phonetically without finding out the correct pronunciation, and it caught on from there.

She does have the best results in recent events.

We complain about this every four years. It's never going to change. The olympics is simply not marketed to "real" sports fans. It's marketed to the so-called "casual" fan.

Real sports fans like you or me or sports writers (like Mike Wilbon who was just making this same point on the radio) would prefer to see amazing athletes regardless of where they're from, including, or perhaps especially, in sports we don't get to see in the USA very often, because as sports fans we appreciate that sort of thing.



NBC pays a lot for these rights, so they need to get the best ratings they can and the best way to get ratings is to give the largest mass of American viewers what they want to see. And, unfortuntely, what real fans want is not what the great mass of casual fans want - or at least, it's not what they think they want.

What the bulk of Americans want to see is, apparently, charismatic, usually white, USA athletes winning lots of medals in sports that Americans are already at least vaguely familiar with, interspersed with cloying, self-congratulatory human interest stories. And then they put Jim Lampley and Bob Costas in the studio HQ to make it all seem like a real sports broadcast.

The "i" makes the "t" soft. Not as soft as "th", but basically that.

"Sean" would be pronounced much like "Sian" - ie "shan". It means "old". It needs an accent ("urú") to be pronounced properly; "Seán". Misplace it as "Séan", and it would be pronounced like my name...

It's the one big crossover Irish name (with Sean, perhaps).

The vast majority of Caitlin's have next to no Irish heritage.

A-ha.

A cross post that illustrates the point.

In "American", Sian, Sean and Shawn are homonyms.

We are Philistines, I know.

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

QUOTE:
She does have the best results in recent events.

We complain about this every four years. It's never going to change. The olympics is simply not marketed to "real" sports fans. It's marketed to the so-called "casual" fan.

Real sports fans like you or me or sports writers (like Mike Wilbon who was just making this same point on the radio) would prefer to see amazing athletes regardless of where they're from, including, or perhaps especially, in sports we don't get to see in the USA very often, because as sports fans we appreciate that sort of thing.



NBC pays a lot for these rights, so they need to get the best ratings they can and the best way to get ratings is to give the largest mass of American viewers what they want to see. And, unfortuntely, what real fans want is not what the great mass of casual fans want - or at least, it's not what they think they want.

What the bulk of Americans want to see is, apparently, charismatic, usually white, USA athletes winning lots of medals in sports that Americans are already at least vaguely familiar with, interspersed with cloying, self-congratulatory human interest stories. And then they put Jim Lampley and Bob Costas in the studio HQ to make it all seem like a real sports broadcast.

I don't have a problem with NBC only promoting the American gymnasts. It's that they seem to just focus on only one out of the group of six. Seems that Shawn Johnson has gotten all of the endorsements, also. There was an article in Play, the NYT sports mag a few weeks ago, about the marketing of gymnasts, and how this is their one time to make some money, but I don't know how Johnson became the golden girl this time around and not one of her fellow teammates, even if she has gotten the best scores. The Sacramone girl is the captain of the team--you'd think she'd get more attention because of that.

But my god--that piece introducting the US gymnasts on Monday night narrated by Al Trautwig was one of the most bombastic, faux dramatic things I've seen on a sports broadcast. It alluded to all sorts of drama and past events without ever explaining what they were talking about, and my wife and I were confused and guessed it was all stuff that we were supposed to have memorized by now.

Al Trautwig is the king of that sort of thing.

Shawn Johnson is supposed to be the ace of the team, but she's among the youngest so she's not the captain. Likewise, Kevin Tan is the captain of the men's team, but he is not supposed to be their best athlete. I know that because he competed for Penn State and is now a coach there, so he's gotten a fair amount of local coverage in State College, but nothing like he would if he were a woman gymnast.

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It alluded to all sorts of drama and past events without ever explaining what they were talking about, and my wife and I were confused and guessed it was all stuff that we were supposed to have memorized by now.

And yet The Des Moines Register mentions Shawn Johnson is from West Des Moines in each article on her as if readers might not be aware. She practically has her own section of the newspaper now, so that's a bit like the Boston Globe reminding readers that the Red Sox play at Fenway.

One of the shots in the promo thing showed the floods in Iowa, but I don't know if her house was flooded, or what.

Al Trautwig was okay on the Tour de France coverage on OLN/Versus, but he wasn't on it this year.

Her house wasn't flooded that I know of but her gym, where she is coached by the guy who is also the US Head Coach, was seriously flooded. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think it was a massive setback for them.

Al Trautwig is better at cycling, but in general he's the go-to guy whenever a TV producer wants to drum up some hype. The color commentator is some guy who whines about the judging.

In general, however, I think NBC gets the right people. For the cycling, they got Phil Legget. It just wouldn't feel like a proper cycling event without Phil. For the beach volleyball, they got that guy that always does beach volleyball. For swimming, they got Rowdy Gaines. I don't know who the rowing commentators were but they seem to know an awful lot about rowing.

Who is doing the soccer?

Right, Catherine in Irish is Caitríona, which is shortened to Triona or ríona. It's also shortened to Cáit, which has a long aaah sound. (caaw-tch) this was anglicised as kate. The diminutive is Caitlín, or Cathleen, with is also Kate-lyn. So basically the names Kate and all compounds are generally of Irish origin, and unless you're of russian origin Katrina (or similar sounding name) is probably also of irish origin. Also pretty much any name that ends in een, or in. like Kevin or colin. (little colm)

to clarify, Kate is originally of greek origin, and also a traditionally english name, but would have been a much more common name amongst the irish immigrants to the US, leading to its widespread use.

The big crossover Irish name in amongst english footballers appears to be ciaran.

AIATL: what about the name Evan? I've read things that say that it's Irish, but also others that say it's Welsh.

Reed: soccer...eh. They got Adrian Healy to do some pbp, which is really good, but then they also brought in Marcelo Balboa and Shep Messing.

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NBC's soccer commentators include JP Dellacamera, Glenn Davis, Adrian Healey and Steve Cangialosi (play-by-play) and Marcelo Balboa, Brandi Chastain, Shep Messing and Lori Walker (analysts).

I don't know if any of them are in China--I read that JP/Balboa were going to be there, but I've seen Balboa come on after a game and he was in NY. I don't know all of the pairings, aside from JP/Balboa. I've only heard Healy during women's games.

A handy way out for London in 4 years; cheat.