Comment on Anon reads Don Quixote
rtxn@lemmy.world 1 day agoIf that principle applied throughout history, anglophones would have evolved either an armored ass or no ass at all. I believe they are pathologically incapable of grasping the phonology of foreign languages. Just ask any native English speaker the name of the Soviet Union’s general secretary that succeeded Stalin and preceded Brezhnev… realistically, nine out of ten will have no idea, and the remaining one will say he was some “cruise chef”.
As a linguaphile, I’ve always tried to pronounce words from other languages as correctly as possible. People tend to think that makes me weird.
Xenophobes think I’m being a snob, and “inclusive” people think I’m mocking the language or making some offensive joke or something. Literally the only people who don’t get upset about it are the ones who speak whatever language it is.
Literally the only people who don’t get upset about it are the ones who speak whatever language it is.
It depends on the exact word and context, like if you go to Japan and say Hay mmmburrrgurrrr をいただきたいです, it sounds so bad.
I’m trying to figure out what that’s even supposed to say. “Mmmburrrgurrrr” doesn’t sound like any japanese words I know.
“Hay” I’m guessing is supposed to be “Hai,” although if you pronounce it like “hay” then you’re going to stand out as an ignorant foreigner.
As for 「おいただきたいです」、well that’s just phrased awkwardly. It sounds too formal and almost mocking. The issue isn’t pronouncing it correctly. It’s like saying 「申しわけありません」 when 「ごめんなさい」 would do.
My point wasn’t about phrasing things weird or being too formal, it was about pronunciation. Like saying 「ありがとうございます」 instead of “uhragado guhzaimasoo”
It’s over-emphasizing the non-japanese sounds in “hamburger”; the point is that there are rules for loan words in any language and it sounds awkward if you break them.
Step 1: Seek to prove that anglophones can’t pronounce foreign words.
Step 2: Ask a history question that has less to do with pronunciation than it does with an awareness of political events that happened on the other side of the globe, likely before the respondent was born.
Step 3: Ignore that even the people who were alive in that time were likely only getting their pronunciation from whoever was anchoring the news and may be blameless for only hearing an incorrect pronunciation.
Step 4: Feel smug, I guess.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
i’m an anglophone that has studied 6 languages.
we’re arrogant idiots who think foreign languages don’t exist, and shouldn’t exist if they are hard to pronounce. we’d rather make fun of them for being ‘weird’ than actually… learn and appreciate them.