0139 – Pronouncing Foreign Words

0139 – Pronouncing Foreign Words Foreign namesForeign names can be quite awkward to come across, but with the increasingly global village, they are much more likely to appear. A produced commercial script should have been past so many people to sign it off, that a pronunciation is supplied. If it’s not, perhaps in the case of a news story, a call to native speaker of that language (or maybe the country’s embassy or consulate) might be helpful. Alternatively, there may be some occasions where you can omit the name of a foreign dignitary and use their title only. As the last resort, if you are not sure, take a deep breath, say the word confidently as well as you can and carry on. If it really is unusual, the listener probably knows no better. Of course, the question could be asked, why you had not spotted the name before going to the studio! Take the first chance you get to check it out. A basic although not infallible rule of thumb (certainly before you have a chance to get a definitive guide) is to Anglicise a pronunciation: say it with your accent rather than that of a native speaker. Therefore, it is ‘PA-riss’, rather than as a French woman might say, ‘per-REE’. Sweden is not ‘SHVAY-d’n’ and so on. Watch out for the classic pitfalls of Tanzania (‘tan-zn-EAR’ – not ‘tan-ZAY-nia’, to rhyme with ‘Albania’), and Arkansas (‘AR-kn-sor’ – not ‘ar-KAN-sas’, as in, well, ‘Kansas’).[1] Having said that (I said it was only a rule of thumb!) many foreign words have entered the English language, some of which we do say how a native might. We pronounce ‘parfait’, ‘par-fay’ whereas an Anglicised version might actually make sense as ‘par-fayt’. (Well, George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying the UK and US were “two counties divided by a common language”…) Or there could be ‘local’ pronunciations from different countries which might confuse you: Football manager Jose Mourinho’s first name is pronounced the Portuguese way (‘josay’), not as many thought when he first came to prominence, as the Spanish do (‘hosay’). [1] CAUTION ADVISED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNKn5ykP9PU ==Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2021.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Hosted on Acast. 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