Pronouncing non-English names for English speakers

Post by paradite » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 4:56 PM UTC

tralarpa wrote: post #236

paradite wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Native Chinese speaker (though not linguist) here. For "q" and "ch", both are valid pinyin. "ch" in pinyin is actually the same as "ch" in English in terms of pronunciation. "q" in pinyin doesn't have a equivalent in English so it is just "q", which is similar to "q" but not really.

It was explained to me that the difference between "q" and "ch" (and the same for "j" and "zh") is the position of the tongue, that is it is rolled back in "ch" and "zh". Correct?

Post by kragen » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

gurkendoktor wrote: post #428

kragen wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably you speak more Chinese than I do, but as I understand it, you don't have to memorize the syllables, just the 22 (?) onsets and 17 (?) vowel+codas, same as in bopomofo, just more sneakily. Plus nü and lü, I guess. But that still means memorizing 41 pronunciations instead of the 374 you suggest. Is that right, or is the situation far more complicated than it appears?

I've never learned bopomofo in earnest, and for pinyin I just memorized everything that felt like an exception to me, even though it might have some internal logic. For example, I guess that the "a" in "yan" is different from "lan" because "yan" is its own coda, whereas "lan" is "l" + "an"?

Post by andrewshadura » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 6:26 PM UTC

carlob wrote: post #265

ajuc wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First time I see a word in any language that consists only of consonants Polish is quite tame with these as far as Slavic languages go. "Strč prst skrz krk" is a proper sentence in Czech and Slovak :)

Except in most Slavic languages r can work as a vowel. (if you are confused think about how the y in year is a vowel sound but works as a consonant in the syllable)

Post by jan_Inkepa » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 7:24 PM UTC

jan_Inkepa wrote: post #313

neltnerb wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally think it's entirely fine to switch between accents to try to match the locals, but I get the argument that it's offensive. I think it's unfortunate that this is the perception because I really really really really like phonetics. I'm a singer, this is our bread and butter. It's frustrating that doing my best to sing with an Australian accent is surely entirely unacceptable in 2021, even if it's an Austra…

Good points. Yeah; it's possibly ironic that a lot of efforts/values in this direction have a strong indirect effect of enforcing the status quo and the cultural norms of the prevailing power. ("It's always ok to wear jeans" is my shorthand). I remember being surprised at Hugh Laurie's blues recordings. He's the person I can think of off-hand that went all-out on accent while singing with his mother tongue. OTOH if y…

Post by _ktx2 » Mon, Jul 26, 2021, 7:45 PM UTC

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #368

kodah wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I commonly refer to my last name as vowel soup (I'm french, and it's the Americanization of my family name). It's such a niche last name that I've heard all of two people get my name right and both of them were Cajun or Cajun adjacent - most native French speakers are totally lost on it. I always tell people to call me by my first name when this comes up. I've watched as people did as you described where they spend a…

Heh, I think employees should be given a fully synthetic identity, mostly for privacy reasons, but it can help with this thing too. The nickname can be also selected so that names aren't reused in a team, which would reduce ambiguity in communication. Even in small teams a lot of time is spent resolving ambiguities which John was referred.