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Scii Pronunciation Fun!

de rikforto, 31 août 2015

Messages : 17

Langue: English

rikforto (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 15:35:58

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 (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 15:39:38

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

This is the toughest word in Esperanto.

vikungen (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 15:50:04

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 (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 15:56:40

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 (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 15:58:28

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 (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 16:09:48

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 (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 16:17:41

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 (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 16:25:18

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 (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 16:27:33

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 (Voir le profil) 31 août 2015 17:03:58

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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