It took me a while to figure out how to pronounce your name. I ended up with just cyber-x-khan.
How do you pronounce usernames?
- Thread starter hobbsyoyo
- Start date
It took me a while to figure out how to pronounce your name. I ended up with just cyber-x-khan.
sophie
Break My Heart
This statement doesn't make any sense. For one thing English speakers pronounce their vowels in entirely different ways depending on the region they come from. It's relevant that in the inventory of english sounds on, say wikipedia, they have to use 2 columns: one for American vowels and one for standard British ones. I mean we can't even begin to talk on the same level among English speakers when you consider that rhotacism is a Thing (Americans use /ɹ/ and Brits omit it entirely). There's the fact that many American dialects don't differentiate between /ɔ/ and /ɑ/ while some American dialects do, and most all British ones do. This is just to name a few of the problems with spelling words "phonetically" Moreover many people here aren't native speakers, generally don't try to spell words phonetically in the same way that English speakers tend to and thus trying to "sound" out words the way we do is entirely useless. Take some examples here:
How do you pronounce Ay in this context? /eɪ/ or /aɪ/
What about lead? /lɛd/ or /lid/ or maybe even /liəd/
is hoo pronounced /hu/ or /hoʊ/
Is the win in O-win pronounced /wɪn/ or /win/ or even /ɛn/, as some American dialects do not differentiate between /ɪ/ and /ɛ/. Is it /glɛn/ or /glɪn/ or /glen/? Is it /wər/ or /wer/ or /weɪr/?
What about Dacks? Is it /dæks/ or /dɑks/ or /deɪks/ or /dɛks/
We also run into problems with inconsistent consonents, for example is it gu or d͡ʒzu (z here taking the place of the voiced postalveolar fricative), moreover is it /ku/ or /su/ is it really /tz/? or is it /ts/? As most English speakers have a hard time with the /tz/ cluster when followed by the sound that is either /æ/ or /ɑ/. Moreover it is unclear which vowel it actually is.
hobbsyoyo
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2012
- Messages
- 26,575
O -> oh rhymes with no
Dacks -> ryhmes with hacks
Trying to force us to learn and use IPA will destroy and excellent opportunity to feed the postcount monster through explanations such as this that would become redundant under your oppressive regime.
Dacks -> ryhmes with hacks
Trying to force us to learn and use IPA will destroy and excellent opportunity to feed the postcount monster through explanations such as this that would become redundant under your oppressive regime.
Mise
isle of lucy
He means it's useless with IPA because hardly anyone can read IPA.
sophie
Break My Heart
It really isn't that hard to learn and makes this thread a thousand times clearer.
no in which way? Is it /o/ or /oʊ/?
hacks in which way? /æ/ or /a/?
Probably should've added 'for me and most people' to qualify IPA's uselessness in this thread, because yeah, I get why IPA would be useful for those few that actually know it; I'm aware that just writing things phonetically doesn't translate all that well (though isn't that half the point of the thread?).
Mr. Dictator
A Chain-Smoking Fox
I prefer mine to be pronounced "Sir"
Kan' Sharuminar
Fluffy
I've always pronounced it right, then
Always pronounced it wrong, then
Com-rad Dav-Oh
cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
<Owen Glyndwr>
/o.wen glen.diɹ/
(For those who don't know IPA: oh-when glen-deer)
<hobbsyoyo>
/hob.bis.syo/
(hob.bis.see-oh)
<joecoolyo>
/ʤo.ko:l.yo/
(joe.cool.yo)
IPA isn't necessary per se, I suppose, but it really really helps a lot if you know it - opens up a lot of things. And it's actually not too difficult, at least for me.
/o.wen glen.diɹ/
(For those who don't know IPA: oh-when glen-deer)
<hobbsyoyo>
/hob.bis.syo/
(hob.bis.see-oh)
<joecoolyo>
/ʤo.ko:l.yo/
(joe.cool.yo)
IPA isn't necessary per se, I suppose, but it really really helps a lot if you know it - opens up a lot of things. And it's actually not too difficult, at least for me.
sophie
Break My Heart
Few nitpicky things: /y/ is the high front rounded vowel (the u in the French j'ai lu). I assume that's not what you mean. The symbol you want is the palatal approximate (/j/). Do you really pronounce the cool segment of joe's name as a long o? My pronunciation is a bit closer to the straight /u/. And you pronounce the Glyn part of my name with a straight /e/? That's interesting.
cybrxkhan
Asian Xwedodah
Crap, you're right. I should know better especially since I've been conlanging for long enough (which is why I understand what you're saying
) - guess that's what happens when you don't practice it or conlang a lot for a while. Yeah, that is supposed to be /j/ there, and that's supposed to be /u:/.Yeah. Guess my brain just quickly read it as "Glen" rather than "Glyn" when I first came across it and it stuck.
madviking
north american scum
ma-dvik-ING
yall have been saying it wrong for all these years.
yall have been saying it wrong for all these years.
Tycho Brahe
Emperor
Most people write meaningless gibberish when they try to describe pronounciation without it.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
/eɪliədhu/
Borachio
Way past lunacy
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2012
- Messages
- 26,698
Hmm. I'm not sure that IPA is such a significant advantage as people think. It is a better, and more formal, approximation to pronunciation than other systems, I will agree. But in the end it's still an arbitrary code that doesn't really explain how to move the myriad muscles necessary to form a particular sound (nor do I think such a thing would be possible). It still relies on a background knowledge of some human speech absolutely. As do all transcriptions.
It is arbitrary, sure. What isn't? But it's a mutually understood arbitrariness, where specific symbols denote specific pronunciations. Something like "O-win Glend-were" can have multiple potential interpretations; use IPA and that problem ceases to exist. Sure, then you have a new problem - learning IPA - but that's much easier than learning the idiosyncratic pronunciation preferences of every other individual in the world so you can understand their attempts at phonetic spelling. It's the same reason you measure things in liters, meters, and grams (or gallons, feet, and pounds), or indeed the same reason anybody uses any language at all, ever.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
But the thing is that each symbol is pronounced the same in every single language. It is universal, and it is the value of universality that makes it so useful. If you pronounce a symbol differently than the person at your side, one of you is simply doing it wrong.
EDIT:
'd 
EDIT:
'd 