Re: Pronunciation guides for non-linguists

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.