Mark Johnson (Commentator not trainer)

H

HawkWing

At the Start
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
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Is there anything more annoying than listening to his forced linguistic pronunciation of French named horses.

I've yet to see him call a japanese-named horse in an oriental accent, an irish named horse with a west of Ireland accent, etc yet it's carte blanche, or as Mark would say, Court Blaunche, for the contentials.

Yes Mark you might have an education, maybe more so than your colleages - no need to puff your feathers every call, no one cares - just concentrate on the race.
 
I'm all for them pronouncing foreign names/words correctly. I agree there's no need to 'force' an accent but I find it an unhealthy mix of arrogance and ignorance just to pronounce very name/word as though it were English.

Even in English, though, we tend to say accepted French expressions correctly, eg 'carte blanche'. 'faux pas', 'je ne sais quoi' etc.

I'm not aware of MJ attempting to pronounce anything correctly, to be honest. Maybe that's because he seldom does.

Cumani definitely tries the hardest to get it right and I respect her for that.
 
Desert Orchid said:
I'm all for them pronouncing foreign names/words correctly. I agree there's no need to 'force' an accent but I find it an unhealthy mix of arrogance and ignorance just to pronounce very name/word as though it were English.
Click to expand...

The reverse side of that coin is how we would feel about foreign commentators' pronunciation of English words/names.

I've recently been watching foreign commentaries on games involving UK teams and am full of admiration at how the commentators appear to have gone out of their way to pronounce the English names correctly. They don't get them all right but they're generally very, very good.
 
Desert Orchid said:
I'm all for them pronouncing foreign names/words correctly. I agree there's no need to 'force' an accent but I find it an unhealthy mix of arrogance and ignorance just to pronounce very name/word as though it were English.

Even in English, though, we tend to say accepted French expressions correctly, eg 'carte blanche'. 'faux pas', 'je ne sais quoi' etc.

I'm not aware of MJ attempting to pronounce anything correctly, to be honest. Maybe that's because he seldom does.

Cumani definitely tries the hardest to get it right and I respect her for that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Cumani tries. That's all you can expect and Irish speakers can understand when effort/research has been made to get their awkward sounding names correct. There is over-egging things to act as if you are a born and bred speaker. Jerry Hannon definitely over-eggs the Irish pronunciations on Irish race commentaries also.
 
Desert Orchid said:
The reverse side of that coin is how we would feel about foreign commentators' pronunciation of English words/names.

I've recently been watching foreign commentaries on games involving UK teams and am full of admiration at how the commentators appear to have gone out of their way to pronounce the English names correctly. They don't get them all right but they're generally very, very good.
Click to expand...

Whereas if they were to put on a Geordie/Manc/Scouse/Cockney accent when calling only the English names....
 
The shy and retiring Mark’s education clearly didn’t extend to the study of the Classics.

Kyrie Eleison of Hannon’s I recall being pronounced by our portly friend along the lines of Kylie (with an r for the l) and something along the lines of horizon (with an el replacing the ho).

Lord have mercy indeed - also in the form of the mute button as DJ alluded to!
 
redundant pal said:
The shy and retiring Mark’s education clearly didn’t extend to the study of the Classics.

Kyrie Eleison of Hannon’s I recall being pronounced by our portly friend along the lines of Kylie (with an r for the l) and something along the lines of horizon (with an el replacing the ho).

Lord have mercy indeed - also in the form of the mute button as DJ alluded to!
Click to expand...

:)

I used to tell my pupils that the most useful subject I ever did at school [for me] was Latin.

Orchidette wishes she had done it!
 
Is commentary is great if your horse is winning, tends to overplay some of the finishers.
 
Yes. Hoiles seems to be aiming for some kind of balance between conversation and narrative rather than commentary. He doesn't really pick up on the pace of the race the way Holt does.

Even Thommo is better than Hoiles (and Johnson etc).

And where did this "they'll travel another four/five/six* furlong before they leave the ground again" come from? (*delete as (in)appropriate)

They're leaving the ground with every stride FFS. Just say "jump another fence/hurdle" FFS.

I often watch the first section of a race just to make sure I know who's who then mute the commentary. That's how bad they are.
 
It's In Gliss Drever not In Gulls Drever

The OP has a point though

Johnston yesterday pronounced Defi Sacre Defi Sack Ray

Just plain wrong
 
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