It’s not just that the stress on -o is wrong but that it makes it sound like a female name to a Serbian ear. That’s why Vucevic was so irritated by it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DROA17Ssfm0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DROA17Ssfm0)
Jokic is virtually a saint for letting it pass.
It’s also funny because stressing the -o is more unnatural and more difficult for an English speaker since that isn’t what you do when you pronounce Nicholas.
You don’t stress the -o in Nicholas, so why do it for Nikola?
IdRatherBeLurking
Jokic has never cared about how his name is pronounced, and people from different cultures will *always* pronounce words differently from each other. I don’t get how fans are atill hung up on this. “Joe-kitch” is 10x more egregious.
Warlord10
The best way to explain it would be to pronounce the O like in the word ‘born’. Americans pronounce it like the O in Cola, which is like nails on a chalkboard to Serbs.
smellb4rain
Nicola FUHHHHHHHKING yeah Jokic
dr_no12
“NIKO-LAJ” not “NIKOLAJ”!
tbofsv
Knee-Co-La Yo-kitch
ile888
Farting or talking …goes the same to Americans, but nice try.
Donkey_Hodie
I’m the fan who won the chance to announce the starting lineup. Anyway, I thought I would impress everyone there by pronouncing it correctly, the way you described. Everybody corrected me, including Kyle Speller himself, telling me it’s Ni-COLA. I have since watched many clips of Moach pronouncing it as Ni-COLA also.
So, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I don’t think it’s a mistake that everyone pronounces it the way they do. It may be wrong, but it’s the clearly the accepted pronunciation within the organization.
8 Comments
It’s not just that the stress on -o is wrong but that it makes it sound like a female name to a Serbian ear. That’s why Vucevic was so irritated by it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DROA17Ssfm0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DROA17Ssfm0)
Jokic is virtually a saint for letting it pass.
It’s also funny because stressing the -o is more unnatural and more difficult for an English speaker since that isn’t what you do when you pronounce Nicholas.
You don’t stress the -o in Nicholas, so why do it for Nikola?
Jokic has never cared about how his name is pronounced, and people from different cultures will *always* pronounce words differently from each other. I don’t get how fans are atill hung up on this. “Joe-kitch” is 10x more egregious.
The best way to explain it would be to pronounce the O like in the word ‘born’. Americans pronounce it like the O in Cola, which is like nails on a chalkboard to Serbs.
Nicola FUHHHHHHHKING yeah Jokic
“NIKO-LAJ” not “NIKOLAJ”!
Knee-Co-La Yo-kitch
Farting or talking …goes the same to Americans, but nice try.
I’m the fan who won the chance to announce the starting lineup. Anyway, I thought I would impress everyone there by pronouncing it correctly, the way you described. Everybody corrected me, including Kyle Speller himself, telling me it’s Ni-COLA. I have since watched many clips of Moach pronouncing it as Ni-COLA also.
So, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I don’t think it’s a mistake that everyone pronounces it the way they do. It may be wrong, but it’s the clearly the accepted pronunciation within the organization.