Entry tags:
Quebec French
My housemate's friends from Montreal pronounce "un an" roughly as one would say "urnan", with the standard American rhotic "r". I have no time to do this IPA, but feel free to try.
Entry tags:
one's name in other languages
When using one's name in a foreign language, it is common to change:
* phonetics, to be easier to parse (so that others will get the correct spelling). Interesting cross-alphabet case: most people named "Artem" introduce themselves as [artem], rather than [artjom].
* spelling, to look more standard (grey area when different alphabets are involved)
* the name altogether (many Chinese do this; sometimes one intentionally chooses a similar name e.g. "Sin-Ting" becomes "Cindy", "Ke-Min" becomes "Kevin", "Yi-Lan" becomes "Elaine")
I think people tend to be more attached to written form of their names than to the phonetics (which is often hopeless anyway!), and this makes sense especially if you want to avoid red tape.
I seem to err on the side of authenticism in phonetics, and in English I say my name almost exactly as I do in my dialect of Northeast Brazilian Portuguese: [guʃtávw], often with a slightly mumbled first syllable. This baffles some people, and leads to lots of errors: "Mustafa" and "Kristafo" seem to happen equally often (maybe 10% of the time altogether). Almost half the time, people don't hear the last vowel: "Gustav".
Anglophones who have never seen my name before often say [gʌstejvo] or [gʌstavo]. I am perfectly happy with [gustavo] (which is what most people say at first sight, and it's how São Paulo folks pronounce it), but if you are Hungarian or Schwäbisch, saying [guʃtavo] may come naturally and will put a smile on my face. If you are Romanian, [gustavu] may be natural for you. Anglophones, please don't try too hard.
(Thanks to http://ipa.typeit.org/)
* phonetics, to be easier to parse (so that others will get the correct spelling). Interesting cross-alphabet case: most people named "Artem" introduce themselves as [artem], rather than [artjom].
* spelling, to look more standard (grey area when different alphabets are involved)
* the name altogether (many Chinese do this; sometimes one intentionally chooses a similar name e.g. "Sin-Ting" becomes "Cindy", "Ke-Min" becomes "Kevin", "Yi-Lan" becomes "Elaine")
I think people tend to be more attached to written form of their names than to the phonetics (which is often hopeless anyway!), and this makes sense especially if you want to avoid red tape.
I seem to err on the side of authenticism in phonetics, and in English I say my name almost exactly as I do in my dialect of Northeast Brazilian Portuguese: [guʃtávw], often with a slightly mumbled first syllable. This baffles some people, and leads to lots of errors: "Mustafa" and "Kristafo" seem to happen equally often (maybe 10% of the time altogether). Almost half the time, people don't hear the last vowel: "Gustav".
Anglophones who have never seen my name before often say [gʌstejvo] or [gʌstavo]. I am perfectly happy with [gustavo] (which is what most people say at first sight, and it's how São Paulo folks pronounce it), but if you are Hungarian or Schwäbisch, saying [guʃtavo] may come naturally and will put a smile on my face. If you are Romanian, [gustavu] may be natural for you. Anglophones, please don't try too hard.
(Thanks to http://ipa.typeit.org/)
"speak English like a native"
This guy is teaching Brazilians to "speak English like a native"... but even if you set aside his strong accent, you notice that he himself makes gross phonetic errors ("together" -> "tshugeDer"), right after making the point that p,t,k are aspirated (puffed).
When I make/fake a strong Brazilian accent speaking English, there's an element of letting go (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fare inspired this approach while driving me back to Luxembourg), but there's also a large element of forcing myself... and even then, I'm pretty sure that there are many features of English (e.g. rhythm) that I can't unlearn on the spot: it must be easy to detect that I've been exposed to English for a long time, unless I were to undergo some serious training.
He has tons of videos. Here's more to laugh at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2zMEc15_HY&mode=related&search=
He seems like a very good example of someone who has learned English very thoroughly by the book.
When I make/fake a strong Brazilian accent speaking English, there's an element of letting go (
fare inspired this approach while driving me back to Luxembourg), but there's also a large element of forcing myself... and even then, I'm pretty sure that there are many features of English (e.g. rhythm) that I can't unlearn on the spot: it must be easy to detect that I've been exposed to English for a long time, unless I were to undergo some serious training.He has tons of videos. Here's more to laugh at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2zMEc15_HY&mode=related&search=
He seems like a very good example of someone who has learned English very thoroughly by the book.