Category Archives: pronunciation tips

Pronunciation tip: Celebes

Posted on April 18, 2018 | Leave a comment

I was wondering what to do my next pronunciation tip on, so I went and got a coffee. And the answer was right in front of me.

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Tagged Celebes, coffee, how to say, Pronunciation Tip, Sulawesi

Pronunciation tip: The One Ring inscription

Posted on April 1, 2018 | 1 comment

Everyone knows the inscription inside the One Ring from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, of course, but most of us can’t get the pronunciation quite right. Discover the secret to saying it so Sauron will seek you out, and get a little bit of linguistic insight while you’re at it:

Oh, and happy April 1.

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Posted in language and linguistics, pronunciation tips

Tagged ash nazg, Dark Tongue of Mordor, Nazgûl, Pronunciation Tip, the One Ring, Tolkien

Pronunciation tip: more Irish

Posted on March 21, 2018 | 3 comments

For St. Patrick’s Day I covered just a couple of phrases and their related bits of Irish phonology. I thought it would be good to let you in on a bit more of it. Irish can seem like Scrabble, in that you start with a bunch of letters but you’re very lucky if you can put them all in play. In truth, there’s always a reason for it. Here’s part of why. (I also sing a song. A short one.)

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Tagged aspiration, eclipsis, Gaelic, Irish, Pronunciation Tip, Siobhan

Pronunciation tip: Sláinte, Céad míle fáilte

Posted on March 14, 2018 | 3 comments

St. Patrick’s Day is almost upon us, and that has inspired me to do a quick pronunciation tip video for the two things in Irish you’re most likely to encounter on St. Paddy’s. You will see that I had fun making this video. How much fun? Well, why don’t you watch it – it’s not that long.

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Tagged céad míle fáilte, Gaelic, Irish, Pronunciation Tip, sláinte, St. Patrick's Day

Pronunciation tip: Nguyen

Posted on February 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

I’m not going to tell you that Vietnamese pronunciation is easy to master. But there’s one Vietnamese name we encounter often that many of us are severely daunted by that is actually quite within easy reach for English speakers. It’s all about that NG…

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Tagged how to say, Nguyen, Pronunciation Tip, Vietnamese

I woke up in the middle of the night to talk to the BBC about pronunciation

Posted on February 22, 2018 | Leave a comment

A producer from BBC Radio Solent (in southern England) asked me if I could be interviewed for their morning show. I said sure, when? How about 8:45 am? Hmm… England time or Toronto time? Oh, uh…

Well, anyway, I got up in the middle of the night to take a 3:45 am phone call and talk to Sasha Twining about how to say PyeongChang and a few other things. Here’s the link to the show: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05vswzq My segment starts at about the 17:10 mark and goes for about 5 minutes.

Sorry about the audio quality. We had arranged to use Skype with the phone as a backup but they couldn’t get the Skype to hook up so you’re hearing me on my phone headset.

Oh, also: the link to the show is only valid for 29 days. So listen to it by March 23, 2018, or you’ll be too late!

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Posted in BBC, pronunciation tips

Tagged BBC, BBC Radio Solent, how to say, interview, pronunciation, Pyeongchang, radio

I tell San Francisco how to say Pyeongchang

Posted on February 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

The local ABC news in the San Francisco Bay Area asked me if they could use my video on how to say the 2018 Olympic venue names in one of their news clips. I said yes, of course – I mean, if I don’t want people to see these videos, why do them? (Of course I know most people don’t really care about how to say non-English names accurately. I don’t mind; the videos are just for people who want to know.) You can see the clip here:

How do you pronounce Winter Olympics location ‘Pyeongchang?’

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Tagged 2018 Winter Olympic venues, ABC, news, Olympics, pronunciation, Pyeongchang, television, TV, video, Winter Olympics

Winter Olympic pronunciation tip: Pita Taufatofua, the Tongan flagbearer

Posted on February 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here’s a quick pronunciation tip. Heads turned when a well-oiled bit of beefcake carried a flag for Tonga in the freezing air of the Winter Olympic opening ceremonies. And what was his name again?

…uh… Say that again?

Here.

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Tagged flag bearer, opening ceremony, Pita Taufatofua, Pronunciation Tip, Tonga, Winter Olympics

Winter Olympic pronunciation tip: sz – Polish vs. Hungarian

Posted on February 5, 2018 | Leave a comment

With the Winter Olympics, you’ll see a slight increase in the number of Eastern European names you haven’t encountered before, including a definite uptick in ones containing sz. Most of those will be Polish or Hungarian. And that’s where the trouble starts, because it doesn’t sound the same in Hungarian as it does in Polish. So I’m going to tell you how to say not just sz but every available combination of c, s, and z in each of the two languages.

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Tagged Emőke Szőcs, how to say, Hungarian, Karolina Sztokfisz, Magdalena Czyszczoń, Natalia Wojtuściszyn, Petra Jászapáti, Polish, pronunciation, Pronunciation Tip, Sára Luca Bácskai, Winter Olympics

Winter Olympic pronunciation tips: Finnish

Posted on February 1, 2018 | 3 comments

I’m getting back onto the Winter Olympics, which are impending. Finnish names come up in a number of winter sports, and people often freak out needlessly and make easily fixed mistakes when trying to say them. Here are four tips to remember if you want to get reasonably close on the pronunciation of Finnish names. Pour yourself six shots and let’s go!