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Turn on the accent for a foreign word? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5073 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 17 of 34 16 December 2010 at 12:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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When I lived in the UK, I could not bring myself to pronounce "macho" in the English fashion there which sounded to my ears like "MATCH-oh" and I would cringe every time I heard a news presenter pronounce "Nicaragua" like "Nick-a RAG(like a cloth)-you-a. Fingernails on a chalk board!
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| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6283 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 18 of 34 16 December 2010 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
Nails on a chalkboard indeed... it hurts just to imagine it. I'm reminded of watching Connections 2, with James Burke, who is awesome in just about every respect except he pronounced "Hiroshima" as hi-RAW-shi-mah. Still sounds bizarre to me. This also reminds me of the time when a local newscaster was ranting (literally: he has a segment called The Rant) about the idea of an American adaptation of Sin tetas no hay paraíso. My comprehension of spoken Spanish was very bad at the time (it's still not particularly good), so I didn't fully catch the title, but he still mangled it badly enough that I burst out laughing (and rightly so). The Spanish word "hay" is pronounced like the English word "I", but he pronounced it like the English word "hay", for instance. He was decrying the idea of adapting a television show whose name he couldn't even pronounce. What were the chances he knew anything about the actual show? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5514 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 34 16 December 2010 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In English, I say everything the English way. But in Spanish, I stumble and struggle
trying to make a decision on how to pronounce an English word when speaking Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6248 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 20 of 34 16 December 2010 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Wait, in England they say it like how an American says "MATCH" -oh? Cuz in America, we pronounce "macho" as "MAH-cho". With an "ahhh" sound. We don't say "MATCH-oh" (with a short American "a"). But I know sometimes British people use a short American "a" (why is that??). Like the car company Mazda (Mahz-duh), they call it "Mäaaaaaz-der" with a short American "a" and an "er" out of nowhere at the end. lol
Oh ick, that make me cringe just reading it! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Polyglot_gr Super Polyglot Newbie Greece Joined 4906 days ago 29 posts - 64 votes Speaks: Greek*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, GermanC2, Italian, SpanishC2, DutchC1, Swedish, PortugueseC1, Romanian, Polish, Catalan, Russian, Hungarian | Message 21 of 34 16 December 2010 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you are speaking your native language and change your accent every time you utter a foreign family or place name, this means that you want to show off your linguistic knowledge.
On the contrary, if you are speaking a foreign language and revert to your native accent at every native word you find, this means you that have not really mastered the foreign language. If you had, you should know how native speakers pronounce unfamiliar words! In any case, one should try to speak like a native in each language, in order to avoid misunderstandings. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 5987 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 22 of 34 17 December 2010 at 7:11am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with this. I try to use the the accent of whatever language I'm speaking. For example, if I'm telling my Mom about a trip to Russia, I'm not going to switch into Russian pronunciation when I start talking about matryeshkas, babushkas, and vodka, cause she won't understand me. Likewise, when I'm talking with my Russian friends I won't switch to my American accent when I want to say words like parking, cocktail, milkshake, and even Coca-Cola (which are all the same in Russian, just with a Russian accent). I've actually had misunderstandings in shop and cafes when trying to order things like Coca-colas and milkshakes because I accidentally slipped into my American accent out of sheer habit, and the salesperson had no idea what I was saying. In my opinion, it doesn't matter if we technically mispronounce a word from a foreign language, because in our language THAT is how it's pronounced correctly. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6283 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 23 of 34 17 December 2010 at 7:17am | IP Logged | |||||
Not necessarily true. In speech, we often pick the pronunciation that's easiest. If you say a Spanish name, and you don't know Spanish, then the easiest way is with a strong English-language accent. If you do speak Spanish, though, you're accustomed to saying Spanish names in a Spanish-language accent (or at least an imitation thereof) and you might find it harder to revert to English pronunciation! So I tend only to maintain the English-language accent when not doing so would hinder comprehensibility. With Japanese names, I do maintain the English-language accent, because they're much more awkward in speech than Spanish names are, what with their long vowels and double consonants and such. And nobody will understand what you're saying if you pronounce Latin names in an imitation of a Classical accent. :) Edited by furrykef on 17 December 2010 at 7:20am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5364 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 24 of 34 17 December 2010 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Finns do it all the time with English words. To be honest, it sounds absolutely ridiculous (though this might be because the Finnish accent is not very pleasing to the ears in the first place; in fact it's quite ghastly). I always pronounce English words with a heavy Finnish accent when speaking Finnish.
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