How do you sound in the languages you know

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby Quetzalcoatl » 2013-12-09, 13:47

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0nY1ljufvhp

Aunt, Roof, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught, Naturally, Aluminum, Envelope

:P

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby md0 » 2013-12-09, 20:48

HoItalosPhilellên wrote:
meidei wrote:Barely anything to correct, sauf the intonation that felt weird in μαλακό_άνθρακα (I'd expect a pause there, μαλακό||άνθρακα).

Since the two stressed syllables of the words were right next to one another, I guess that lead me to glide the words.

Pay some attention to that. When you have two words forming a single prosodic unit, it is usually a clitic... or a compound word. In that case, μαλακό- is a somehow productive prefix probably comparable to "jerk-ass" (as you can guess, it's derived from the very useful word "μαλάκας".

I can never quite know which words don't glide their /i/s, although in the case of δύο I'm so used to gliding it that it feels weird when I don't.

There are blind spots in the spelling when it comes to glided /i/, since the plural noun suffix -ια doesn't receive a stress mark to make it clear, so you need to remember that this suffix is usually not glided (at least in the slightly conservative SMG that I am familiar with). Iin the δύο, the stress mark is over there, and at school we learn that there's supposedly a distinction between δύο (/ðio/) and (/ðjo/) but apparently that's bullshit, I can't find anything online. It's probably just a register thing¸ and in the encyclopaedic context here /ðio/ is expected but not required so you can ignore that one.
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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby Dormouse559 » 2013-12-10, 1:22

Quetzalcoatl wrote:http://vocaroo.com/i/s0nY1ljufvhp
Your accent sounds quite good. I'd just say that the final syllable of "mayonnaise" is /neɪz/. To me, it sounded like you said /niːz/.
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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby OldBoring » 2013-12-10, 15:31

Diamanto wrote:[flag=]zh[/flag]请给我一杯可乐

Not bad. But 给 and 杯 sound too "explosive", they sound slightly aspirated to me, they could be mistaken for kěi and pēi.

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby md0 » 2014-01-28, 22:10

So, that's a first attempt at Turkish, after a week or so. I'm completely aware how all-around horrible it sounds (I even gave up on trying to maintain prosody and read each word individually), but I need to make a first step at some point, I hope you can point out how to fix... everything.

somethingvaguelyturkish.mp3


[flag=]tr[/flag] Bütün insanlar hür, haysiyet ve haklar bakımından eşit doğarlar. Akıl ve vicdana sahiptirler ve birbirlerine karşı kardeşlik zihniyeti ile hareket etmelidirler.
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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby voron » 2014-01-28, 22:25

meidei: Cool, we need more Turkish recordings in here. :waytogo:

I wouldn't be the one to give tips as my own Turkish accent is far from perfect, but I'm wondering, what is it with your "r"s? Is it the way you pronounce them in Greek?

I uploaded my Turkish recording a while ago. Here is a new one. I think it sounds pretty Russian all around.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s037UflPYVrK

[flag=]tr[/flag] Türkiye'nin başkenti Ankara. Ankara'da büyük, modern bir şehirle bir banliyöyü her an iç içe, bir arada bulmak mümkündür. Geniş, uzun ana caddelerdeki yüksek binaların hemen arkasında küçük, sakin sokaklar ve bahçeli, alçak evlerle karşılaşılır. Atatürk Bulvarı kuzeyden güneye bütün şehri geçerek tepelerdeki eski ve yeni Ankara'yı birbirine bağlar. Bir ucunda Kale ve Ulus, öbür ucunda Çankaya.

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby md0 » 2014-01-28, 22:35

I have a speech defect there. I can't pronounce it as a trill [r], and it's very difficult to pronounce it as a tap [ɾ]. I did try, but I could feel that I was failing to pronounce [ɾ] as I was recording.
This was been something I'd be often be bullied for, because in Cypriot Greek, both [r] and [ɾ] are phonemic (similar to Spanish, pero-perro, you know), and in Standard Greek, [r] is an allophone of /ɾ/ in certain environments.
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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby voron » 2014-01-28, 23:03

meidei: How do you normally pronounce [r] in your casual speech?

And to hell with it, here is my Arabic recording :)

[flag=]ar[/flag] http://vocaroo.com/i/s15OVenBAJWB
بعد سفرة طويلة ومتعبة وصل القطار إلى المحطة الصعيرة
كان أهل زيد في انتظاره
كان هناك والده وأخوه مع أولاده
كان الفرح في قلوب الجميع
بعد السلامات يركب الجميع الباص

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby md0 » 2014-01-28, 23:44

meidei: How do you normally pronounce [r] in your casual speech?

I cannot be sure. It really varies, quite outside of my control.

Maybe someone can tell from my recording of some random CyG words

rwords.mp3


ara
arronno
prrepi
rembi
trrimman
revman


I figured out that the best way to find out how my natural /r/ sounds is to record a long enough text, so that I will stop over-pronouncing it.
So, I recorded some lines from my Cypriot translation of pages 1-2 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

I put [r] in bold, [ɾ] underlined.

[flag=]el-cy[/flag]

hpcyp1.mp3

Ο Χάρης ο Ππότερ τζιαι ο Φιλοσοφικός Λίθος

Της Τζιοάννας Κ. Ρόουλιγκ
Κεφάλαιον Πρώτον. Το κουπελλούιν πο σώθην

Ο Ντάρσλης τζιαι η γεναίκα του, πο μεινίσκαν εις το νούμερον τέσσερα στην οδόν Πριβέτ, εχουμίζουνταν συχνά ότι ήταν εντελώς νορμάλ αθρώποι, τίποτε παραπάνω τζιαι τίποτε παρκάτου. Ήταν τα τελευταία πλάσματα πο εφαντάζεσουν ότι εννά δεις πλεμένα σε κάτι παράξενον για μυστήριον, μόνον τζιαι μόνον επειδή οι ίδιοι έν επιστέφκαν ότι έσιει πο τ' αλήθκεια έτσι βλακείες.

Ο κύριος Ντάρσλης ήτον διευθυντής σ' έναν εργοστάσιον ονόματι «Γκράνιγξ», που έκαμνεν γεωτρύπανα. Ήτον άδρωπος ψηλός τζιαι πασιύς χωρίς τίποτε λαιμόν, αλλά 'χεν έναν μουστάτζιιν ννά. Η τζιυρά του ήτον ξαθθομάλλα τζιαι τέλεια λεπτή, τζι ο δικός της ο λαιμός ήταν διπλάσιος που τους κανονικούς, πράμαν βέβαια που την εβοήθαν, αφού τες πιο πολλές ώρες της εποσσιέπαζεν πάνω που τα σιμιντίρκα τζι επαρακολούθαν τους γειτόνους.
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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby languagepotato » 2014-01-29, 9:52

voron wrote:
And to hell with it, here is my Arabic recording :)

[flag=]ar[/flag] http://vocaroo.com/i/s15OVenBAJWB
بعد سفرة طويلة ومتعبة وصل القطار إلى المحطة الصعيرة
كان أهل زيد في انتظاره
كان هناك والده وأخوه مع أولاده
كان الفرح في قلوب الجميع
بعد السلامات يركب الجميع الباص



i'm really impressed, there are barely any tips i can give you, i think 3 at most
1. focus on your pharyngealised consonants (and the vowels that come after them), you pronounce some pharangealised consonants as non-pharangealised.
2. your ه in أهل, it sounded a little too much like a ح
3. your ع is a little too strong, i see you put a lot of effort in that sound.

but i'm really impressed. this is good, very good.
native: (ar-MA) (nl)
very comfortable: (en-US)
somewhat comfortable: (de) (es) (af)
forgetting: (fr) (ar-arb)
touristy level: (ro) (sv)(ber)(pl)
someday hopefully: (ja) (sq) (cs) (tr) and many others

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby voron » 2014-01-29, 10:40

Wow thanks! You just motivated me to go on studying Arabic, as I've been neglecting it recently.

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby languagepotato » 2014-02-05, 6:36

trying bulgarian (one of my tac languages):
Всички хора се раждат свободни и равни по достойнство и права. Tе са надарени с разум и съвест и следва да се отнасят помежду си в дух на братство

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0WhX99V6KRO


also trying turkish (just for fun, i'm not learning it)

Bütün insanlar hür, haysiyet ve haklar bakımından eşit doğarlar. Akıl ve vicdana sahiptirler ve birbirlerine karşı kardeşlik zihniyeti ile hareket etmelidirler.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0StSAv67FX7
native: (ar-MA) (nl)
very comfortable: (en-US)
somewhat comfortable: (de) (es) (af)
forgetting: (fr) (ar-arb)
touristy level: (ro) (sv)(ber)(pl)
someday hopefully: (ja) (sq) (cs) (tr) and many others

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby Levike » 2014-03-07, 14:06

I took a random text from BBC News so I could find out how I get by with unknown texts.
Please critisise me and pinpoint all my mistakes.
Your critique would really come in handy.


http://vocaroo.com/i/s178vwTtkvxD

Ukraine's interim prime minister has warned the Crimean parliament
"no-one in the civilised world" will recognise its referendum on joining Russia.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk and others in the Kiev government
have called the vote "unconstitutional" and "illegitimate".

But the referendum has the support of the Russian parliament.

The speaker of the upper house said if the Crimean people vote on 16 March to join Russia
then they would "unquestionably back this choice".

The decision by Crimean MPs to seek to join the Russian Federation comes amid international tensions over the presence of pro-Russian troops in the southern Ukrainian peninsula.

The Kremlin said, after a telephone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama, that differences remained in their approach and assessment of the crisis.

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby md0 » 2014-04-01, 2:07

Here's me attempting to approximate something that might sound like Standard Greek.
I think that pretty much every oth
Last edited by md0 on 2016-04-29, 13:53, edited 1 time in total.
"If you like your clause structure, you can keep your clause structure"
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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby loqu » 2014-04-01, 20:13

Here I go.

For each one of the languages I did two recordings: one speaking spontaneously, and one reading the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I tried to do the spontaneous bits as natural as I could, but I'm specially awful in the German one.

Spanish
Spontaneous recording in my dialect/accent.
Universal declaration of human rights in my (reading) accent.
UDHR in an attempt of a Castilian accent.

Catalan (Valencian)
Spontaneous
UDHR

English
Spontaneous
UDHR

German
Spontaneous
UDHR
Нека људи уживају у стварима.
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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby loqu » 2014-04-03, 14:02

Hey meidei, I have just heard your Cypriot recording of Harry Potter, is it me or Cypriots speak at a faster pace than Greeks? I got that impression.
Нека људи уживају у стварима.
Let people enjoy things.

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby OldBoring » 2014-04-03, 14:08

No, I think he was trying to speak Greek from Greece, not Cypriot. And yes, I also think he was speaking really fast!

I'm happy that this thread that I opened long time ago still gets many people interested, but unfortunately I can't open vocaroo most of the times, due to the slow connection. While neither Google Drive nor Dropbox are accessible in China...

I hate my own recorded voice as hell. Recently I've been sending voice recordings to my aunt through WeChat in my Qingtianese Wu, and when re-listeing to myself, even I couldn't understand myself! :shock: So I can't complain if my aunt said that she didn't understand and told me to repeat.

I realized that not only I mumble a lot, but de-voice a lot and aspirate a lot. And I sound completely different from how I think I speak. :shock:

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby md0 » 2014-04-03, 14:14

loqu wrote:Hey meidei, I have just heard your Cypriot recording of Harry Potter, is it me or Cypriots speak at a faster pace than Greeks? I got that impression.

You are comparing my old recording (Cypriot Greek) with my recent one (approximation of SMG)?
Well, I think it's expected I am faster in my native variant :)

No, I think he was trying to speak Greek from Greece, not Cypriot. And yes, I also think he was speaking really fast!

A couple of months I uploaded a Cypriot Greek recording, and it's not clear if he was comparing the two.
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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby loqu » 2014-04-03, 14:22

I wasn't comparing, I only listened to the Cypriot one :) and was comparing to other times I've seen people speaking in Greek. But I may have gotten a wrong impression though.

I can't hear the SMG one, the volume is too low :para:
Нека људи уживају у стварима.
Let people enjoy things.

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Re: How do you sound in the languages you know

Postby md0 » 2014-04-03, 14:32

I often can't follow people from Athens and the whereabouts because I find them speaking too fast.
So I think there isn't much objectivity into that.
"If you like your clause structure, you can keep your clause structure"
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