Pronouncing Uusisuom

Hi all,

Learning any language's pronunciation takes an investment of time and
effort. And I guess it's my responsibility to do as much as I can to give
full guidance on issues of pronunication and so forth. After all, it's very
difficult to write down how a letter or word ought to be pronounced.

That's why I'm going to be recording some sounds and words from Uusisuom and
putting them up on the net in the near future. I might also produce
cassettes for those learners interested enough.

There is a real difference between the 'y' and 'u' sound in Uusisuom, in
some words it might not be so clear, but in some words the difference is
very clear.

Good pronunication is important, but it's to be noted that a lot of people
pronounce words (especially non-native words) with at least slight
variations to the 'standard'. When I hear an American say the word 'leisure'
(he says 'leesure', I would say 'lairsure') and what about 'tomato' and
'potato'! Yet, the speaker is understood.

I notice as well that I pronounce words in a different way to my fellow
Brits some times, but I am always understood. My sister has that problem
where she pronounces 'r' like 'w', but I always understand her. We are
talking here about minor technical phonemic issues.

I've already explained that if a speaker says 'jani' instead of 'jaani' or
'keko' instead of 'kekko', they will be understood. I've taken great care to
ensure that words with double letters do not have single letter
counterparts.

Re the 'uo' sound, the 'uo' is not a dipthong, and each letter is pronounced
separately.

Daniel
'Uusisuom - kohta halomaale'
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/uusisuom