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Thread: Pronunciation

  1. #1
    Senior Member Thomas_Percy's Avatar
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    What is a correct (or yours) pronunciation of:
    Riumache
    Ghieste
    ?

  2. #2
    Senior Member Doyle's Avatar
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    Tricky to work out the intended pronunciation working from the old guide. The way I usually say them would be;
    Riumache= RU-marsh (soft 'r')
    Ghieste = Gi-Es-te

    Not the right format, I know, but...
    Doyle

  3. #3
    Site Moderator Sorontar's Avatar
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    Hmmm... I do find it a little strange that the BR developers bothered to provide us with a complete description of the Anuirean phonetics and some of their phonology, but didn't 1) complete it or 2) do likewise for the other languages. Annoying.

    Anyway, I am presuming that the words you want are Anuirean versions of names or places as I don't recognise them. If not, then the following is irrelevant.

    > Riumache= RU-marsh (soft 'r&#39
    > Ghieste = Gi-Es-te

    They are possibilities but they don't quite match what the BR guide says. The main problem in those words is that they include letter combinations that aren't specified in the guide. As a result, it has be assumed that either 1) the guide is incomplete or 2) the word has a foreign origin and we need to work out the "local" way of reading it.

    I have only examined the pronunciation guide sheet but my "expert" guesses and the reasons are:

    Riumache = 1) rih-oo-MASH or 2) rih-oo-MAK or 3) rih-oo-MAK-hey
    * "iu" is not a known compound , therefore I have made it two different vowels. "u'" isn't listed as a stand-alone vowel, but it is pronunced "oo" in all relevant compund vowels.
    * "ch" is not a known consonant.
    1) But "sh" is and is the "voiced" version of "ch". So one could make the assumption that Anuireans would treated "ch" and "sh" as the same sound.
    2) The other option is that the "h" is just included as a marker indicating something like aspiration (breathiness) or voiced. Unfortunately the role of "h" in "gh" is not explained so I can't tell what it means for Anuirean. But if this were the case then "c" would be pronounced "k".
    3) If the "h" is pronounced as a consonant then by the phonological rules, the word-final "e'" would also pronounced, making it a final syllable "hey".
    * The position of the stress is a little harder because there is no rule explicitly given for that, but by observation it seems to have rules
    - primary stress is placed on
    i/ the first syllable if there is only one syllable (eg. Ghoere)
    ii/ the third syllable if the second syllable is just a vowel (eg. Cuiraecen)
    iii/ the second syllable elsewhere (eg. Boeruine, Alamie).
    As the second syllable for this word is "oo" by my reckoning, then rule ii/ applies.

    Ghieste = 1) gees-TAY or 2) gee-STAY
    * This is much easier to match to the given phonetics and phonology. By rule iii/ above I would place the accent on the second and final syllable. There are two possible syllable divisions. While 2) is easier for an Aussie to say, I would favour 1) on observation of the relevant final syllables of the examples given.

    Phew... been a while since I have to do phonetics and phonology. Makes me glad that my speciality as a linguist is grammar. :^) But it also means that we have been mispronouncing stuff rather badly in our campaign Doyle.

    Sorontar
    Sorontar
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