[Wikipedia-l] Re: Pronunciations of things foreign

[Ilya Haykinson]

For what it's worth, the Voice of America runs a Pronunciation Guide
for names at http://names.voa.gov/

I think it might be public domain, as is all other VOA material, and
if so, could be used at Wikipedia.

-ilya

> Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 16:00:09 +0100
> From: Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Wikipedia-l] Pronunciations of things foreign
> 
> Hoi,
> There is this joke about these Americans asking for the "tjamps
> ilajsies" in Paris, and nobody ever heard of it... Many words cannot be
> properly pronounced by people not speaking the language. Many news
> organisations have their presenters trained in pronouncing foreign words..
> 
> When we write about things foreign, there is often no difinitive word
> for the subject in the language that the article is written in. So often
> we try to find something that will do. Most often we use what others
> used before us, often it is a transliteration or a transcription to yet
> another language. With our digital encyclopedia, it is easy to add
> pronunciation of words in the local language. We often add how it is
> written in another script and, it would make equal sense to add the
> pronunciation in the local language as well.
> 
> As an example I have done this in the wikipedias for "Jaap de Hoop
> Scheffer" and for "Silvio Berlusconi". I have also pronounced and
> uploaded the category of Dutch politicians from the en:wikipedia to
> Commons... Could an American please pronounce and upload George W. Bush
> and a Chinese 胡é"¦æ¶› ??
> 
> Thanks,
> GerardM