BTW, the sound sequence "uĵ" occurs in Esperanto at least in the accent test phrase eĥ(o)ŝanĝo ĉiuĵaŭda = "echo change every Thursday". Even though that’s a bit cheated.

NicoH:Saluton,

Ekzistas abundo de parolata materialo en Esperanto en la reto. Mi ne konas rektas prononchelpon, sed se vi simple aŭskultas bone parolatan Esperanton, vi trovos la elparolon de la vortojn kiujn vi mencias. Ekzemple aŭskultu Varsovian Venton (http://www.podkasto.net/) aŭ Radion Muzaiko (http://muzaiko.info/)
Certe ankaŭ en Youtube vi trovos multajn fimetojn kun parolata Esperanto.

Mi esperas ke tio helpas kaj deziras al vi sukcesan plulernadon de Esperanto.

Amike,
Nico

Hi,

There is abundant spoken material in Esperanto online. I don't know direct pronunciation help, but if you just listen to well-spoken Esperanto, you will find the correct pronunciation of the words you mention.
Listen for example to Varsovia Vento (http://www.podkasto.net/) or Radio Muzaiko (http://muzaiko.info/)
Certainly also on Youtube you will find many videos with spoken Esperanto.

I hope that helps and I wish you success in further learning Esperanto.

Regards,
Nico

Thanks Nico, I am relieved to find out I have been practicing the uj sound correctly all along. I have been using the Bildoj lesson course in lernu and encountered a word with the uj combination (can't remember which word) but I could not hear the uwi sound and then I found an online site that listed the uj sound as hallelujah but that was no help. I finally found a site that when you klicked on a uj it gave the sound you recommended. All the other responses were the same as yours. I will also give your recommended sites a try! again Thanks and bonan vivon Tom (Tomaso)

Chainy:

Evildela:
uj = Imagine the Esperanto U + wi like how French say yes, so it sounds like Uwi

That's how many people pronounce it, but I'm not sure that it's the correct way. Afterall, wouldn't 'uwi' be written as 'uŭi'?

Yeah this actually is making me worry a bit too - the "taught" uj sound and the actual uj I hear on things like Esperanto radio podcasts seem to cause me some confusion when listening - I'm expecting a diphthong but then get handed "uŭi" and have to think about what the sound is. I reckon a better way to explain it is to get the sound in "book" or "good" or "food", then follow it up with the sound in "it" or "sheep". Perhaps pronouncing them separately, then slowly merging them into a single, evolving sound rather than splitting them up or adding a ŭ in the middle.

That way there's no risk that "uŭi" might make some think it's just "wee" rather than "oo-ee/oo-ih" (pronounced as a single sound, no breaks in between oo and ee/ih).

In "ujo" though it's easy - just "oo" followed by "yo".

For me it's just like oy in boy, only you round your lips to get an oo sound instead of an o sound.

In an Esperanto pronunciation guide I read a while ago, they described the "uj" sound as the following:

1. Like "uj" in "hallelujah"
2. Single syllable "ooi" (or "ooy") not "oo - i"

Or similarly as "ooy" in merging the words "too young".

darkweasel:

erinja:
Therefore there is no dipthong in the uĵ combination. It would be pronounced as "oozh". As far as I'm aware this combination never appears in Esperanto, however, so you probably don't need to worry about it.

-uĵ is a proposed (but still barely used) inofficial suffix for "good" (so the opposite of -aĉ).

Thanks for the response Erinja. I have also not encountered the hat with the uj but have encountered it with oj and aj and have now concluded that the hat over the j makes it a seperate letter-sound and thus negates the dipthong sound. Thanks again Tomaso.

4pir2hmi880:Thanks for the response Erinja. I have also not encountered the hat with the uj but have encountered it with oj and aj and have now concluded that the hat over the j makes it a seperate letter-sound and thus negates the dipthong sound. Thanks again Tomaso.

Yeah, it's best to think of "ĵ" as a completely different, unrelated letter to "j", and the only reason they look the same is because Zamenhof wanted words to be recognisably similar to the original word in whatever language they came from.

jchthys:For me it's just like oy in boy, only you round your lips to get an oo sound instead of an o sound.

I like this!