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Scii Pronunciation Fun!

by rikforto, August 31, 2015

Messages: 17

Language: English

rikforto (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 3:35:58 PM

So, I have encountered Esperantists saying "mi's'ci'as", where the apostrophes are breaks in articulation. My instincts from Spanish are to say "mis'ci'as" and run the s into the proceeding syllable.

Is one of those canonically correct? If so, is the other acceptable? In general, is articulation broken between words or syllables?

Alkanadi (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 3:39:38 PM

I can't answer your question, but I normally say:
Mee-sit-see-ee

This is the toughest word in Esperanto.

vikungen (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 3:50:04 PM

Alkanadi:
This is the toughest word in Esperanto.
If your native language is English it shouldn't be that though as plenty of words in English contain the STS sequence.

e.g. casts

Here are four pronunciations of the word scii.

Alkanadi (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 3:56:40 PM

vikungen:
Alkanadi:
This is the toughest word in Esperanto.
If your native language is English it shouldn't be that though as plenty of words in English contain the STS sequence.

e.g. casts

Here are four pronunciations of the word scii.
They all sound like they are saying:
Sit-see-ee

Just like how I say it.

Here is the hardest sentence in Esperantujo. The first tongue twister in Esperanto.
Mi volas scii, ke Ĉiuj ĉi tiuj estas insektoj.

RiotNrrd (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 3:58:28 PM

I pronounce it "mee sss-TSEE-ahss". Say it slowly and pronounce each sound clearly. sss (one sound) TSEE (accent) ahss.

It actually isn't difficult, and, as mentioned, isn't even an unfamiliar sound for English speakers. The oddity for us is that the STS sound appears in an unfamiliar place in the word at the beginning, rather than inside the word somewhere as is more usual for English words.

rikforto (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 4:09:48 PM

To be clear, neither variation is giving me too much trouble. I have 2 years of college-level Japanese behind me and they distinguish between what we'd call s and c in Esperanto. It is possible to construct a word that is very nearly pronounced the same way "scii". I just noticed my intuition about word breaks, under influence from Spanish, did not match what I was hearing from a small sample of speakers.

vikungen (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 4:17:41 PM

Alkanadi:
vikungen:
Alkanadi:
This is the toughest word in Esperanto.
If your native language is English it shouldn't be that though as plenty of words in English contain the STS sequence.

e.g. casts

Here are four pronunciations of the word scii.
They all sound like they are saying:
Sit-see-ee

Just like how I say it.

Here is the hardest sentence in Esperantujo. The first tongue twister in Esperanto.
Mi volas scii, ke Ĉiuj ĉi tiuj estas insektoj.
There is no i there in the beginning: Just S-TSI-I

There are also lot of tongue twisters in Esperanto, so it's hardly the first.

Armand6 (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 4:25:18 PM

A funny word. The 'sci-' part poses no problem for me, but the only way I can pronounce the ending is '-iji' or '-ie'. The linked recordings mispronounce that word, giving the long 'i' vowel, and Esperanto has no long vowels.

JDnDorks (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 4:27:33 PM

rikforto:So, I have encountered Esperantists saying "mi's'ci'as", where the apostrophes are breaks in articulation. My instincts from Spanish are to say "mis'ci'as" and run the s into the proceeding syllable.

Is one of those canonically correct? If so, is the other acceptable? In general, is articulation broken between words or syllables?
I'm pretty sure you are (canonically) supposed to articulate each word individually in Esperanto. Otherwise "I understand" might be misunderstood as "misunderstand" (for example).

erinja (User's profile) August 31, 2015, 5:03:58 PM

Alkanadi:They all sound like they are saying:
Sit-see-ee

Just like how I say it.

Here is the hardest sentence in Esperantujo. The first tongue twister in Esperanto.
Mi volas scii, ke Ĉiuj ĉi tiuj estas insektoj.
If some one says "sit-see-ee", it's an error.

Anyone who can say "tests" without making it "tesits" can say "scii" correctly, it's just a matter of practice.

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