Russian Speech Pattern Assistance requested (John Semlak or other)?

[Tsyr]

Ya know, I've heard various things about Esperanto, but never anything decently concrete. Was it some language that was made up in the recent past? What was it supposed to be like?

It sounds spoken kinda like a spanish/latin language. I hate it with a firey passion on many different levels.

If you want to see some examples or try to learn it, go to: http://www.lernu.net/

 

[Desdichado]

I pity anyone learning English as a second language -- it's such an irrationally constructed, irregular language that it's tough to get right (though I understand there are a few languages out there that are worse) -- which embarrases me to no end when I meet Germans whose English is far better than my German (or for that matter, my English!).

Shame we don't all just switch to Esperanto.

Having studied three or four languages; some in quite a bit of detail, I think this is just a myth and is complete hogwash. English is no more or less hard in terms of irregularities than any other language I've looked at. Where English has a complication relative to another language, invariably there's also a massive simplification in English relative to that language.

And I have no interest whatsoever in Esperanto.

 

[johnsemlak]

Having studied three or four languages; some in quite a bit of detail, I think this is just a myth and is complete hogwash. English is no more or less hard in terms of irregularities than any other language I've looked at. Where English has a complication relative to another language, invariably there's also a massive simplification in English relative to that language.

agreed

English has a number of advantages over many langauges actually (e.g. no grammatical gender (i.e. female books, male tables), no cases (as in Latin, Russian, German). Many people complain of English spelling inconsistancy, but really, it's nothing compared to some languages (ones with no alphabet for example)

 

[the Jester]

Esperanto

Oh come on!

At the very least, you should all see the movie Incubus. It's an old film entirely in Esperanto...

...starring WILLIAM SHATNER!! Available from Netflicks...

 

[johnsemlak]

A few other pronunciation issues...

• The russian 'v' is very weak, almost a 'w'. so 'WODka' (the stress of vodka is also on the first syllable)
• 'r' is rolled, somewhat similar to the spanish are but not quite as strong.
• the letter 'o' is pronounced closer to the 'ow' in Bow (and arrow).
• The letter 'h' tends to be pronounced (and spelled) with a 'g' For examle, gamburger, gitler,
• The letter combination 'kh' as in khrushchev is actually a Russion letter that looks like 'X" and is pronounced somewhat like the English letter 'h'.
• There is now sound exactly like the 'i' in 'pit'. If you see the letter i in a Russian word, it's probably pronounced 'ee'.
• the letter 'u' is usually pronounced 'oo' as in boot. If a work begines in 'u', it does not have a 'y' sound at the beginning. E.g. the russian word for university, 'universitet', is pronounced 'ooneeverseeTET"
  

Oh, and another good movie withsome Russians speaking English is The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming. It doesn't have too many Russian actors but the Russian accents are pretty good.

 

[Aaron L]

So, Walter Koenig does it well then?

 

[Henry]

So, Walter Koenig does it well then?

I'm reading John's list and thinking the exact same thing.

 

[johnsemlak]

So, Walter Koenig does it well then?

Good question

I'd have to listen to him more to day. I think he had a good one in Star Trek IV when he went around asking where the Nuclear Vessals are.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

Also, make sure the character references at least 4-5 women by the name of Katya (pronounced like "cot" as in a really bad bed and "cha" as in the cha-cha but a little softer).

It seems like every other girl that I've met from Ukraine or any of the other Former Soviet States is named Katya.

 

[Aaron L]

Excuse me, could you direct me to de nuclear wessels?

Wessels, nuclear wessels.