Russians and Americans

There's a commercial I just saw, about subtle changes, but oh, now I can't seem to remember what it is for. Anyway, I just noticed that they do an alternation between "Michael" and "Mikhail," but Mikhail is pronounced mikʰeʲəɫ when it should be something more like mikajɫ.

Russian phonology isn't my main area of study though, but this was pretty far different for even me. It's surprising, because the vowel quality, the main sonic concern, isn't foreign to english, and for my ears, the way he said it, although very "american" sounding, doesn't strike me as particularly common. At least for the way I talk, (or think I do, it's kind of late here), the "eʲəɫ"part resembles the word ale but not as much in fluid speech (where it seems to lower some). He was being particularly careful and as such it didn't sound natural as a result.

It's just always striking to my ears when I hear such radical pronunciations, even for more or less English words (think "Chianti"). The fact that it is Russian is countered by the fact that it is one word, and something I feel is relatively well known, enough that somebody could've told this person, who presumably has some speech training, to say it more than slightly differently.

Of course re-filming is a costly process, and nobody really knows these things anyway, so, what's the harm?