How in the Heck Do You Pronounce This Word?

Ayo!

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.

How in the world do you pronounce this word? Here is a video of me trying it out. Give me some tips on how you think it should be pronounced, or try it yourself!




Oh, and here is a bonus video of me testing out the hardest tongue-twister in the English language.

Internet Spanish Lessons

You can find anything on the internet, as every single one of you already knew and I am just discovering (So what? I'm a little behind! Give a girl a break!). However, did you know that you can even find free Spanish lessons? That's right, no need to buy any of those expensive CDs (if you are a beginner that is). You can discover just about everything you need on YouTube.

They wouldn't let me embed the code, but here is the link for a lesson que mi daba mucha risa. It's romance vocabulary for beginners! For those moments when you find yourself at a tapas bar in Madrid, or a coffee shop in Buenos Aires and that über-hot chico walks over to you and says "Tienes los ojos más lindos que he visto." Then, you discover that he's a multi-millionaire with a private jet waiting to take you all over the world. Only one problem: El chico guapísimo no habla inglés! (You hottie doesn't speak English). What!!? Was that only my fantasy? Alright... I'll stop.

Here are some more romantic things to whisper into your amor's ear. It works even if they are of the non-Spanish speaking variety. It's just that pretty...

Romantic Spanish Phrases
Spanish	English
¿Tienes novia(o)?	Do you have a girlfriend (boyfriend)?
¿Estás soltera(o)?	Are you single?
He estado pensando en ti.	I've been thinking about you.
Pienso en ti todo el tiempo.	I think about you all the time.
Sólo puedo pensar en ti.	I can only think of you.
Desde que te conocí no hago nada más que pensar en ti.	Since I met you I do nothing else except think of you.
Soy muy afortunado(a) de conocerte.	I'm very fortunate to know you.
Eres muy linda(o).	You are very pretty / lovely.
¡Qué linda(o)!	How pretty / lovely you are!
Eres muy sexy.	You're very sexy.
Me gustas (mucho).	I like you (a lot).
Me haces (mucha) falta.	I miss you (a lot).
Te extraño (mucho).	I miss you (a lot).
Me vuelves loco(a).	You drive me crazy.
Estoy loco(a) por ti.	I'm crazy for you.
Te adoro.	I adore you.
Te deseo.	I want / desire you.
Eres divina(o).	You are divine.
Eres espectacular.	You are spectacular.
Tienes los ojos más bonitos del mundo.	You have the prettiest eyes in the world.
Tienes una sonrisa muy hermosa.	You have a very beautiful / lovely smile.
Eres la persona más maravillosa del mundo.	You are the most wonderful person in the world.
Me encanta saber que estás conmigo.	I love to know that you're with me.
Tu ternura me encanta.	I love your tenderness / softness.
Cada hora que paso contigo me parece un segundo.	Each hour that passes with you seems like a second.
Una sonrisa tuya me hace inmensamente feliz.	A smile of yours makes me immensely happy.
No puedo esperar a verte.	I can't wait to see you.
Mamacita rica	A very pretty (and hot) girl
Papacito rico	A very handsome (and hot) guy
Mi princesa	My princess
Mi príncipe	My prince
Mi tesoro	My treasure
Mi cielo	My heaven
Corazón	Sweetheart
Cariño	Honey / Dear
Nena	Babe (girl)
Nene	Babe (guy)
Besos	Kisses
Abrazos	Hugs

Some help on pronunciation can be found here. Suerte!!!

Tongue-Twisters

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis

On Twitter* I follow germanlanguage, which is an extension of German Words of the Day. Each day, a new German word is posted with its English translation. Occasionally, links to their blog entries will be posted. A few weeks ago, a link to Zungenbrecher, anyone? was posted, and being the curious person I am, I had to read it. Zungenbrecher is a German word meaning tongue-twister, though literally translated it means tongue breaker (which is an interesting spin on the concept, I think). As I was reading the entry, I found a version of the tongue-twister we recited in the Ausspracheübungen (pronunciation practice) class I took while studying in Germany. My interest was piqued and the idea for this post was born.

To be quite honest, up until this point, I have never been much of a fan of tongue-twisters. My writing has always been far better than my speaking skills - and it shows - so I have never felt it necessary to throw tongue-twisters into the mix. I can twist my tongue on my own, thanks. But the more I searched the Internet for information about tongue-twisters, the more I came across non-native speakers using tongue-twisters to learn pronunciation of their target language. A couple things clicked in my brain at this point. 1) It explained why my Ausspracheübungen teacher had us recite a Zungenbrecher. And it was not, as previously believed, to make things as difficult for us as possible. And 2) as a future ESL teacher, I was curious as to whether using tongue-twisters as an aid to teach pronunciation actually works. This question was never really answered, so I pose the two-part question now to anyone who is an ESL (or EFL or whatever) teacher: Do you use tongue-twisters to help with pronunciations? If yes, do you think it works?

One thing I wanted to find out was what makes a tongue-twister a tongue-twister? Besides the obvious "It's really hard to pronounce this danged thing!" of course. An important feature of tongue-twisters is the alternation of similar sounds within a phrase. Take the Pearls Before Swine comic for example: the sounds /s/ and /sh/ are used in "She sells seashells by the seashore." Said quickly, it is easy to mix up the sounds. Tongue-twisters can also consist of rhymes and alliteration. "Say that three times fast!" is a common statement used when a phrase is difficult to pronounce and these difficult phrases are often tongue-twisters.

Did you know they also have naughty tongue-twisters? There are some twisters out there specifically designed so that a mispronunciation or mistake will result in a swear word or something of that sort. Take a moment to ponder the phrase "Pheasant plucker" and how it could be messed up.

Now onto the tongue-twisters!


Three English Tongue-Twisters

--->She sells seashells by the seashore

--->Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

--->The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick (this is supposedly the hardest tongue-twister in English - what do you think?)
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A German Zungenbrecher



The above tongue-twister is the one I recited in my Ausspracheübungen class. It basically means: Fisher's Fritz fishes for fresh fish, for fresh fish fishes Fisher's Fritz.
For more Zungenbrecher check out Zungenbrecher, anyone? They have a couple other German tongue-twisters, as well as a fun video from a German game show of a man reciting a bunch of tongue-twisters in one minute.
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Dos Trabalenguas in Spanish

Thanks to CancunCanuck for suggesting:
--->Yo vi en un huerto un cuervo cruento comerse el cuero del cuerpo del puerco muerto.
(I saw in an orchard a bloody crow eating the hide of a dead pig's corpse)

Both Sara and CancunCanuck suggested versions of:
--->Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal en tres tristes trastos.
(Three sad tigers swallowed wheat on three sad platters)
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What are other tongue-twisters? Which is your favorite? Which never fails to trip you up? Please share! And you can also click here for a list of tongue-twisters.


*Don't know what Twitter is? Twitter is an awesome social networking tool which allows you 140 characters to answer the question: What are you doing? In addition to me, Sara, Tasha and even CancunCanuck are all on Twitter! Kyle is too, but he doesn't update his, so he doesn't get a link (sorry Kyle). Check us out, say hi, and don't worry, we're friendly. :)

Word Buzz Friday

The word of the day is Onomatopoeia! Most of you language nerds know what onomatopoeia means, I'm sure. It is a long word that simply means the word you are saying says it's own name. I'm sure you learned about this in grades school right as your teacher asked you to write down the sounds that your favorite animals make. Now, onomatopoeia is not limited to just animal sounds. Other sounds as well, like pop,bang, boom, snap, even crackle fit nicely into the onomatopoeia family.

However, for today's word buzz we are going to focus mainly on sounds that animals make in different languages.

Bird- English tweet-tweet Spanish pío German Piep Piep

Cat- English meow Spanish miau German miau

Dog- English woof Spanish guau German wau-wau

Rooster- English cock-a-doodle-doo Spanish kikiriki German kikiriki

Notice how the German and the Spanish are more similar than the English? Why do you think that is? What other animal sounds can you think of in any of the countries you've visited or languages you've learned? Or, simply what are your favorite onomatopoeia words? (You can also vote in our new poll on the left hand side!)

Comic #2: Barcelona

Click to make it larger:




This has a little backstory to it: I tend to travel alone and without many plans, so when I was in Barcelona and noticed some lost Japanese tourists trying in vain to understand what a man was trying to say to them in Catalan, I used my rusty Japanese skills to try to help, since I understood mostly what he was trying to say (about the cable car being closed). They were just so shocked that I spoke Japanese and grateful for my help that I ended up staying with them most of the day and really speaking only Japanese - except when we ordered food. I certainly never thought my Asian language skills would be useful in Europe, but I guess that's what makes languages worth learning - they can help you meet people and go places you never would otherwise.

Buffalo buffalo

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

The above is a true sentence. Created in 1972 by William J. Rapaport, it is an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated sentences.

I came across this special sentence while browsing the internet with my twin sister a couple years ago. Since then, it has always captivated me.

So, what does this sentence mean? Can you figure it out?

Click here for the answer.

For all you Spanish speakers out there, here is a similar sentence:

¿Cómo como? Como como como.

There are more interesting sentences in many different languages at the above source.

Enjoy!

Poll Number 2 Results!

Hello everyone!

The results of our second poll are in!

Below are the responses to the poll question (which lanaguge family contains the hardest to learn langauges):

Five voters chose Afro-Asiatic.

One voter chose Japonic.

Two voters chose Other.

So, how did you vote?

I chose Afro-Asiatic. I have found that languages in the Berber, Egyptian, Chadic and Cushitic branches of this family have been the hardest for me to wrap my head around. Some of these languages have no vowel or arbitrary vowel sounds, so words can be pronounced many different ways. This makes pronunciation and understanding very difficult! Afro-Asiatic languages are also some of the least taught languages in Western schools, which makes contact with these languages very difficult. Huasa, found in the Chadic language branch, has tones, which also complicates things for me.

I also chose Afro-Asiatic because I have found that Indo-European languages are generally easy to learn, followed by Japonic (although I do get tripped up by characters).

So, to all of you who voted, please tell me which language group you chose and why! And if you put "other" please describe the language family you chose.

Thanks!