How to Pronounce Yi Jianlian

This will sound kind of silly if you are Chinese, but a lot of Americans are confused by Chinese names and I have never once heard Yi's name pronounced the same way twice.

My Taiwanese friend cleared everything up for me.

First, Yi is a family name. It's the equivalent of your last name. As you probably know, it is pronounced like the letter "E".

Jianlian is an Americanized spelling of his given name. Based on the Chinese characters that comprise his name, his given name is Jian-Lian. It's difficult for me to pronounce this correctly, never mind describe it, but I'll do my best. (Maybe a Chinese speaker can do better!)

"gee-EN lee-en" is pretty close. The second word goes up at the end sort of like a question, but not quite. It also runs together and the pause between the syllables isn't as long as the first word.

Can anyone add anything or explain it better? I figure we should at least try to say his name right before he makes his first All-Star team!

 

I'm not sure, but maybe this is it:

[video=youtube;c13wfXeMxd8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c13wfXeMxd8[/video]

 

Yes. That sounds about the same to me.

 

I just say Yi (Ee) or YJL.

 

yeah, "EE Ji-an-lee-ann" has always been my pronunciation, and I believe that's how 2k8 and Sussmen pronounced it as well.

 

No. Listen to what Pegs posted. There is no English short "a" sound. They sound like short "e"s.

The inflections matter a lot, too. If you want to be accurate (which is nearly impossible if you don't speak Chinese) it sounds just like that.

I think for Americans, it would be fine if the inflections were wrong and we called him "EE gee-EN lee-en". And stick to just "EE" most of the time.

 

I told my daughter that the Nets had a player named "Yi." she giggled and replied that now she wanted to name her future daugher the letter "A." Just thought I'd share.

 

I will wait until Marv Albert, Ian Eagle and Chris Carrino make their decision, which I suspect will be a joint decision.

 

Just say 'E' and I think we'll be good. Nobody is going to be saying Jianlian.

 

Im chinese.

Its pronounced
"E ts-yen lee-en"


Its not
"E g-an li-an" <- thts usually how announcers pronounce it

 

I dont even try, I just say Yay John Lon

 

I go for "Hey, John Wayne."

 

What ever happened to good old names like Bob Johnson?

 

"E" would be a good nickname for him. It's shorter to type and it sounds cool.

 

"E" , like the drug

 

you can call yijianlian "Yi",it's easy,it's very difficult to Pronounce Yi Jianlian for a foreigner.

 

how do u pronounce ts?

 

just want to share this:
Yi is his last name, but also means easy in Chinese
Jianlian can be interpreted as "making connection" in Chinese

so, basically, this guy's name is easy to make connections ...

now I cant immagine him having locker room problems..

 

Good thing we traded RJ for him then, better to avoid that outright.