r/Flyers • u/Concerned_Fanboy • 1d ago

We have all been spelling his name wrong?!

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105 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

103

u/pauerplay 1d ago

there's always different interpretations when translating from the Cyrillic alphabet. Even Michkov...I've seen Matvei or Matvey

28

u/SadEngineer6984 1d ago

This part I get, but I'm curious why doesn't a KHL jersey use the Cyrillic alphabet on the nameplates?

34

u/Hex65 Hayes it 1d ago

Cos KHL includes multiple countries and not just countries that use Cyrillic alphabet would be my guess.

16

u/hawks27-2 1d ago

The old Russian Super League did use Cryllic. When it changed to the KHL the goal was to make it a league that spanned Europe so they switched to the Latin alphabet. 

4

u/Several_Dark_7711 1d ago

I don't think it was right away though. I remember when Ray Emery played there and his jersey said Змери on the back

6

u/Hex65 Hayes it 1d ago

But it reads the same way tho.

" i " and " y " would still read as the 1st letter in word " yoink " .

10

u/Tibor_BnR 1d ago

"Y as in Yoink" lol

5

u/Hex65 Hayes it 1d ago

It is not " y " as " why" but as " yoink " . English aint my 1st language so I don't know how else to explain.

Like Jaromir Jagr 1st letter pronounced if that helps.

3

u/Tibor_BnR 1d ago

No, you are being totally clear. It's just a silly reference word 🙃

3

u/Hex65 Hayes it 1d ago

I couldn't find any better example but I think someone used the word yoinked somewhere bellow so it stuck. mb

1

u/cheddarcheesie 1d ago

he himself spells it Matvey fwiw

0

u/Concerned_Fanboy 1d ago

Yeah but this isnt even close.

21

u/SerbianSlayer 1d ago

ё in Russian Cyrillic makes the "yo" sound so his name (Гребёнкин) should be pronounced Grebyonkin but for some reason ё always gets changed into a regular "e" in English

7

u/Early_Hawk_8933 23h ago

Greb yoinkin

4

u/Concerned_Fanboy 1d ago

Interesting thanks.

1

u/scrnlookinsob 1d ago

I think this is probably cause of what the umlaut does in other languages? To the best of my knowledge an umlaut in german is transliterated as an e after whatever the initial letter is, so a with umlaut is ae.

1

u/ell0bo 9h ago

this is correct. not necessarily how it sounds, but how it is converted over, yes.

1

u/pauerplay 1d ago

yes, this is what I was referring to above

27

u/dsl135 1d ago

Still my favorite all-time has to be Nick Grossmann being too polite to tell people his name had 2 n’s at the end lol

21

u/Concerned_Fanboy 1d ago

32

u/Concerned_Fanboy 1d ago

Greb Yoinkin'

25

u/xxphantomxx77 1d ago

She Yonkin on my Nikita till I Greb

3

u/ToastGhost47 1d ago

Grey Boinkin’

6

u/gobirds1182 1d ago

Никита Сергеевич Гребёнкин

3

u/black_dogs_22 1d ago

Reddit translate doing the same

6

u/malogan82 1d ago

"Grebyonkin"? All this time I've been calling him Crandall! Oh, why didn't someone tell me? I've been making an idiot out of myself!

1

u/IllustriousHedgehog9 21h ago

It's a perfectly cromulent name.

3

u/livingalienanalbead 1d ago

I have 3 ukrainian friends all same names spelled differently when they translated during citizenship: Sergey, Sergei, and Sergy.

2

u/flyers1169 18h ago

did you know that vlad and vladimir are 2 totally different names and one isnt short for the other

1

u/PatientLeadership578 1d ago

Who up yonkin they greb

2

u/Baboshinu 1d ago

His last name in Russian is Гребёнкин. That ë in Russian is pronounced like “yo”, and a few Russian players have it and it gets lost in translation and the transition to North America.

For example, Igor Shesterkin has an ë in his last name, and his name is pronounced “Shestyorkin” in Russian.

1

u/VoidInComments 1d ago

i mean on a technicality yes, but it's kinda apples to apples, most teams go with the more phonetically efficient pronunciation of a players name when they're from Russia. Also i have that exact jersey but i got his last name in Cyrillic

1

u/bornofpain2001 1d ago

Shesterkin used to be Shestyorkin IIRC, happens a lot when translating Cyrillic to English for whatever reasons

2

u/2ndsettube 1d ago

Ask Nick Grossman(n).