Sounds You Can’t Pronounce (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

Sounds You Can’t Pronounce
Tags: Difficulty \| Pronunciation
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51 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>

LaughingChimp
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 4481 days ago
346 posts - 594 votes

Speaks: Czech*

Message 25 of 51

11 November 2012 at 9:06pm | IP Logged

Марк wrote:

Homogenik wrote:

I can't seem to hear the difference between two similar sounds in
polish : ź and ż.

The difference between these sounds is like the difference between French n and gn.

I don't think you're right. French N is certainly not retroflex and the tongue position can be IMO actually closer to ź, expecially before the close front vowels.

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B_Hutt
Newbie
United States
Joined 4738 days ago
32 posts - 39 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Korean

Message 26 of 51

12 November 2012 at 8:05pm | IP Logged

I have had an unbelievably hard time with the Dutch 'G', or more specifically, the hard g followed by a rolling 'r'. I tend to trill from the roof of my mouth, always have- even when speaking Russian- so doing it from the back of my throat is incredibly difficult for me.

I also find the 'ui' sound hard to make, as in "huis". UGH!
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6379 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, Finnish^C1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

Message 27 of 51

13 November 2012 at 2:41pm | IP Logged

Марк wrote:

Homogenik wrote:

I can't seem to hear the difference between two similar sounds in
polish : ź and ż.

The difference between these sounds is like the difference between French n and gn.
Or between French j in jour and j in Jule.

or any Polish consonant before a vs before ia.
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Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4838 days ago
2096 posts - 2972 votes

Speaks: Russian*

Message 28 of 51

13 November 2012 at 2:57pm | IP Logged

Serpent wrote:

Марк wrote:

Homogenik wrote:

I can't seem to hear the difference
between two similar sounds in
polish : ź and ż.

The difference between these sounds is like the difference between French n and gn.
Or between French j in jour and j in Jule.

or any Polish consonant before a vs
before ia.

No, that's not interesting. We have to consider sounds distinguished purely (or mostly)
by palatalization.
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6379 days ago
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Message 29 of 51

13 November 2012 at 8:56pm | IP Logged

How familiar are you with Polish?
When it's spelt ia it's exactly that, the i is not pronounced but just denotes palatalization. for example biały.
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morinkhuur
Triglot
Groupie
Germany
Joined 4459 days ago
79 posts - 157 votes

Speaks: German*, Latin, English
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi)

Message 30 of 51

14 November 2012 at 12:52am | IP Logged

Марк wrote:

tanya b wrote:

Conversely, it seems that many Russian speakers are suffering from the opposite problem
and are unable to pronounce the "h" sound so when they say "happy ending" it sounds like
"kheppy endink".

They do not hear the difference between [h] and [x]. For a Russian ear they are
completely the same.

Maybe you should rather say "to an untrained Russian ear", as Russian ears as such are not fundamentally
different from German, Laotian or Papua ears, and Russians can learn to distinguish those sounds just as well as
native speakers.
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6379 days ago
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Message 31 of 51

14 November 2012 at 4:36am | IP Logged

Well, I can produce both sounds, of course, but I don't think I'd notice if anyone used one instead of the other in any of my languages. (Dutch is out of the equation here as I have too little active knowledge)
It's curious that [x] clearly sounds different to anyone who can already produce a [h], yet if your native language is [x]-only, [h] will sound the same to you unless you're learning a language where they are contrasted.

One thing I love about Croatian is how they write h rather than ch or something.
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DaraghM
Diglot
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5933 days ago
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Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian

Message 32 of 51

14 November 2012 at 9:52am | IP Logged

B_Hutt wrote:

I have had an unbelievably hard time with the Dutch 'G', or more specifically, the hard g followed by a rolling 'r'.

I also find this sound difficult. Very early in TY Dutch they mention the city of Groningen. It took me a long time to approach a close approximation.

Edited by DaraghM on 14 November 2012 at 9:53am

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