THE EDITOR, Sir:I WOULD like to make an appeal to persons in the media.
The FIFA World Cup 2006 has started. Let's get the pronunciation and spelling of names and teams right!
I have seen the signs already. 'Les Bleus' (the French team) have been mispronounced; the 's' is silent as it precedes a consonant.
SPORTSMAX recently advertised a number of sporting engagements, including a match between BRASIL (the Portu-guese/Spanish spelling) and New Zealand.
And let not the analysts waste valuable air time in arguing over why Thierry Henry's last name is pronounced the way it is. I should also add that the "h" in Thierry is also silent. Listen to the commentator on the feed. If it's a BBC feed, we can trust the pronunciation 9.99 times out of ten.
If we lose the English feed temporarily, could we have the French or Spanish feed? What harm can that do? This is the 21st century! The TV audience has visual support; we'll catch the excitement. This, in my opinion, is better than having a boring commentary from the studio.
While I'm at it, I'd like to make reference to a Scotiabank ad featuring photos by Dellmar. Malcolm Marshall is not credited for the number of wickets taken. The info on Desmond Haynes reads thus: Desmond Haynes: 116 Tests, 7,487 wickets (sic). Cho, man, we can do better than that in Jamaica!
I am etc.,
NORMAN W. M.
THOMPSON
Dept. of English & Modern
Languages
Northern Caribbean
University
Mandeville
