UEFA helps foreigners pronounce names of Polish footballers
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
07.06.2016 15:31
European football body UEFA has issued a guide on how to pronounce the names of Polish players taking part in this year’s Euro 2016 championships.
The Polish squad which will take part in the Euro 2016 football championship. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski
Polish names can be tongue-twisters for foreigners, but UEFA's guidelines should make things a little easier.
“Polish is a much softer sounding language than all the 'k's and 'z's would suggest. A 'Ł' or 'ł' is a little bit like an English 'w', while the subscript accent on an 'ę' or an 'ą' subtly adds an 'n' to the vowel,” UEFA wrote on Tuesday.
Here are some of the names which foreigners might have a problem with:
Łukasz Fabiański – Woo-cash Fab-yan-ski
Wojciech Szczęsny – Voy-chekh Sh-chen-sni
Artur Jędrzejczyk – Yen-jay-chick
Tomasz Jodłowiec – Yodd-wo-vetz
Michał Pazdan – Mi-how
Łukasz Piszczek – Woo-cash Pish-check
Bartosz Salamon – Bar-tosh
Jakub Błaszczykowski – Ya-koob Blash-chi-kov-ski
Kamil Grosicki – Gro-sich-ki
Grzegorz Krychowiak – G-ze-gosh Cri-ho-viack
Krzysztof Mączyński – K-shish-toff Mon-chin-ski
Sławomir Peszko – S-wha-vo-mir Pesh-ko
Robert Lewandowski – Le-van-dov-ski
Arkadiusz Milik – Ar-ka-dioosh My-lick
Filip Starzyński – Sta-zynn-ski
Mariusz Stępiński – Mar-yush Stenn-pin-ski