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.
Posted in language and linguistics, pronunciation tips
Tagged ash nazg, Dark Tongue of Mordor, Nazgûl, Pronunciation Tip, the One Ring, Tolkien
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.)
Posted in pronunciation tips
Tagged aspiration, eclipsis, Gaelic, Irish, Pronunciation Tip, Siobhan
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.
Posted in pronunciation tips
Tagged céad míle fáilte, Gaelic, Irish, Pronunciation Tip, sláinte, St. Patrick's Day
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…
Posted in pronunciation tips
Tagged how to say, Nguyen, Pronunciation Tip, Vietnamese
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.
Posted in pronunciation tips
Tagged flag bearer, opening ceremony, Pita Taufatofua, Pronunciation Tip, Tonga, Winter Olympics
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.
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!
Back to the Pinyin! Today is the fourth tip on pronouncing Mandarin Chinese, and this time I’m starting with vowels. Chinese vowels vary a lot depending on what’s before and after them. Let’s start by looking a set that most English speakers miss the mark on most of the time.
Posted in pronunciation tips
Tagged Chinese, Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang, Mandarin, Mao Zedong, Pronunciation Tip
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Sesquiotica 