I wonder if this Poutine came with Russian dressing?

RadioActive wrote:

We've had several threads here about the lack of knowledge from some current news folks as they mangle names of streets, places and other things they should probably know. But very early Sunday morning, I heard one that simply defies description. 

It happened on Kitchener's 570 News of all places, and I only heard it because the dog woke me up at 4:55 AM. When I couldn't get back to sleep, I do what I often do - turn on the radio. They simulcast the Infinity Sports feed with the Fan590, but there's a brief two minute break where an anchor comes on and does a very quick review of the headlines. 

This woman, whose name I was far too sleepy to catch, came on and ran down the top stories. She had a very bizarre accent that I couldn't quite pin down, and she badly mangled a lot of the copy she read. But the one that stood out to me came when she talked about the Ukraine-Russia truce talks and referred to the president of Russia as  - and I'm not making this up - Vladimir Poutine. 

Yes, Poutine, the Quebec food made up of cheese curds, French fries and gravy. I don't know what Vlad the Impaler (or his food taster) eats, but I'm assuming it's not that - and in either event, that is not his last name. 

Fortunately, it was very early on a weekend morning, so I'm assuming no one but me even heard it. But this has to be one of the worst ones yet. 

Poutine is the French spelling and pronunciation of Putin. Other languages probably spell and pronounce the name in a similar way.

Apparently, in the early 90s Gallup Canada had the bright idea of contracting out its calling to an American call centre. In the lead up to the 1993 election, baffled Canadians got calls from people with Southern American accents asking if they'd be voting for Gene Cretin. Gallup disappeared from the Canadian scene shortly after.

If we're going for accuracy, why not call him Dictator Poutine, which is exactly who and what he is?

Dick Tater would be a great radio name.
 

Sorry, no excuses. English radio broadcasts should use english pronunciations, regardless how a word is spelt in another language, which shouldn’t even be a factor here, jeez!

RadioActive wrote:

I wonder if this Poutine came with Russian dressing?

As seen outside a Hamilton restaurant last August (P.S. - It's still there)


 

Did I just hear NT1010 Trivia Show Jason Agnew give out a clue in which he referred to something called an "A Rack A Nid?"

Yes, I did. And it's pronounced arachnid ("a-rack-nid") referring to a spider. 

Not only that, he said it wrong several times. 

Doesn't he write his own questions and wouldn't he have checked this before going on air with it?

[Edit: Someone must have told him during the break, because the next time he repeated the question, he said it correctly.]

Last edited by RadioActive (May 18, 2025 10:57 am)

What is it with some reporters dropping the letter T from names and words?  This morning Alayna Treene a reporter on CNN referred to Russian President  Vladimir Putin as Vladimir "Poo-In" two times in her report.  Huh?

 

For a lot of years we lived up around Wiarton. The people who live there call it Wiar-n.

Forward Power wrote:

mic'em wrote:

A CBC newsreader on the Sudbury affiliate called a local village up here called Onaping, O nap ing one day last week. Two other locations here get named incorrectly alot as well. Hanmer is  frequently called Hamner, and Capreol, Donna Skelly's home town, is called Cap ree ol. The correct pronunciation is Cape ree ol. I assume it is due to the area being highly French speaking. 

Wondered about that pronunication, esp. as a broadcast engineer I used to work with was from Levack I believe. Is Foleyet pronounced the way it looks, or is that a different one too?

To be honest, I was unaware of that one. I would presume Foley et, but could be Foley eh. I have a couple of French speaking neighbours, I'm going to ask if they know. 
 

Hey Roseanne Roseannadanna   are you _sure_ she didn't pronounce it correctly unlike most news people?  I believe she may be correct.   'Poutine'.

One of the 'problems' with having multicultural readers is they tend to pronounce things properly as apposed to the way we do.  Being Scottish Menzies is one that jumps to mind.  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/47/Menzies.ogg/Menzies.ogg.mp3
Brechin is another one.

RadioActive wrote:

This woman, whose name I was far too sleepy to catch, came on and ran down the top stories. She had a very bizarre accent that I couldn't quite pin down, and she badly mangled a lot of the copy she read. But the one that stood out to me came when she talked about the Ukraine-Russia truce talks and referred to the president of Russia as  - and I'm not making this up - Vladimir Poutine. 
. 

mic'em wrote:

Forward Power wrote:

mic'em wrote:

A CBC newsreader on the Sudbury affiliate called a local village up here called Onaping, O nap ing one day last week. Two other locations here get named incorrectly alot as well. Hanmer is  frequently called Hamner, and Capreol, Donna Skelly's home town, is called Cap ree ol. The correct pronunciation is Cape ree ol. I assume it is due to the area being highly French speaking. 

Wondered about that pronunication, esp. as a broadcast engineer I used to work with was from Levack I believe. Is Foleyet pronounced the way it looks, or is that a different one too?

To be honest, I was unaware of that one. I would presume Foley et, but could be Foley eh. I have a couple of French speaking neighbours, I'm going to ask if they know. 
 

   I never did get back to conclude this post, it is indeed Foley ET . The local Rogers hit music station in Sudbury hired a new afternoon gal some months back, and she has gaffed on local names. She called Skead , a small village in the outskirts , Sked, it is pronounced skied, like she skied down the hill. Also , like the CBC one earlier, pronounced Onaping as O nap ing. You would think the PD or some co-worker would make sure the young lady knew her local geographical areas before unleashing her  onto the airwaves. 
 

mic'em wrote:

mic'em wrote:

Forward Power wrote:

Wondered about that pronunication, esp. as a broadcast engineer I used to work with was from Levack I believe. Is Foleyet pronounced the way it looks, or is that a different one too?

To be honest, I was unaware of that one. I would presume Foley et, but could be Foley eh. I have a couple of French speaking neighbours, I'm going to ask if they know. 
 

   I never did get back to conclude this post, it is indeed Foley ET . The local Rogers hit music station in Sudbury hired a new afternoon gal some months back, and she has gaffed on local names. She called Skead , a small village in the outskirts , Sked, it is pronounced skied, like she skied down the hill. Also , like the CBC one earlier, pronounced Onaping as O nap ing. You would think the PD or some co-worker would make sure the young lady knew her local geographical areas before unleashing her  onto the airwaves. 
 

One of my housemates in university was from Levack (before it was amalgamated to the greater municipality of Onaping 😄). It was from her that I learned that cottage and camp were the same things!

BowmanvilleBob wrote:

Somewhere I still have an audio file of some kid reading the weekend news in New Brunswick trying to pronounce “Shi’ite clerics” relating to a piece of copy on Iran. It didn’t end well.

The pilot of Murphy Brown made this joke (Miss America turned broadcaster Corky has to ask how it’s pronounced).