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Re: Pronunciation guides for non-linguists

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Monday, December 12, 2005, 6:28
Gary Shannon wrote:
> I'm looking for a way to convey proper pronunciation > of conlang letters to non-linguists who may have > different native languages. (snip)
> What I need is exemplar words for several other > languages. At the very least Spanish, French, and > German, but what other languages would be good to have > in such a table? >
Here are some representative Spanish words: a padre, más; e mesa; f foto; i si, misa; k= c in casa, copa, qu- in qiero, queso; l los, calor; m más, mamá; n no, anís; o los, otro; p pan, pensar; s santo, seis; t tengo, tú; u tú, mucho; w = hu- in huevo, -uV- in pues, cuento; x [S] no equiv.; y hi- in hierba, -iV- in pienso, cambiar ptk are unaspirated; tdn are dental-- does that matter? Diphthongs: ay hay, amáis; aw =au causa, laudar b bien, ambos (but not intervocalic!); c [tS] chato, leche; d dos, donde (not intervoc!); g gastar, guitarra; h (no friction!!: Mex. and dial.) mé_x_ico, _j_ota; j [Z] Argentine* y and ll: yo, llamo, calle; q [N] n+g tango (some dials., any final nasal = N, probably considered sub-standard); r [american] no equiv.; v no equiv; z no equiv., but sometimes in s+vd.C as, desde, mismo *Maybe Andalusian dial. too, but I don't rightly remember if it's as noticeable as in Argentine... Educated Spanish speakers often know French; so Fr. equivalents of x [S], j [Z], v and z are familiar. Indonesian: a apa; e [e] in beda, [E] in pesta; f fajar, daftar (Arab.); i gila; k kaki, kami; l lima; m mana, enam; n nusa, tanah; o tolong, kopi; p panjang; s suka, besok; t tarik, mata; u nusa, dua; w wakil, nyawa (but it's labiodental!!); x [S]=sy syukur (Arab.); y yatim, kaya; ay =ai in sampai; casual speech tahi 'shit'* is close; aw =au in lampau, kalau; casual tahu 'know' is close. ptk are unasp; t is dental, d,n are alveolar. The Arab. words given are quite common, and usu. pronounced correctly; but "f" as [p] is also common...... *tahi is not as impolite in Indo as in Engl. b besar, lebih; c [tS] cuka, macam; d dua, padang; g gila; h harap, bohong; j [Z] no equiv.; q [N] =ng in ngomong; r [r\] no equiv.; v no good equiv., usually pronounced [f]; z rare--Arab. zakat 'alms' and lezat 'delicious', scholarly zaman 'era, epoch' are somewhat familiar, however Hope this is of use.