User talk:Gwaza

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Latest comment: 2 years ago by Gwaza in topic Pronunciation of Sotho
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Pronunciation of Sotho[edit]

Hello, I noticed you changed the pronunciation section of Sotho a few months ago. I am doubtful of that pronunciation in English because although it more closely matches the Sesotho pronunciation, I have not heard it pronounced that way in English. Also, English does not have /ʊː/ nor /tʰ/ as phonemes, so it should be changed to a phonetic transcription if it really should be transcribed that way. Do you have any examples of English speakers pronouncing it the way you transcribe? If so, it should be added in addition to /ˈsutu/ and /ˈsoʊtoʊ/, not replacing them, since those pronunciations are certainly attested. --Smashhoof (Talk · Contributions) 20:31, 6 October 2021 (UTC)Reply

Hello, my opinion is that the way it may or may not be pronounced in British or American Standard English is irrelevant, one should just put the endogenous pronunciation in phonemic transcription and call it a day, letting people pronounce that in whatever dialect of English they may have. In South Africa and Lesotho absolutely no one would say /ˈsoʊtoʊ/, regardless of their language background, as that is just a read pronunciation by people who are unfamiliar, as it is according to English orthographic conventions – you might as well put in an interdental fricative for ‹th› if you're going to do that, as I've heard many foreigners say when reading the word.

I say we just leave out all English pronunciations because there will literally be dozens depending on your dialect of standard English.

Does English Wikipedia means General American English Wikipedia or Standard British English Wikipedia?

As far as I understand, it does not.

Let's leave out foreign pronunciations of "Sotho", I say. Just list it in the endogenous way. Gwaza (talk) 22:31, 7 October 2021 (UTC)Reply

Oh, I'm sorry, I just saw that this was on the Wiktionary entry. I thought it was on a Wikipedia page.

I see that it's listed under "English".

That was my error – I thought it was under Sesotho.

/'sutu/ would be the one there. Not /ˈsoʊtoʊ/

It was just so jarring for me to see it written like that I obviously had a reaction.

In South Africa most everyone pronounces it in Sesotho... Gwaza (talk) 22:38, 7 October 2021 (UTC)Reply

I have changed it back to what it was but I've not put /ˈsoʊtoʊ/ as I really don't think that should be there, as it's a foreign pronunciation.

Excuse me I really just did make a mistake, I thought it was the Sesotho entry I was looking at. Gwaza (talk) 22:43, 7 October 2021 (UTC)Reply