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Turn on the accent for a foreign word? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6967 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 25 of 34 17 December 2010 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | ||
How I do this depends on whether I actually know the standard native pronunciation of the foreign expression as well as whether my audience would be sharp enough to understand me using that native-sounding pronunciation. For example, I will sometimes use Hungarian "gulyás" (pronounced more like 'gu-yahsh') instead of "goulash" or Japanese 空手 (pronounced more like 'kah-rah-teh') instead of "karate" ('keh-raw-tee') or Finnish "sauna" (pronounced more like 'sow-nah') rather than "sauna" ('saw-na'). On the other hand, I refer to "bungalow" or "pecan" as is common in English rather than as the original Hindustani बंगला / بنگلہ ('banglA') or Miami-Illinois 'pakani' respectively. At the most essential level, I lean towards comprehension from my audience rather than using markedly "native" pronunciation. Since I actually don't know that many languages and will be bound to offend thin-skinned purists at one point or another, if only inadvertently, there's no way that I'll be able to please everyone at all times. See the following for related discussion: Pronouncing foreign names correctly Renaming the cities of other countries 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Noff Newbie United States Joined 4937 days ago 4 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 26 of 34 17 December 2010 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Th writer David Sedaris tells a funny story about an otherwise monotonous professor who would suddenly pronounce the names of Latin American countries with a sudden, jarring, over the top accent (Neekaarogwaah!). It really describes how pronouncing foreign words commonly known in the language you're using can come off as a bit pretentious. ;)
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| g.polskov Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 5063 days ago 37 posts - 50 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 27 of 34 22 December 2010 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||
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One phenomenom I find interesting is that many people will pronounce any foreign word with an English accent when speaking another language, and somehow feel this is more genuine.
For example, we have a lot of european hockey players playing here and it is widespread to hear their names said in an americanized fashion in french broadcasts, even though a french version would be just as good (or as bad!). It is also common to see a foreign film (say romanian) presented with an English title as though it were more original than the french translation. I guess this is a manifestation of what I call the "two drawers" syndrome. Without an important effort, brains tend to work with two compartiments: "native language" and "other stuff". Well, I know mine does. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5275 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 28 of 34 22 December 2010 at 5:20am | IP Logged | ||
Slightly off topic, but I can't stand the way Americans assume every foreign word must be pronounced with that horrible long AHH sound, thinking, for example, that since Mazda is a Japanese word it must surely be pronounced "Mahz-da", whereas in fact the British pronunciation with the short "a" is much closer to the original. It's the same thing with "macho" and "pasta". And don't even get me started on the silent "h" of "herbs"... Edited by TixhiiDon on 22 December 2010 at 5:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4941 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 29 of 34 22 December 2010 at 5:26am | IP Logged | ||
There's a good Eddie Izzard bit floating around on youtube about precisely that. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| egill Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5507 days ago 418 posts - 791 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 30 of 34 22 December 2010 at 5:49am | IP Logged | ||
herb: late 13c., erbe, from O.Fr. erbe, from L. herba "grass, herb." Refashioned after Latin since 15c., but the h- was mute until 19c. It's been silent for 800 years until some meddlers tried to make it more like Latin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5275 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 31 of 34 22 December 2010 at 5:50am | IP Logged | ||
Good for the meddlers, I say! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tornus Diglot GroupieRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4954 days ago 82 posts - 113 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Swedish, Danish | Message 32 of 34 22 December 2010 at 8:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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when i'm speaking a foreign language, it try to keep the native accents even for foreign words though i know the proper translation ( eg, when i speak English i will pronounce the city "paris" with the "s" eventhough in french we don't say it )
but when i speak my native language, i try to have the best accent when i have to say a foreign word, without being too much pretentious. once i was walking in the street and there were these guys who told me i looked like harry potter , so i say "harry potter really?" and then they laugh at me because of my "british accent". however i didn't try to have a good accent, i seemed natural ... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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