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Re: Pronunciation

Dear Bernd and List;
Tomato...Toe-may-toe... Tomato (this one pronounced toe-mah-toe)
We can't even agree here in the US on a standard pronounciation.  Then
there's Texas, many things are pronounced different there as well as the
rest of the South.  U-nnns, You all is Yall (U-awl) plural is U-awl-U-awl.
After the holiday, I want to know why all them-there sweet potatoes (which
ain't really potatoes) are being called yams, they ain't no more yams than
they are sweet potatoes, more like big carrots...that ain't karats either.

And then there's Bass fishin' and Bass guitar....well....at least beer, and
pizza, and apple pie do not confuse me, especially after "football".
So...pronunciation is not the only difference.

Dave (Homer Simson) Freeman

Bernd Pauli HD wrote:

> Ginger Mayfield schrieb:
>
> > Thanks, Walter. Found it! This will help with terms. Anyone know of
> > a pronunciation guide for the names of meteorites. I don't know about
> > anyone else, but I tend to *say* them a certain way in my mind but
> > who knows if it's even close? Like Millbillillie -- how do you get
> > your tongue around that one?  I'm guessing that like astronomy,
> > there are probably more than one *correct* pronunciation for some
> > of these and I realize that a meteorite list is always growing and
> > adding new names as new meteorites are found. - Ginger
>
> WBranchsb@aol.com wrote:
>
> > Click on any of the "clickable" (linked) words such as "chondrite"
> > or go here: http://www.meteorlab.com/glossary.htm#OCTAHEDRITE
>
> Ginger reponded:
>
> > Walter, thanks for the pointer to the NEMS website. Looks like
> > plenty of good info there but I wasn't able to find a glossary
> > or pronunciation guide. Please let me know where it's hidden.
>
> Hello Ginger, Walter, and List,
>
> Ginger is probably looking for something comparable to a "Pronunciation
> guide for the constellations as published in the Feb 1979 issue of Sky &
> Telescope, pp. 160-163. The late George Lovi also mentions the original
> publication in the August 1942 edition of Popular Astronomy: "Report
> prepared by the Committee of the American Astronomical Society on
> Preferred Spellings and Pronunciations".
> In the September 1999 issue of ASTRONOMY, pp.54-59 you can also find
> some pages on that topic: "The Art of Skyspeak - Is it Betelgeuse or
> Beetlejuice?"
>
> Such a "How to pronounce ..." would be a rewarding project for the
> Meteoritical Nomenclature Committee - just my two cents!
>
> Pronunciation really is a tricky thing. One has to bear in mind there
> are differences in pronunciation even within the English-speaking
> community (i.e. British English, American English, Australian English,
> regional differences within the U.K. or the United States, etc.).
>
> Difficulty no. 2 is that different language authorities (dictionaries)
> offer (a) different pronunciations, and (b) sometimes more than just one
> pronunciation.
>
> Difficulty no.3 is the use of different types of phonetic transcription.
> The "officially" accepted transcription is the one used by Daniel Jones
> in his "Outline of English Phonetics" and most competent British English
> dictionaries have adopted it. In the United States, on the other hand,
> more conservative systems are currently used. A look at just one example
> may suffice:
>
> For words like "too, fool", the international phonetic transcription
> of the "oo" in both words is [u:] indicating that the u-sound (not the
> letter "u" !) is lengthened. The US Random House dictionary uses a
> "macron" (= a horizontal line used as a diacritic over a vowel to
> indicate that it has a long sound) and the US Webster dictionary uses
> this symbol [ü] instead.
>
> It is bewildering and I am rambling, so let's get back to the scientific
> terms within the meteoritical context. Some time ago we had a discussion
> on how to pronounce the word "breccia". The German word "Brekzie"
> indicates there should be a [k] somewhere when you pronounce the word.
> For some reason there isn't. I usually pronounce it something like
> [brekchia] which seems to be wrong. The British English Shorter Oxford
> Dictionary offers [bretch(i)a] with the "a" sound at the end of the word
> very short and weak like the Hebrew "schwa" sound. The "a" in "alone"
> has this pronunciation quality. The (i)-sound that can be left out seems
> to be short.
> Webster's has [brech(e)a]. Here, again, the "a" sound at the end of the
> word is very short and weak like the Hebrew "schwa" sound. But now the
> (e)-sound is rendered with a diacritic. In other words, it should be
> long (a little bit shorter than in the interjection "gee").
> Random House offers two variants: (1) the same as the one in Webster's
> and (2) [bresh(e)a]. The "sh"-sound now permits the speaker to pronounce
> the middle part of the word "breccia" like the corresponding sounds in
> words like "shoe, fashion, or push".
>
> The otherwise excellent NEMS website also has its shortcomings when it
> comes to pronouncing certain terms properly. Another example (from the
> NEMS website - Glossary of terms):
>
> ACHONDRITE (a kon' drite) - ATAXITE (a tax' ite)
>
> Now, what about the first "a"-sound in both words? The first seems to
> have the quality of the "a" in "late" but shorter. In German we have a
> long, clear "aah-like" sound here.
> The "a" in ataxite" seems to have the schwa-sound quality of "alone".
> But what about the stressed syllable in this word? The NEMS glossary
> puts the stress on "tax" whereas the German word is stressed on the
> first part of the word.
>
> My-my, Ginger, so you see you are not alone in this
> pronunciatory jungle :-) or had I better use this one :-(    (*)
>
> (*) With regard to the pronunciatory jungle,
> of course, and NOT with regard to Ginger !
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Bernd
>
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