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More questions about pronunciation

от mccambjd, 29 март 2007

Съобщения: 11

Език: English

mccambjd (Покажи профила) 29 март 2007, 04:44:27

On this webite, it says: "The sound/letter 'ŭ' is used only immediately after 'a,' 'e,' or 'o.' With a/e/o and accompanied consonants, it becomes one syllable."

OK, but how does one pronounce those syllables?

I know "aŭ" is pronounced similarly to American English "ow", but how is "eŭ" pronounced, as in eŭropo and pseŭdonomo? And I can't even find any examples of "oŭ"...

edgarsitow (Покажи профила) 29 март 2007, 06:00:35

aŭ sounds like the English word "cow" kind of... and oŭ is like the "ow" in "low, slow" just don't emphasize it too much, that means keep it fast and don't stress the sound and I can't think of any examples for "eŭ" sorry :S I have never had any problems with the pronunciation because Spanish is my mother tongue and Esperanto is pretty much pronounced the same way as Spanish.... But hey there's a solution to everything ridego.gif You live in the States so out of all the 29 million Mexican brothers I have over there you got to know some ridulo.gif just ask them to tell you how to say "Europe" in Spanish and they will say "Europa" (same as one would say it in Esperanto but with an "o" instead of "a" obviously) and voilà!!

I hope this was somewhat useful =]

Gxis

Edgar

RiotNrrd (Покажи профила) 29 март 2007, 06:17:51

I believe that "eŭ" is pronounced like the word "pew", except without a "y" sound in there (and, of course, without the "p").

Kwekubo (Покажи профила) 29 март 2007, 10:33:27

RiotNrrd:I believe that "eŭ" is pronounced like the word "pew", except without a "y" sound in there (and, of course, without the "p").
The sound in "pew" would be better represented in Esperanto by "iu". If you can imagine Elmer Fudd saying, "Be vewwy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits," then eŭ would sound like the "eww" in "vewwy".

In practice oŭ is not used, other than perhaps if you were spelling a name out phonetically, or something similar - the distinction between it and o isn't really clear enough. The only word I can think of with oŭ in it is toŭfuo, a variant word for bean curd (aka tofu); the more usual name is sojkazeo (ie soj-kazeo), although I believe tohuo exists too.

erinja (Покажи профила) 29 март 2007, 13:10:25

Kwekubo:
In practice oŭ is not used, other than perhaps if you were spelling a name out phonetically, or something similar - the distinction between it and o isn't really clear enough. The only word I can think of with oŭ in it is toŭfuo, a variant word for bean curd (aka tofu); the more usual name is sojkazeo (ie soj-kazeo), although I believe tohuo exists too.
I don't know anyone who says soj-kazeo; everyone I know says tofuo. Maybe it's a North American thing.

I use oŭ all the time when I'm writing an imitation of a strong American accent. "Mij paroŭl's Esperaŭntoŭn!"

(British: Esperäntoŭn)

T0dd (Покажи профила) 29 март 2007, 14:14:44

RiotNrrd:I believe that "eŭ" is pronounced like the word "pew", except without a "y" sound in there (and, of course, without the "p").
Say "hey you", but drop the 'h' and fuse the two into one syllable.

erinja (Покажи профила) 29 март 2007, 16:28:05

You can also hear the pronunciation of "Eŭropo" in lesson 2 of Ana Pana:

http://en.lernu.net/kursoj/ap/teksto.php?parto=2

RiotNrrd (Покажи профила) 30 март 2007, 05:34:56

T0dd:
RiotNrrd:I believe that "eŭ" is pronounced like the word "pew", except without a "y" sound in there (and, of course, without the "p").
Say "hey you", but drop the 'h' and fuse the two into one syllable.
Heh. Actually, that's how I say "pew", except without the "y" sound (and, of course, without the "p").

That's always the problem with describing pronunciations - if the person you're describing a word to by relating it to a different word doesn't know how YOU pronounce the different word first, it's not much of a help.

I remember asking how a particular esperanto sound was pronounced, on one of the eo mailing lists. Don Harlow replied to me with an example of an English word that contained the correct pronunciation, and since his hometown is about 15 minutes away from where I currently live I knew that he and I probably pronounce English with the same accent, and therefore I could trust his example. Someone from Australia started arguing with him on the list that he was TOTALLY wrong in his description of the sound.

And you know, the Australian was probably correct. The example was totally wrong... if one is speaking with an AUSTRALIAN ACCENT. Which neither Don nor I do. We're both Oregonians (although he doesn't live in Oregon any longer). So the example worked for me, but not for the other guy, even though we both (technically) speak English.

It's an easy trap to fall into. Really, the best way is to actually HEAR the sounds spoken, as written descriptions are basically a crapshoot. I speak with a west-coast, Oregon accent, so any examples I give are likely to be perfectly alright for another Oregonian, and completely wrong for someone from New York or Philadelphia (and especially Australia or Ireland). And vice versa.

russ (Покажи профила) 17 ноември 2008, 09:48:50

"eŭ" should NOT sound like English "pew" or "hey you". This is a common error. Don't be misled by how English words like "Europe" sound.

"eŭ" should sound like Elmer Fudd's "vEWy cEWfuw" (very careful), that is, like an Esperanto "e" sound followed by an Esperanto "ŭ" (English "w") sound.

eijlander (Покажи профила) 17 ноември 2008, 10:17:26

And that´s why in the Netherlands we call the sound a «Suriname W» and it´s a consonant, not a vowel. The breve above the character tells the sound is short. I agree with the Elmer Fudd example.

Ĝis,
Peter

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