How does one pronounce Slavic names?

Be warned, I can also understand written Czech, so your private conversations may not be so private.
 
Winner said:
Já myslím, že bys to dokázal, s trochou snahy ;)

(for English speaking posters: I know, I know, this is English forum, so pls ignore this post ;) )
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I think,you will prove this,with....dont know the rest,help :)

Anyway Ć,Č,Š,Ž,Đ,О these letters can kill people :lol:
 
SeleucusNicator said:
Be warned, I can also understand written Czech, so your private conversations may not be so private.
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Yeah, it is much easier to understand a written Polish than the spoken one. Last winter, I was going up to the hill by the chairlift (is it that word?) with some Pole. He said something to me, but it took about a minute until I realized what he said ;)
 
Cleric said:
I think,you will prove this,with....dont know the rest,help :)

Anyway Ć,Č,Š,Ž,Đ,Đž these letters can kill people :lol:
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I am still trying to find out, why we started using such a stupid thing. Maybe because we thought our alphabets are too easy for such an intelligent people :lol:

(EDIT: The rest means "with a little effort")
 
When I was in Prague I saw a man who had apparently taught his dog in Polish. Either that or he had decided that he would speak to everyone in Czech, but to his dog in something different.

My father taught his dog German commands (since it was a German breed), so I've seen that sort of stuff before.
 
SeleucusNicator said:
When I was in Prague I saw a man who had apparently taught his dog in Polish. Either that or he had decided that he would speak to everyone in Czech, but to his dog in something different.

My father taught his dog German commands (since it was a German breed), so I've seen that sort of stuff before.
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Honestly, you've found someone speaking Czech in Prague? I thought no Czech actually lives there :mischief:
 
I wasnt far away,I thought it said,with ease.
 
SeleucusNicator said:
Be warned, I can also understand written Czech, so your private conversations may not be so private.
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Nicator knowing a non-american language other then [albeit americnized] english?

Nicator, your loseing your edge ;)
 
Winner said:
The Croats have Ć, I think.
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That is correct. My Bosnian friend, who speaks Serbo-Croatian, spells his name with an apostrophe above the c and told me it's pronounced like "ch" (in the English word "witch" the t is silent).
 
Winner said:
Yeah, it is much easier to understand a written Polish than the spoken one. Last winter, I was going up to the hill by the chairlift (is it that word?) with some Pole. He said something to me, but it took about a minute until I realized what he said ;)
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I can read a lot of French, as English borrowed many words from it, but I cannot understand it spoken, nor can I truely understand it written; I just get the jist of what I'm reading. I speak enough Spanish to get around, but I am not fluent. My sister and I often converse in Spanish at home for fun, or to hide what we're saying from our parents. I'll probably be fluent by the time I enter college. I really want to learn Spanish, as 40% of California speaks a language other than English at home, most of them speaking Spanish, and we recieve more emmigrants from Spanish-speaking countries than we do from the rest of the US.
 
How to pronounce Slavic names? Simple: You don't. ;)

Oh, and that Clinton joke was hilarious!
 
:hmm: Pronouncing slavic names correctly is a lot easier for most non-natives then pronouncing the English 'th' correctly. If only they'd care to read correctly.
The basic problem many have, as Marla pointed out already, is the 'hard R'. Just imagine a stereotypical Hitler speech, and you know what sound is meant. You'll never learn that later in life. Anf the English language as well as the Northern German dialects simply lack this one (there are even some areas in Germany who cannot pronounce 'r' at all...).

What's even worse than the seemingly difficult English transcriptions of those Slavic languages that use Latin letters, though, is the often blatantly wrong transcription of Russian. I can't understand how Russians can bear a Chernobyl - that's no 'e', that's a 'ё' , pronounced 'jo'...not that the correct vowel would cause any problems. Pure lazyness. And btw, all othrr vowels in that city name are wrong as well :wallbash:.
 
Doc Tsiolkovski said:
:hmm: Pronouncing slavic names correctly is a lot easier for most non-natives then pronouncing the English 'th' correctly. If only they'd care to read correctly.
The basic problem many have, as Marla pointed out already, is the 'hard R'.
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We maybe have a similar icons, but I promise we are different persons ;)

Just imagine a stereotypical Hitler speech, and you know what sound is meant. You'll never learn that later in life. Anf the English language as well as the Northern German dialects simply lack this one (there are even some areas in Germany who cannot pronounce 'r' at all...).
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Yes, but for those poor persons learning the Czech is there the "Ř", which is much more complicated to pronounce. I am feeling with those foreingers trying to say it. My surname contain that letter so my native English teacher at high school was suffering every time she wanted to ask me for something ;)
 
Jeff Yu said:
I remember once reading an Onion article called "Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia". I had a good laugh at it, but it seems to be that it really is true. Tons of Slavic names contain little or no vowels and are seeming impossible for English speakers to pronounce.

Exactly how is one supposed to pronounce names like, Srbljani, Brno, Srpska, Hrvatska, etc? Everytime I try sounding them out, I come up with wierd, tongue-twisting, growling sounds.
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There are vowels in those words, but they're swallowed or slurred over. Just insert an "e" between consonants you can't combine and say it quickly.
 
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