Posted: Apr 30, 2015 12:59 pm
igorfrankensteen wrote:Observation, not intended as antagonism: most of these aren't exactly words that foreigners CAN'T pronounce correctly.
Some require the generation of sounds or phonemes that are not in the lexicon of the non-native speaker.
This usually means the person in question cannot pronounce it proprerly.
igorfrankensteen wrote:Others are unlikely to be pronounced correctly if the speaker is trying to read them out, without hearing a native say them first.
The examples I gave; schuddebuikjes en Scheveningen, still often can't be pronounced properly by many non-Dutch speakers, even if a Dutch person tells them the correct pronounciation.
igorfrankensteen wrote: My favorites along these lines, are words with what might be called "idiomatic pronunciations." That is, words which one just has to learn through living in the local dialects, how to say out loud, in spite of the fact that there aren't even any hints in the printed version as to how to say them. Words with silent letters come to mind first, but I have seen a few words (none of which I can recall now) whose printed spelling bear no relation at all to their pronunciation.
Good point.