[Wikipedia-l] Pronunciation guides (Was Re: Oliver is Lir II [...])

[Oliver Pereira]

Oliver wrote:

> > Oh, perhaps I should point out that my agreement with the "pronounced
> > Paree, you morons" thing was a joke, of course.

Anthere wrote:

> Ah, this is too bad, because, well... I thought it was an interesting
> proposition...
> 
> Not the reference to morons of course :)

Quite right! I only meant that the bit about morons was a joke. :)
Indications of native pronunciations would be very useful. Is there
support for displaying all the standard IPA characters...? And I like your
idea of linked sound files, too. (It would be quite a task, though!) I
often read about things in works of reference, but find that I have to
guess how to pronounce the words. I might eventually find out how to
pronounce them if they come up in conversation (although the person I'm
talking to might be guessing too) or on the radio or television.

> The fact is that change could not really be said to be to "look" (read)
> more like the "real" (native) words, since it is in no way written that
> way. What really mattered was not so much we wrote it that way, but we
> *learn to pronounce* it a way that sound more like the native word.

I agree. When I was arguing for native words in article headings, I didn't
mean in the original orthography, if the languages don't use the Roman
alphabet. (Those which use the Roman alphabet with diacritics seem to be
contentious, but I'll go into that later...) I'm all for logical and
consistent transliteration systems: these, in conjunction with the
pronunciation guides, would allow the reader to read the words in the
native way. And of course, the original orthography should be included in
the article body - as an image if necessary. It would be good education, I
think.

> Annihilation of opposition through body-unification of dissenting voices
> ???

I know, it's a funny tactic to use, isn't it? I've seen it used a lot on
Internet forums and so on, but fortunately it rarely works, and it only
makes the one who used it look silly! :) Oops, am I ignoring my own advice
about not insulting people? I'm terribly sorry... ;)

Oliver

+-------------------------------------------+
| Oliver Pereira                            |
| Dept. of Electronics and Computer Science |
| University of Southampton                 |
| omp199 at ecs.soton.ac.uk                    |
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