Although kind of intriguing from a linguist's
point of view, knowing
how an Englishman pronounces "Jacques Chirac" isn't all that
informative - an Englishman will already know, a Frenchman won't care
and nor will, say, a Dutchman (unless, as I say, they are enthusiasts
of some sort). It also immensely increases the number of target sounds
to do it that way: every word available in every language as opposed
to every word once (in its own language).
But, then, why include a clip on [[wikt:en:Health]] of how "health"
is pronounced by an Englishman? If I want to talk to my friend's wife
about Jacques Chirac but I have never heard the name before and am not
sure to say it /ʤɑk ʃɪrɑk/ or /ʤɑkwɜz ʧɪrɑk/, I would want to know to
say it /ʤɑk ʃɪrɑk/ because /ʒɑk ʃɪʁɑk/ will make me sound
oversophisticated or pedantic. However, there are still reasons I
would want to know the French pronunciation, so I think we should
include both.
Obviously, though, for words rather than names, it is only practical
to have a recording in the native tongue - I don't think it would be
wise to upload an "English" pronunciation of "kyashnyam", a Hopi one
alone would be best.
An amusing anecdote that's kind of relevant though
is a piece on
Channel 4's coverage of the Tour de France some years back (before
they gave up covering it) in which they attempted to work out how to
pronounce "Richard Virenque" - they showed a series of some half a
dozen French people, all pronouncing it *completely* differently, and
concluded that we should carry on using whatever pronunciation seemed
best.
I would guess /ʁɪʃɑd vɪʁɔ̃k/ (roughly "rissh-shahd virr-rongk"), but
my knowledge of French orthography isn't too good. If Vincent is
subscribed to this list perhaps he can correct me.
Mark