European Languages - A Comparative Analysis
LAA siad:
<<In French and Spanish the 'i' sound is the equivalent of the English 'ee' sound.>>
Yes. In IPA, the sound they have trouble with is represented as ɪ. I'm with Benjamin when he sys this sound is produced a bit further back in your throat, and short, like you are pronouncing the regular "i" sound (in Romance languages), but stopping before you finish.
<<Yeah, you guys usually pronounce the 'A' as a short vowel. We would say "Atom", with a long 'A', whereas you would say "Atom" with a short 'A', similar to a short 'O' as in "(O)ctober".>>
In english, the "A" in "Atom" is not long. A long "a" would be more like the "a" in "ate". Unless we speak different dialects...
And if you're trying to offend me by calling me an Anglo-Saxon, then you are Gallic. You are a Gaul. We each use both terms differently in our native languages.
Yeah, my mistake. I was confusing it with British pronounciation.
Our short 'A', as in American "Apple", is longer than (or perhaps that's not the right word) the British "Atom". They pronounce all of their short 'A's the way we pronounce the 'A' in 'Ah'.
Fab, combien de fois faut-il t'expliquer qu'il n'est pas possible d'utiliser « anglo-saxon » pour signifier « maternellement anglophone » en anglais ? Désolé, mais il me semble que tu ne le comprends pas encore.
The weird thing when Germans speak English is that they *can* pronounce the English 'w' sound. It's just that for some reason, they confuse 'w' and 'v' and pronounce them the 'wrong' way around, like in Bermuda and in parts of East Anglia.
LAA — the 'G' sound to which I was referring sounds like the 'si' in the English 'version'.
" No need to feel offended by my pointing out each other's ignorance of other languages. That is why I included myself, when I said "This discussion has been very revealing of OUR ignorance of foreign languages' pronounciation." "
LAA,
I'm sorry. I didn't read it well and I wrongly understood that you were complaining about my bad knowledge of English, which I found a quite arrogant attitude, that's why I reacted rudely.
Benjamin,
So like a soft 'j'?
" Fab, combien de fois faut-il t'expliquer qu'il n'est pas possible d'utiliser « anglo-saxon » pour signifier « maternellement anglophone » en anglais ? Désolé, mais il me semble que tu ne le comprends pas encore "
J'ai compris que la plupart des Anglophones détestent l'origine de leur langue, mais dans ce cas, quel terme me recommandes-tu d'utiliser pour désigner les habitants des pays dont l'héritage linguistico-culturel est Anglais ?
Just call us English-speakers, Fab.
« J'ai compris que la plupart des Anglophones détestent l'origine de leur langue ... »
Ce n'est pas qu'on « déteste » l'origine d'anglais (ça c'est bizarre), mais que le terme « anglo-saxon » tient une signification très différente en anglais qu'en français et donc assez différente de « maternellement anglophone ». Je croyais que tu avais compris cela, mais ce n'est clairement pas le cas.
« Just call us English-speakers, Fab. »
Tout à fait d'accord.
Ou peut-être :
The countries in which English is the primary language for most people.
Just taking a glance to what has been said about those subtle differences makes think about others that English could have. For example I recall the 'v' and 'b' thing among others which makes think that a perfect pronunciation for a non-English speaker is way hard to achieve if those subtle differences are ignored. I'm sure those exist in all languages too so that makes think as well in the importance of native teachers. Then I'd like to ask to everybody here if any you have known a non-English/French or whatever speaker with a perfect pronunciation enough to deceive you ?
Do artists, for example like Gloria Stefan, John Secada, Jeniffer Lopez or any other, speak good English enough to note they are of Latin American origin ? I'm assuming that English is not their mother language since I've heard them speaking Spanish and it's perfect. Which leads to the answer of my own question : I've heard non-Spanish speakers with an extraordinary pronunciation but this far I've noted it after some phrases.
Gloria Estefan, John Secada, and Jennifer Lopez are all bilingual in English.
Both Estefan and Secada are considered to be from Miami, though both were born in Cuba. Gloria was raised in Miami from just a baby. My cousin went to the same high school she did.
John emigrated to Miami as a young boy (can't remember the exact age). He went to the University of Miami, the university my brother is attending right now. Gloria also attended the University of Miami.
Jennifer Lopez was raised in the Bronx.
All speak English with native accents.
<<My poor husband (Italian) cannot get the difference between the English "ee" and "i" no matter how hard he tries. After an embarrasing beach/bitch episode (I want to go see some famous beaches), he started raving, asking me, "How could you [the English Language] be so stupid to use so many words that sound just about the same?! Especialy with *vulgar* meanings?!">>
Haha, reminds me of a time when a Chinese friend of mine was studying here (England) and she got a part time job working as a cleaner in a hotel. She said to her colleague 'I need a sheet' for a bed she was changing but the way she pronounced it was with the 'i' sound not the 'ee'. She was wondering why she got a strange look off of her.
<<« Fr. - intelligente (een-tel-ee-gant) »
No. The 'in' in French is more or less [a~] (a nasal vowel), whilst 'g' is soft like [Z] before an E or an I. >>
Isn't it a sound similar to the 'zh' sound in 'Measure'? The French 'g' in 'intelligente' I mean.
« Isn't it a sound similar to the 'zh' sound in 'Measure'? The French 'g' in 'intelligente' I mean. »
Yes.