|
#1
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
ANYWAY. 1. Latin: Same reason as everyone else, plus it sounds cool. 2. Japanese: I like the language. What can I say? 3. Welsh: Because I have heredity there, and feel really guilty about knowing none. Despite it being a horrible language, in my opinion. 4. Russian: I have an interest in Cyrillic languages, too. 5. Ancient: Yes, from Stargate...leave me alone, I like it.
__________________
Sig v8.2.2 No, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to go and do it anyway. *pokes avatar* Made by a good LJ friend. Thanks Ani! Dark Blues: I'm going to kill you! Enzan: Not if I kill me first! Dark Blues: You...are aware my goal is accomplished either way, right? Enzan: ...Yeah... |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
Yeah, but I just get bugged when I see a pronounciation guide that is ostensibly for the average person, when there's no such thing as an average person that can decipher it.
__________________
mudshark: Nate's just being...Nate. Zeke: It comes nateurally to him. mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really -- it's just a bad idea. Sa'ar Chasm on the 5M.net forum: Sit back, relax, and revel in the insanity. Adam Savage: I reject your reality and substitute my own! Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Crow T. Robot: Oh, stop pretending there's a plot. Don't cheapen yourself further. |
#3
|
||||
|
||||
I can't decipher those pronunciations either. <_<
__________________
Vulcan children are never late with their Sehlat's dinner |
#4
|
||||
|
||||
*waves hand* If I care enough about getting the pronunciation right, sure I'll go look at what the characters are supposed to mean.
__________________
My 5MV webpages My novel fivers list Yup “There must have been a point in early human history when it was actually advantageous to, when confronted with a difficult task, drop it altogether and go do something more fun, because I do that way too often for it to be anything but instinct.” -- Isto Combs |
#5
|
||||
|
||||
I am seriously not joking. Pronounciation guides are meaningless to include in mass consumption dictionaries if the common man can't read them.
Looking up an appropriate word... # IPA: /pɹəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən/, SAMPA: /pr@%nVnsi"eIS@n/ Is that supposed to mean anything to me? Why is "prun-ounce-e-hay-shun" so taboo and impossible to use?
__________________
mudshark: Nate's just being...Nate. Zeke: It comes nateurally to him. mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really -- it's just a bad idea. Sa'ar Chasm on the 5M.net forum: Sit back, relax, and revel in the insanity. Adam Savage: I reject your reality and substitute my own! Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Crow T. Robot: Oh, stop pretending there's a plot. Don't cheapen yourself further. |
#6
|
||||
|
||||
I'm mostly with Nate on this one, actually. Dictionaries are one thing -- as long as the pronunciation chart is right at the start (preferably the inside cover), I don't mind the funny symbols, since they're more precise. But the way Wikipedia does it has been bugging me for some time. Not only do most articles not have pronunciation guides, even for foreign names, but the ones that do use IPA and usually don't link to the chart! How hard would it be to do that? The IPA symbols are not remotely intuitive to an English-speaker; using them without linking to their meanings is worse than useless.
When I want to convey a pronunciation to someone quickly, I use Nate's method. If I say that the mathematician Cauchy often gets his name mispronounced -- that people say "COE-shee" when they should say "coe-SHEE" (he was French) -- you know right away what I mean. But I understand why a dictionary would want to be more formal. (Btw, Cauchy is reputedly the mathematician whose name is on the most things, so this is a real problem.)
__________________
FiveMinute.net: because stuff is long and life is short [03:17] FiveMinZeke: Galactica clearly needs the advanced technology of scissors, which get around the whole "yanking on your follicles" problem. [03:17] IJD: cylons can hack any blades working in conjunction |
#7
|
||||
|
||||
Oh, ew. I was thinking in terms of using actual alphabetic symbols with fiddly bits and schwas. (I remembered that word just in time to type it. Yay me.)
__________________
My 5MV webpages My novel fivers list Yup “There must have been a point in early human history when it was actually advantageous to, when confronted with a difficult task, drop it altogether and go do something more fun, because I do that way too often for it to be anything but instinct.” -- Isto Combs |
#8
|
||||
|
||||
I agree. I've had three of the (main) five phonetic alphabets hammered into my head by coursework, but 99% of the people who look at those guides haven't. It's useless, since not enough people know it. It's nice to have a guide like that, but it just isn't taught widely enough for the usage it gets.
IF they could agree on one international standard and agree to teach it widely, then it would be a wonderful thing. But they haven't, so it isn't.
__________________
Sig v8.2.2 No, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to go and do it anyway. *pokes avatar* Made by a good LJ friend. Thanks Ani! Dark Blues: I'm going to kill you! Enzan: Not if I kill me first! Dark Blues: You...are aware my goal is accomplished either way, right? Enzan: ...Yeah... |
#9
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not defending IPA or any of those others, but if you want international, it's the closest thing we've got. I agree with Maverick though, that we should pick one and stick with it. Practically though, I know just how that would turn out. As we have too many choices, every great country would want the right to pick one for itself, and then we, in the EU, are taught one, and told that we should learn another as well, as it's used in the US. (Of course, Canada would follow the US, as would most of Asia, but after a while they switch to the Euro - I mean the European system, since they think the US isn't so stable anymore. Meanwhile, Africa doesn't care.) It's happened before, it will happen again.
__________________
~Bachelor of Science Marijke I'm not the devil, I just work for her. What spoon? There is no spoon. According to Zeke, it's a cat. ~NeoMatrix "Apparently we're on the wrong side. Or the right side if you like winning." ~Spike Sa'ar Chasm: Too far south you hit Belgium. catalina marina: Not in Limburg you don't. Sa'ar Chasm: You do if you go south in the right way. |
#10
|
||||
|
||||
My, you've gotten cynical.
Also, is it too late to change Klingon to Elven? I have more in common with pansy archers than burly warriors.
__________________
The first run through of any experimental procedure is to identify any potential errors by making them. |
|
|