Thread: Russian x Bulgarian

[quote=Platinum][quote=Spiderkat]

Originally Posted by Platinum

What do you mean he's wrong? In saying that they don't pronounce half the letters in a word? That's right, as far as I'm concerned. For example, the -eaux ending, that sounds like "oh".
And just count to ten:

...

Most of those have more than one useless letter. (not that english is any better, but anyway)

As you know almost all the words come from Latin or/and Greek and have a reason to have such spellings. Let me explain these you've mentioned above. But I agree some letters are silent, which by the way does not mean useless at all, and he quite exaggerated saying half the letters are not pronounced.
Here's some simple explanations.

un - the n is needed because it becomes une, also u+n creates a nasal sound and comes from unus in Latin
deux - the silent x is needed and pronounced for words made of it (deuxi

Originally Posted by TATY

No.

huit is not pronounce het. Firstly, H is silent in french.
It sounds more like уйт

six - the x is pronounce. Sounds like сис

Just wanted to say that the h is either mute or aspirated.

les hommes, h is mute and you pronounce "layzom"
les h

Originally Posted by TATY

You take people to litterally.
When I say "they don't pronounce half the letters", I don't actually mean half.

But there are lots of unpronounced letters (e.g. at the end of words).

Basically, I was saying, French isn't a phonetic language, so even though a French word may look like a Spanish word, a Spanish person may find it difficult to understand.

I agree, some of them are unpronounced (mute is the right term) but needed especially when comes the writing or reading part otherwise you wouldn't be able to understand the words.
Here's an example, "col" and "colle" are pronounced the same way but have two different meanings.

And I agree also, French isn't a phonetic language but once you know the rules of pronounciation and I would say 'you read what you see', which is not the case in English for example.

Originally Posted by TATY

huit is not pronounce het. Firstly, H is silent in french.
It sounds more like уйт

six - the x is pronounce. Sounds like сис

That's actually a pretty good idea, using Russian letters to show pronounciation. Not that we're trying to learn French here, but trying to use English letters to explain how a word is pronounced is pretty useless. Like I said, I think French is a weird language. BUt English is probably more insane.

Originally Posted by Platinum

Not that we're trying to learn French here

Aber ich!

So, kind of going back on topic here, I have a friend that is originally from Bulgaria. She doesn't know that I am learning Russian, but I really could benefit from working with someone that knows the language. If I remember right, I think she speaks Russian too, but am not absolutely certain.

I would like to learn from her (Bulgarian too, after my Russian skills have gotten up to par), but do not want to unintentionally insult her. It seems that I read somewhere that some people do get insulted over the subject (though I don't know why exactly). Is this the case? If so, how should I ask in order to not be offensive?

Originally Posted by Platinum

un (yeah, all letters are pronounced)
du (not like doo, but more like the first two letters of "done")
twa
katr (I've heard it with the "r" so lightly pronounced that it's barely there)
sank (all the letters are pronounced)
six (I don't know about that)
set
het
nef
dix (I don't know how to say that).

Anyway, this is not a French forum, so I'll shut up now.

In 'un', all the letters are not pronounce, more like "uh" but nasalized. If you raise your tongue to the back of the mouth so air can't pass through, you can make the proper sound.
'Deux' is not pronounced as the first two letters "done". I'm not sure how to write it linguistically yet. If you say "uh" again and then round the mouth, you'll make the sound. (Technique I learned in linguistics to pronounce sounds )
In 'quatre' the "r" is pronounced, though not in the way it is in Russian. It's a rolling of the "r" in the back of the throat.
In 'six' the "x" is pronounced the same as the "s". sees (not the English "sees" though) Using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) it would be "sis". "i" is pronouced "ee". Same with 'dix'.

Huit is not pronounced "het". It's pronounced more like "wheat".
Neuf is pronounced with the 'eu' sound in 'deux'.

Why are you discussing a language you know nothing about?

Here is a link with all the number pronunciations. http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl_numbers.htm

Italian and Spanish are more alike. Spanish cannot be understood if you know French. I have been studying French for 6 years and when I was in Miami in a hotel, I couldn't understand the cleaning lady. Although another girl who claims she knows French (which I doubt) said she could understand it (which I also doubt).

Portugese is similar to Spanish. If you know Portugese, it's easier to understand Spanish than the other way around. If you know Spanish, you can understand Portugese, but it's a little harder. I know this because my friend's father, who's fluent in Spanish because he's from Panama went to Portugese one time and told me he could understand them, but needed them to speak slowly so he could understand. To conduct business, he spoke Spanish and they spoke Portugese. So it's obviously possible.

I took 4 years of Spanish in high school.

4 years later after college I had to take a reading exam in French. Just a little brush up over the summer with Palmeri & Milligan French for Reading Knowledge and I was able to pass the exam.

Jeez, I just pulled that book down off the shelf. The last time I read it was 40 years ago. omigod. Time to take a load to the used book store.

Chaika-

It's one thing to read. It's another thing when you hear the words in conversation. It's a lot more difficult to understand. Reading comprehension is always higher than conversational comprehension. Speaking is also the last that falls into place when learning a language.

Exactly. Just need to learn the alphabet and the rules of pronunciation and you can read what's written in a lot of different languages. But what's the purpose of taking a reading exam if you don't undertand what your read?

Originally Posted by MalenkayaKatinka

Why are you discussing a language you know nothing about? p

Because it's fun. And because I CAN!