Re: The (UN)importance of pronunciation

Pronunciation *is* important; it's just that in natural languages
there's usually room for variation (how much room varies from language
to language, of course).  For instance, striving for a native-perfect accent
when learning a foreign language is not usually necessary for communication;
it's rather done to show respect, or to show off the learner's phonological
competence, or something of that sort. :)

On Sat, Jan 10, 2004 at 11:35:02AM -0600, Axiem wrote:
> > gay oop da stars ta zi tap flour, gay dune za hell ti
> > di tard dur en za leeft, oopun za dour en gay rat own
> > ensad.
>
> As a native English speaker, I'm having a hard time piecing this together. I
> can get the gist, but part of it might be the way my dialect pronounces
> vowels, coupled with my general inadequacy with pronounciation (especially
> vowels) in general. It doesn't sound, to my ear, like any dialect of English
> I know.
Well, I'm also a native English speaker, and I was able to read it
almost as fast as if it were spelled properly.  "Go up the stairs
to the top floor, go down the hall to the third door
 on the left, open the door and go right on inside."

-Mark