Pronounciation

[Kalafrana]

Uhlan is oo-lahn, with stress on the second syllable.

In Sigmaringen the final g will be hard, as  there are no soft gs in German, but I'm not sure whether it is Sig-mar-ring-en or Sig-mar-ring-ghen.

Going somewhat off-topic, I once had a Chinese student whose surname was Ng, pronounced Ung.

And yes, in Britain we really do have a Marquess of Cholmondeley, pronounced Chumley.

Ann

[RHB]

What about Romanov is it Ro-ma-noff or Ro-man-noff (like it's said on the history channel) and if it's the 2nd one how would u pronounce the female variation with the v a (Romanova) Ro-man-noff-va? Just curious! I always say the first but on Romanov Documentaries (I've seen Russia land of the Tsars) they pronounce the 2nd way so...? thanks for the info by the way!

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

How do you say Sigmaringen?   As in Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, I know how to say Hohenzollern as it was explained in earlier posts but I cannot say Sigmaringen correctly or rather I know I am not saying it correctly.

I was intrigued too and heard from Südwestrundfunk that it's ['zɪgmaʁɪŋən], approximately SIG-mar-ing-en.

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

With all the imperfect explanations of the pronunciation of Tsarskoe Selo around, can we try to establish a valid one in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)?

My impression is that it's: ['tsarskaj sjel'o:]

Correct, or should some of the consonants be palatalyzed and shown with a [ʲ] (tiny j) next to it? All in the know, please update this attempt at a phonetic transcription.

[Jessamy]

I was reading about Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, and it said that he was known in the family as "Gogi". Any ideas how to pronounce this? Thanks

[MademoiselleAndrea]

I would pronounce it "Goh-gee", but who knows?

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

I was reading about Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, and it said that he was known in the family as "Gogi". Any ideas how to pronounce this? Thanks

I would pronounce it "Goh-gee", but who knows?

In Danish and Norwegian, Goggen or Goggi are pet forms of Georg. With the name being the same in German, and Grand Duke George's mother being German-born, I would not be surprised if it was a German-based nickname. (Just as in English, diminutives of names often end in y/i in German, e.g. Rudi and Sisi.) If it's German-derived, the pronunciation would be /go:gi:/, with the g hard and presumably both vowels long (in Norwegian both vowels in Goggi are short).

Any help with the phonetic transcription of Tsarskoe Selo above?

[nena]

In German, I guess it would sound something like - Zarskoh - Se loh. (In German - zar + ko and seloh). I am sorry, I hope I helped.

[Beautiful_Anastasia]

How do you pronounce 'Velikye Knyaz'?
How to pronounce OTMAA's names in my opinon:
Olga [ol-gah]
Tatiana [Tat-ee-ah-nah]
Maria [Marr-ee-yah]
Anastasia [Ann-as-taz-ee-yah]
Alexei [Alek-say]
Emily x

[Beautiful_Anastasia]

And I have always pronounced 'Nikolaevna' as [Nick-oll-eev-nah] is this wrong?
And once again, how is 'Velikye Knyaz' pronounced?
Emily x

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

And once again, how is 'Velikye Knyaz' pronounced?

The pronunciation of Velikiy Knyaz, Вели́кий князь, can be rendered approximately vel-EE-kiy knyahz, in English spelling. Velikiy is three syllables, knyaz is just one.
If you have a look in the preceeding pages of the thread you can find a lot of pronunciation guides to the names you mentioned.

Though, it would be absolutely great if a poster with knowledge of Russian would write the pronunciation of these words with phonetic symbols in IPA, so that we don't have to rely on the phonetically notoriously inaccurate English language and our own dialectical interpretations of its orthography. See my post above Tsarskoe Selo ( ['tsarskaj sjel'o:] ?) above.

[perfecciona]

In some places when I read about the Romanovs, for the females after their names it is spelled, Romanova, how do you say, Romanova ?

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

In some places when I read about the Romanovs, for the females after their names it is spelled, Romanova, how do you say, Romanova ?

[rʌˈmanəfə] or [rʌˈmanəvə]? Anyways stress on the second syllable, just as in the male form Romanov, [rʌˈmanəf].

[Svetabel]

In some places when I read about the Romanovs, for the females after their names it is spelled, Romanova, how do you say, Romanova ?

[rʌˈmanəvə]?

Yes, sound V, not F.

[RHB]

so that would be row-ma-no-va or ro-man-off with a v-a which ro-man-off-a (only the off is like ovv)? still can't seem to grasp it perhaps