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. It's all well and good to
> describe "A" as sounding like the "A" in "father", but
> for a non-English speaker, that doesn't help.
You should probably include the IPA-- that settles all arguments.

Re your voiceless stops: you need to specify whether they're aspirated (like
Engl. and IIRC German) or not (like Span. and French and IIRC Dutch); or
whether it doesn't matter....

Aargh, as others have commented, even the "a as in father" isn't the same in
every dialect. And I'm not sure the /a/ of French ([a]] frontish) is quite
the same as Spanish or Italian /a/ back-ish [A] (as in my "father", to my
ear). But learners wouldn't go wrong using any of those. The old dodge used
to be "The vowels have their European values".

You are going to have trouble finding good equivalents for "w, y, r"--

w: French usually ou before a vowel
Spanish initial huV- "hueso, huevo, (Peruvian huaca)", medial -uV- as is
"cuando, puesto, cuidado"...
I don't know what German does; it's not a native sound.

y: French y- as is yeux; German j
Spanish: careful here-- I think initial hiV- and medial -iV- would be best,
"hierba, piensa, cambiar" since orthographic "y" is often more of a
fricative than in Engl., and > [Z] in some dials.

r: AFAICT, Standard American is the only equivalent, amongst well known
languages of the world. Even Brit. r is sometimes a tap, depending on dial.
Maybe you could allow a tap as a permissible variant, then you could include
RP "very" and Spanish "pero, para"

Most of your sounds are found in Malay/Indonesian (except "r"), but I'm not
sure you'd need to go that far afield...?
(snip a bit)
> 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?
If you really want to internationalize it, you ought perhaps to include
Russian and Japanese at minimum; probably Chinese too but I can't help you
with those-- and again you have the dial/lang. problem

When I have a bit more time, I'll try to come up with suitable Span. (and
Indo. if you want them) words.

BTW, I thumbed through a few of your lessons-- very well done, and the
illustrations, the pointing hand etc. are delightful.

(ObConlang: I fudged the whole issue by stating that the sounds of Kash
simply "are very close to Spanish" and letting it go at that, with minor
comments on the few differences..........I'm now thinking I ought to make
that section a bit more precise...)