Re: Russian soft/hard 'l' minimal pairs (was: glottals)

En réponse à Philippe Caquant :


>Well, the pronunciation of English, just like of
>French, changes very much from one place, time, social
>class etc, to another, so what's the "right"
>pronunciation" ?
The majority one, and the one people will expect from you, especially if 
you're a foreigner.


>So my own rule is: if people understand you and you
>understand people, it's OK. If you utter a word and
>native people understand another one (or the
>opposite), then it's bad.
This rule shows complete disrespect towards the people you're talking to, 
and that rudeness has no excuse. If you cannot make the effort of trying to 
speak somebody's language correctly, don't even try.

Everything boils down to politeness. People expect foreigners who learn 
their language to at least *try* to speak it correctly. They may not except 
them to succeed, but they expect them to at least try. If you don't even 
try, you're showing a lack of respect towards those people that is 
unacceptable. And the understanding issue has nothing to do with it. If you 
only wish to be understood, "petit nègre" (for non-French speakers, it 
means speaking like this "me want this. You sell me?") is largely enough. 
Should we all just learn foreign languages like that, and don't bother with 
grammatical correctness? After all, grammatical features also differ in a 
single language both in time and place. if you don't bother with phonology, 
why should you bother with grammar? Indeed, why bother with learning a 
foreign language at all. Just speak to foreigners in your own language 
loudly and distinctly. They *ought* to understand ;))) .

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang. 

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