Pronunciation of Abramovich

Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC, has been involved in a court case over the past week or so, so has featured in many radio news bulletins recently. His name is pronounced in different ways by different people. The correct pronunciation is AbramOvich, with the stress on the O. This pronunciation applies when Abramovich is a surname, I believe. The -ovich suffix in Russian, however, more often denotes a patronymic, or a Russian's middle name that derives from his father's first name (the female equivalent is -ovna). Abramovich can thus also be a patronymic as well as a surname, in which case it means that the person's father was called Abram. Abramovich as a patronymic is pronounced AbrAmovich, with the stress on the second A (and for some reason, this is the pronunciation that seems to come more naturally to radio newsreaders). Roman Abramovich's patronymic is Arkadievich, which means that his father's first name is or was Arkadii. Roman, by the way, is pronounced with the stress on the A.

Comments

[Marc Leavitt]

Susan: I knew the proper pronunciation of the patronymic middle name, but not that the accent would be on the anti-penultimate syllable for a last name. What about a name like Davidov? Wouldn't the accent be on the ultimate? And in a two-syllable name ending in the -ov form, on the first syllable? Russian isn't one of my languages.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks, Marc. Davidov has the stress on the I. The two-syllable name Petrov is stressed on the OV, but Chekhov, also two syllables, is stressed on the first syllable. Russian stress is unpredictable and that is why it is always marked for learners and young Russian children.

[John]

Isn't the patronymic used in a more significant way than our usage of a middle name? Seems as if the given name plus the patronymic are used in a very familar context. Is that true?

[Virtual Linguist]

Quite right, John. The polite way to address a Russian is by name and patronymic - Ivan Petrovich, or Svetlana Ivanovna. It's a polite form of address, rather than familiar, though. It's how children would address their teacher, for instance.

[Jemmy Hope]

We British also stress the wrong syllable of his forename. We say ROman, when it should be rahMAHN.
The -ovich suffix (in surnames)is more Bielorussian or Polish than Russian. As a Jewish name Abramovich would have originated in the Pale of Jewish Settlement, which included Poland and modern Belarus. In Polish the stress always falls on the penultimate syllable.

[John]

We consistently accentuate the RO in the same manner as in Britain, Jemmy. As a very heavy viewer of British football, I don't think I've heard any BBC or Sky presenters pronounce it differently. We may be collectively wrong, but we are consistent.

[Jemmy Hope]

Natural, I suppose, when we pronounce the word Roman, meaning "of Rome", that way. One size fits all, as they say.