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How do you pronounce the letter e?

от OnionBoy, 19 января 2010 г.

Сообщений: 31

Язык: English

erinja (Показать профиль) 20 января 2010 г., 21:08:04

On the other hand, the word "vejno" also exists (a vein - either in the body, or a vein of minerals in the ground, or veins in a piece of marble)

The moral of the story is this - yes, you can mispronounce things and still usually be understood.

But try your hardest to get it right, and constantly strive for correct pronunciation, even if you aren't quite hitting the mark. Esperanto is meant to be give and take, and it is everyone's duty to be as clear as possible in their speech, to make it easier for the listener.

In other news, I know an American guy who otherwise speaks very good Esperanto with a pretty good accent, but consistently pronounces "plura" as "plora" (plori = to cry) (I think he is overcorrecting himself here, in an effort not to use the American schwa). It is a stain on his otherwise good pronunciation, not to mention, that when he repeatedly refers to things being "weepy" rather than "many", it makes you want to laugh! (I saw weepy things on my vacation, versus, I saw many things! Replacing "many" with "weepy" often makes for humorous sentences)

Roberto12 (Показать профиль) 20 января 2010 г., 21:36:48

erinja:On the other hand, the word "vejno" also exists (a vein - either in the body, or a vein of minerals in the ground, or veins in a piece of marble)
Hence my citing the word veno!

erinja (Показать профиль) 20 января 2010 г., 21:55:47

Let me also add that I don't understand what could be hard about a word like "veno" for an English speaker, but maybe it's my own regional accent that makes me say that.

If it were written as "venno", I suspect that there would be no question, no English speaker would want to say it as "vayno". The o is the hardest part of that word in my mind, because English speakers are tempted to pronounce it something like oŭ, rather than a simple o.

This short e was for me one of the LEAST problematic aspects of Esperanto. What about a name like Jenny? Do you really want to say it as Jaynie? It sounds just like the word "ĝeni" in Esperanto.

The one thing that did occur to me, which hasn't been mentioned yet, was that in some regions of the US, you have "pen/pin convergence". That is, in certain regions (particularly in the south) the words pen and pin are pronounced exactly alike. Therefore my example name "Jenny" might be pronounced like "Jinny".

So for all of you who come from pen/pin convergence zones, keep that mind as you study Esperanto ridulo.gif

- Erin, who comes from a mary/merry/marry convergence zone

Roberto12 (Показать профиль) 20 января 2010 г., 22:05:43

For me, veno is an easy word to pronounce, as too is vejno. The point I was arguing was that with the exception of the one in veno, E can be pronounced as EJ without causing problems.

The war against OUX is one I'm still fighting...

ceigered (Показать профиль) 21 января 2010 г., 6:15:10

Roberto12:
The war against OUX is one I'm still fighting...
AUX for me okulumo.gif (Or should I say, "ÆO/AUXL" rido.gif)

ceigered (Показать профиль) 21 января 2010 г., 11:43:20

Regarding Geaj and gejaj ĉambroj (lango.gif well, at least it will make sure those teenagers don't stir up trouble), I'd say that "geja" is best pronounced as if it was "gej-ja". Otherwise you're asking for trouble lango.gif (although, saying "samseksema" solves that problem)

"Saluton, ĉu vi estas la germania esperanta asocio? Mi telefonas por demandi ĉu vi havas samseksemajn/aliseksemajn ĉambrojn por la Konferenco en Hamburgo je sekva semajno?"

"Aaaaaaam.... Pardonu, ni havas teknikajn malfacilaĵojn - BEEP BEEP BEEP... - Sorry, your call could not be connected. Please ring British Telecommunications' help line for assistance, or try again"

Rogir (Показать профиль) 21 января 2010 г., 12:41:23

But if your calling the Germans, don't confuse geja with GEJ, the Germana Esperanto-Junularo, or GEA, the Germana Esperanto-Asocio.

ceigered (Показать профиль) 21 января 2010 г., 13:25:31

Rogir:But if your calling the Germans, don't confuse geja with GEJ, the Germana Esperanto-Junularo, or GEA, the Germana Esperanto-Asocio.
Haha!

"Saluton, ĉu vi estas la GEJ? Mi volas mendi gea ĉambro por la konferenco de la GEA. Mi estas ĝoja pro la antaŭa gaja GEJa gea konferenco"

gregorynacu (Показать профиль) 21 января 2010 г., 15:14:12

I had trouble with the E as well. I heard many people, mostly english speaking americans, when I went to an Esperanto Conference in Montreal, who would always pronounce the E that came at the end of the word as, what sounded like a dipthong to me. For instance the word "ne" always sounded like I would spell in English "nay."

At first this very much annoyed me. I was sure the E should always be pronounced like in Pen. But then I went back and reread the pronunciation section of a lernolibro I used when I was first starting, and it clearly indicates that the E should be pronounced as the a in the english word "fate." This blew my mind, because the a in fate truly is not a dipthong, but it is also a vowel that is otherwise hard to describe.

The Esperanto dipthong "ej" has a rolled ending to it and is longer than just "e" alone. But others above are right, that if you listen to Pola Radio or other non-native english speakers speaking esperanto, they don't pronounce the E like in the word Pen. I have simply accepted that my english background will make the pronunciation of this letter always a bit of a challenge for me.

erinja (Показать профиль) 21 января 2010 г., 16:02:17

gregorynacu:But then I went back and reread the pronunciation section of a lernolibro I used when I was first starting, and it clearly indicates that the E should be pronounced as the a in the english word "fate."
I would love to know which book this was. That information is absolutely wrong.

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