[Wikipedia-l] Re: Pronunciations of things foreign

Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 16:00:09 +0100 From: Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)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