# Pronunciation Guides



## JMMX

Hey all -

Thanks for great job on this site. It has been invaluable to me. 

I would like to suggest that you set up pronunciation guides to the various languages. (esp to Polish! - lol) To begin with, simple charts would help. But perhaps some of the native speakers could chip in to add audio files.

Then each language page could have a link to the appropriate guide.

Regrds


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## mkellogg

Hi,

Let me see what I can do. 

Mike


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## JMMX

mkellogg said:


> Hi,
> 
> Let me see what I can do.
> 
> Mike



COOL!

If you can get something going, then I will see about scaring up some reference links on grammar for each of the languages. 

(I am still waiting for yo to get hungarian  )


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## ajo fresco

It seems this is not a new suggestion. 
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=14

I, too, like the idea of having pronunciation guides and audio files (if it's not too much trouble). 

Since there are already a couple of pronunciation threads on the Resources/Recursos page, maybe that would be the place to put any additional reference links.

Thanks


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## JMMX

ajo fresco said:


> It seems this is not a new suggestion.
> http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=14
> 
> I, too, like the idea of having pronunciation guides and audio files (if it's not too much trouble).
> 
> Since there are already a couple of pronunciation threads on the Resources/Recursos page, maybe that would be the place to put any additional reference links.
> 
> Thanks



NO - I think these links do NOT belong in the forums. Rather they belong on pages with links at the top of each dictionary entry, ala _conjugator_ links. These pages should be devoted to a systematic approach to pronunciation, and basic grammar guides.

(Unless I misunderstand what is meant by Resources pages.)


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## Hutschi

The idea is that native speakers could create audio files and that they can be added to the forum somehow, may be under a kind of GNU-FDL licence. 

It is *very* difficult to declare the difference, for example, of the German sounds "e", "ö" and "o" in written form. It is much more easy to speak them. It would be even better with a short video but I'm afraid, this takes too much capacity.

Would it be possible, for example, to create short videos in YOUTUBE or mp3 files at other places and link them to the forum?

Best regards
Bernd


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## sokol

I like your suggestion, Hutschi, but I am not quite sure about YouTube (concerning copyright issues).

I've dug out some decent resources with audio files, suggested for now as resources for "Other languages":
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?p=6110810#post6110810
(They hopefully will be added to the resources thread.)

Especially great are the two sites founded by the phonetician Peter Ladefoged:
http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/index/sounds.html
http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/
Copyright lies of course with the respective sites.
If the source is given with each link to a sound sample file I think that no copyright violation is committed.


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## TrentinaNE

Folks might want to review the last two posts in this thread. Mine, #14, was written when I was still a moderator. Though I no longer moderate, I do still hold the opinion that WRF should focus on what it does well and not try to be all things to all people. 

Elisabetta


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## JMMX

TrentinaNE said:


> Folks might want to review the last two posts in this thread. Mine, #14, was written when I was still a moderator. Though I no longer moderate, I do still hold the opinion that WRF should focus on what it does well and not try to be all things to all people.
> 
> Elisabetta





TrentinaNE said:


> ... I do still hold the opinion that WRF should focus on what it does well and not try to be all things to all people.
> 
> Elisabetta



I agree with you to a point. I do think that song translations are a bit far off the purpose of the site. Pronunciation guides, on the other hand, whether simply textual or in audio/video formats, are definitely within the scope of dictionaries. Grammar guides are a little further afield, but still within the general scope. (IMHO) After all, the conjugators are grammatical guides.

Personally, I think it would be very cool to have not only pronunciation guides, and an introduction grammar, but also a _beginners guide_ to the various languages. Perhaps they could all follow one framework: first greetings, then social exchanges, intro to simple sentences, travelers phrases...


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