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Pronunciation Question: pn, ps

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Ubutumwa 5

ururimi: English

lingvokapablo (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Ntwarante 2012 15:26:44

How do you pronounce the following two words in Esperanto?

pneŭo
pseŭdonimo

I've noticed that I have a tendency of pronouncing these types of words (pn, ps) as I would in English, that is to drop the 'p', and pronounce it starting with the second letter, but that's probably wrong. So, how should they be pronounced?

erinja (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 13 Ntwarante 2012 15:35:52

Esperanto has no silent letters. You have to pronounce the p in those combinations.

lingvokapablo (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 14 Ntwarante 2012 13:26:15

erinja:Esperanto has no silent letters. You have to pronounce the p in those combinations.
But how?? Would it be acceptable to put a small 'a' sound in between the letters?

EldanarLambetur (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 14 Ntwarante 2012 14:36:26

Maybe imagine them elsewhere to show yourself it's possible?

For instance, in the word "hips" you say the "ps" sound with no trouble at all! Then try concatenating the words:

"hi-ps-eŭdonimo"

Get used to pronouncing that, and drop the "hi".

I'm having more trouble with "pn".

Maybe think of "hypno", but really try to pronounce it "hy-pno" then start substituting the "o" for "eŭo"

This is the approach I've taken to difficult initial consonant clusters... hopefully it's right... ridego.gif

marcuscf (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 14 Ntwarante 2012 15:04:10

I think it's a little bit funny when an English speaker says that a consonant cluster is hard, since from a Brazilian point of view, English has a lot of hard-to-pronounce consonant clusters (but we do pronounce the "p" in pseudônimo). A word like "straight" would be pronounced as "istrejti" or "istrejĉ(i)" by a beginner learning English in Brazil.

EldanarLambetur's suggestion is very good, try it!

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