[Wikipedia-l] International cooperation on sounds

[Mark Williamson]

> 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