Coolest/worst names of countries
- Thread starter Krajzen
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All hail IPA! The world will be better if we all learn some IPA instead of some ad-hoc systems trying to make some sense. I'm serious.
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Aïr works for me. I pronounce it like Ah-eer. Partly because its bad pun, partly because it sounds like my ID 
You may well be serious, but I don't find that remotely helpful. I like IPA, though - very nice beer.
Air: Imagine someone saying that they're from Air. "Hello, I live in Air."Not sure why you think these names are cool/funny - maybe they sound different in Japanese - except Koch, of course - Koch is obviously funny, but only in English. I thought this thread ended when somebody mentioned 'Wanka' - impossible to beat - beat, geddit?
That's really not helpful. 'W' is not pronounced like a 'V' in English. It's actually quite hard to explain this without audio.
Provence is pronounced like Prov-onse; province like Prov-inse
How the hell do you pronounce 'V' in Polish? Same as 'W', or like 'F', maybe, as in German?
Delhi: Sounds like deli.
Itza: Sounds like "It's a." A conversion might go like this: Person A "Look at that Itza!" Person B "It's a what?"
Buton: A country named button basically.
Luwu: Just sounds fun to say.
Guge: "That's some good Guge fudge cake."
My (new) version for Air: a protoss zealot, dressed in blue, shouts "My life for Ai(u)r".
I mean International Phonetic Alphabet. See the last half page of half-baked attempts at describing the sound of "Provence"? Nicely solved by IPA.
Yes I'm aware you weren't referring to India Pale Ale, thank you.
I still think my 'half-baked attempt' was infinitely more useful than the hieroglyphics that you're enthusing about - which only mean anything to me (and I suspect the vast majority of people), if I already know how the word is pronounced. You're not the only person to have consulted a dictionary, you know.- 1
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Not sure why you think these names are cool/funny - maybe they sound different in Japanese - except Koch, of course - Koch is obviously funny, but only in English. I thought this thread ended when somebody mentioned 'Wanka' - impossible to beat - beat, geddit?
That's really not helpful. 'W' is not pronounced like a 'V' in English. It's actually quite hard to explain this without audio.
Provence is pronounced like Prov-onse; province like Prov-inse
How the hell do you pronounce 'V' in Polish? Same as 'W', or like 'F', maybe, as in German?
V does not exist in Polish, only appears in foreign personal or place names. As a letter of the alphabet however it is called "fau" phonetically. A la German.
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I remember seeing Portugal own just HAHA in Morocco (despite being kicked out of Europe and North Africa). Always thought it was a nice "Screw you" to Morocco.
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Just what it looks like in English:
sus-kwe-han-nock
From someone who lives ten blocks from Susquehanna
Edit: edited to show stress
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That's the fucked up American English way of pronouncing it. Just like how French things are pronounced differently (incorrectly) by English speakers, the way Native american things are pronounced by English speakers is also different from what it's actually supposed to sound like.Just what it looks like in English:
sus-kwe-han-nock
From someone who lives ten blocks from Susquehanna
Edit: edited to show stress
Actually according to Wikipedia their name for themselves is unknown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susquehannock
Edit: I really need to complete my thoughts before I post...
Unless they're specially trained, I doubt that very many, if any, native speakers of any Indo-European language can even come close to pronouncing any Native American language correctly. And the French don't pronounce English words correctly either; that's why we have foreign accents.
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I know, all I meant to say is that it's near impossible to find out what the real way of pronouncing it is, since there are very few people who do know what the exact pronounciation is supposed to sound like. But that that doesn't make the English pronounciation the correct way of pronouncing it.Actually according to Wikipedia their name for themselves is unknown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susquehannock
Edit: I really need to complete my thoughts before I post...
Unless they're specially trained, I doubt that very many, if any, native speakers of any Indo-European language can even come close to pronouncing any Native American language correctly. And the French don't pronounce English words correctly either; that's why we have foreign accents.
You're absolutely right. I just assumed since the unpronounceable lists left out other Native American tribes, they meant the current pronunciation.
Yes I'm aware you weren't referring to India Pale Ale, thank you.
There are several good tutorials online on how to interpret the IPA. When I am looking to know how to pronounce a foreign word, the IPA is indispensible. True, the IPA might be hard to understand, especially for monolingual people, but it can give an an almost unambiguous pronounciation for a word - rather than the confusion that vague "reconstructions" can bring.
Yes, of course you're right - IPA is clear and unambiguous - if you understand the language. I am merely making what seems like a fairly uncontroversial point - that the vast majority of people do not understand it - and in that case it is worse than useless. Repeating your argument in a slightly different way will change this fact - and is really not necessary as I understood you perfectly the first time.
Who are you calling 'monolingual', by the way? Cheeky sod.
Not sure about other Poles in this forum but I always pronounce this 'zarucham' in multiplayer and it gives me a good chuckle
Favorite: Warsangali - it just sound so awesome
Worst: Commonwealth - it just inappropriate, I'd prefer V2 Poland - Lithuania.