How is this surname real? NotAGenious (talk) 05:47, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The ! is a letter used in some south African "click" languages. See Exclamation_mark#Phonetics. Rojomoke (talk) 06:29, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, you can hear the name "Sacheus !Gonteb" spoken in this NBC clip, for example. ---Sluzzelin talk 17:11, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Something I’ve been wondering about since 1980: how are they able to do the click almost simultaneously with the consonant that follows? Viriditas (talk) 22:57, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind, I just spent ten minutes teaching myself to do it. I think I’ll learn a few sentences in Khoisan just to freak people out. Viriditas (talk) 23:42, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There’s a song Miriam Makeba performed in the sixties which was widely known as “the click song” thanks to its frequent clicks in the lyrics. It appears on one of Harry Belafonte’s Carnegie Hall albums, I forget which. D A Hosek (talk) 17:36, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have added a note to the article to that effect. Bazza 7 (talk) 22:02, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

you're finnish, you're on thin ice yourself 130.74.58.77 (talk) 19:44, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I am trying to write about Tono Zancanaro, but this is maddening because his name appears as Antonio, Tono, Toni, and Tony, with no rhyme or reason. For example, as one of the award winners for etching at the 26th Venice Biennale, he is listed as "Toni Zancanaro", but on a gallery page describing this award, he is listed as both Antonio and Tono, not Toni.[1] Any idea what is going on here and why there are so many different variations on his first name? Note, the source for the Venice Biennale award is The History of the Venice Biennal 1895-2007 by Enzo Di Martino, and he is listed there on p. 132 as "Toni". Viriditas (talk) 23:13, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

When I google e.g. for zancanaro pittore in Italian, the results are overwhelmingly using Tono or Antonio, at least on the first pages I haven't found the other examples. Hence it suggests that Antonio is his formal/passport name and Tono is the Hypocorism he usually went by.

Toni and Tony could be typos (in particular Toni with the i being next to the o on most keyboards); or probably more likely, they are well-meant but wrong attempts at "correction" as, at least in the English-speaking world, Tony is the common hypocorism of Anthony (Toni is the common hypocorism of Anton in German and probably a couple of other languagues too). -- 79.91.113.116 (talk) 09:35, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Thanks for checking. I forgot to mention that there is one other element to this story that I have not yet pursued. There is an article that mentions how he came by the name "Tono". I can't remember the story offhand, but IIRC, it may have had something to do with a speech impediment by a family member who couldn't pronounce his name. I will have to revisit the material to know for sure. Viriditas (talk) 09:58, 20 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cured by a patent medicine perhaps? DuncanHill (talk) 00:25, 21 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]