Thread: Pronunciation of -ете (at end of вы verbs)

Originally Posted by scotcher

For all its problems, I still think for a complete beginner 'zna-yet-ye' is the most useful (or least potentially misleading) approximation of the pronunciation.

I agree. It's hard to tell how advanced the OP is, though.

Originally Posted by scotcher

For all its problems, I still think for a complete beginner 'zna-yet-ye' is the most useful (or least potentially misleading) approximation of the pronunciation.

I disagree. Even a beginner should not be bound to the patterns of his native language 'for the sake of simplicity', or he ends up with something like

1-One (pronounced o-ne)
2-Tsuwo
3-Fuee
4-Fuuru
5-Fube
6-Shiku
7-Sebenu
8-Eigufutsu
9-Nine (pronounces ni-ne)
10-Tenu

Originally Posted by vox05

Originally Posted by scotcher

For all its problems, I still think for a complete beginner 'zna-yet-ye' is the most useful (or least potentially misleading) approximation of the pronunciation.

I disagree. Even a beginner should not be bound to the patterns of his native language 'for the sake of simplicity',

[/quote]

That's not what we're saying. Obviously, a beginner should try to pronounce the words as closely as possible to native speech, however, the vast majority won't be able to, so it's a question of managing the deficiency for the sake of being understood. Recommending that a beginner articulate the individual sounds of a word in a way that might sound unnatural to native speakers is sometimes the quickest and best way of teaching that student to speak intelligibly.

It's a little funny when the native speakers are debating over whether it should be 'zna-it-i' or 'zna-it-e', when the typical beginner is going to pronounce either one as знайты.

Originally Posted by Matroskin Kot

Recommending that a beginner articulate the individual sounds of a word in a way that might sound unnatural to native speakers is sometimes the quickest and best way of teaching that student to speak intelligibly.

It's borderline to pronouncing 'th' like in 'rathole'. Articulating.

It's a little funny when the native speakers are debating over whether it should be 'zna-it-i' or 'zna-it-e', when the typical beginner is going to pronounce either one as знайты.

I guess it may vary for the beginners over the rest of the world. And if they have no speaking sample and reluctant to learn IPA - ... ?

Originally Posted by vox05

It's borderline to pronouncing 'th' like in 'rathole'. Articulating.

It is? Will all due respect, that's not articulating, that's just pronouncing it wrong. Over-articulating a word would be to pronounce 'rathole' with a strongly audible 'h'. A bit stilted and unnatural sounding, but completely understandable, and a much better choice than trying to sound like a fluent native when your tongue is not capable of making the correct sounds, and having it come out sounding like 'rattle'.