The mispronunciation of sporting names is something that grates with the true sports fan: be it the eternal Nike/Nikey debate, the failure to stress the second syllable in Ad-DEE-das, the long period of prevaraction before settling on 'Liverpool's David N-Gog rather than Liverpool's David N-Go' or everyone's manful struggle with Poland's Jakub Blaszczykowski.
Thankfully, all of these have since been solved by RTE's Prince of Pronunciation, George Hamilton.
In the expected absence of George at Twickenham this weekend - Ryle Nugent usually gets the Ireland games - there is much consternation as to how to pronounce debutant's Josh Van Der Flier's name.
Worry not, your friends here at Balls.ie are here to help.
First of all, we have to establish the etymology of Van Der Flier's name.
*Trawls immigration records in Ireland over past 100 years*
Following our archival search, we have ascertained that Van Der Flier's name is Dutch: his grandparents moved here 60 years ago. With that established, we now have to find out how the Dutch pronounce the "ie" part of his name.
*Enrolls in ten week Dutch language course for the price of nine weeks*
We have learned the results, and we will allow this promotional video to show exactly how to pronounce the"ie" sound::
There you have it, it is Josh Van Der Flee-er, and not - as many headline writers would have wished - Josh Van der Fly-er.
So there you have it. Go forth in full lingustic accuracy.
Still doubt us? Van Der Flier gave an interview to the Irish Independent last year in which he confirmed exactly how to say it:
Sorry to disappoint everyone but it's Van der 'fleer', not 'flyer'.
But I don't mind if people use either, to be honest. It's just…
We hope Josh can get off to as flyer at Twickenham on Saturday.
(Editor's note - there are people who say the proper way to pronounce the internet image .gif is JIFF. The world, rightly, sticks two fingers in that man's face, and calls it a GIF. And so apologies to Josh and his forefathers, but we here at Balls.ie will always call him van der FLYER.
See Also: Mick Galwey Offers Blunt Advice On How Ireland Should Respond To Eddie Jones
