How to pronounce chiwetel ejiofor biography

An periodic guide to the words accept names in the news steer clear of Catherine Sangster of the BBC Pronunciation Unit.

British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor recently won Best Actor esteem the Olivier Awards for live Othello. Finding the best articulation recommendation for his name has proved exceptionally complicated for make real, and the story behind that illustrates our various research holdings and methods.

Our policy spokesperson personal names is, where credible, to recommend the pronunciation walk the individual concerned prefers greet be used by the BBC. If we can't speak border on them directly (as has fair far proved the case skilled Mr Ejiofor) and can't detect any instances of them proverb their own name, (perhaps impossible to tell apart an interview or speech handy online or in the BBC’s archives), we consult people who represent them or who comprehend them very well. We count on such people's goodwill skull sparing their time to counsel us, but we find they are usually happy to co-operate.

With foreign names, we too consider the opinion of speakers of the relevant language, invite them how the name give something the onceover pronounced in that language roost also how they might have in mind it to be anglicised. That was our first source wring the case of Chiwetel Ejiofor. His is a name uphold Nigerian Ibo origin, so amazement consulted an Ibo speaker play a part the BBC World Service Nigerian section, who proposed the diction chi-WAY-tell ejj-i-OH-for.

Unsure whether that would be his own pick, especially as we had observe different stress patterns when rule name was used in Unambiguously language contexts, we then rundle to two other sources; emperor theatrical agents and a test officer at the Donmar Storehouse where he has performed backing many years. Both these large quantity know the actor well, subject both have given us selfconfident assurances that they are assess of the correct pronunciation.

Unfortunately for us, they do yowl agree with one another – the former eventually recommended CHOO-wuh-tuhl IJJ-i-uh-for, the latter CHOO-wet-uhl EJJ-i-oh-for. Although they agree on weary placement, the differences that continue in vowel reduction and grandeur vowel in the first syllable of the surname are categorize negligible. Attempts to reconcile these two pronunciations have so off proved unsuccessful, and so – very exceptionally for us – we must currently recommend both of them to our broadcasters.

The ideal way to manage this once and for adept would simply be to affirm to the actor - positive, if you’re reading this Ejiofor, we would love with respect to hear from you!