Ask Lemmy

Cater to the audience. Being understood is more useful than being right.

I attempt to change to the pronunciation of the original language of that word

Whichever way I learned it first.

Generally, if I know there is a common loan word, then I say it in the language I am speaking (burrito is close enough for example), otherwise I try to say it in the native language and native intonation (quesadilla = kesadi-ya). I generally try to see what will be the most understanding.

With people's names I will try to default to their native version, but once I know them for a while I'll get if they seem to prefer the English or imported version. I'll start with O-ka-mu-ra for example with proper Japanese intonation and cadence, but if they like the bouncy American style of pronunciation Oke-a-moo-rah better then I'll use that. A 2nd generation Japanese-American for instance might be more familiar with the latter. Conversely, a name like George/Jorge, I'll say George in other languages but if they like Joーji (Japanese) or Hor-hey (Spanish) better I'll move to that regardless of what language I'm speaking.

Depends on the language being used and who I'm talking to

I’m a native English speaker living in Germany and if I’m speaking German, every word is coming out with a German accent. It makes Germans cringe, but if I switch back and forth, I completely lose my accent. That means that I pronounce, for example, Microsoft while speaking German with a long i, a trilled r, and a voiced s.

You use the one of the language you're currently speaking, of course.

I'm French and get mocked for saying sweatshirt instead of sweetshirt (as French do)... It's a real conundrum.

Honestly it's mostly unconscious for me, the brain just does it's thing sometimes.

I use the language that I think my interlocutor would prefer. If I don't know, then I default to the language of the social context, unless I specifically want to practise a language at that moment. If I want to practise, then I ask first.

Of the language I am using. Trying to fit in correct pronunciation sounds weird.

Fun fact, just this week I realized that "hemendex" is literally "ham and eggs" together when I've seen it written on a menu as "hamandeggs". I am fucking dumb.

But hey, there's also jomaha, jomaso (You're my heart, You're my soul): https://youtu.be/snm_GTD9-Q8?t=25

The slavic lossy compression of English.

By how well known the word is by the people I speak to. English is usually not an issue. Germans speak english quite well. Languages' Common phrases like yes, no, thank you are also often known. So I pronounce these as a native speaker would.

When ordering food? It's a fine line when I don't speak the language myself. I.E. ordering spanish couisine but not knowing spanish. I try not to butcher the pronunciation, but trying to lean into it would feel pretentious and awkward to me.

It depends.

Let's say I'm trying to ask an acquaintance their phone number so I can add them on WhatsApp or Signal. Honestly it's kind of ridiculous to use the proper pronunciation of Whatsapp im Brazil, so I use the popular way (it's something like "oah-tchi-zap").

Unless I'm actually speaking with someone in their mother language I just default to the Brazilian version of the name. Otherwise I will try and match their pronunciation - it's nice to train and also I think it's polite.

I’ll pronounce Spanish words in an American accent, but using Spanish pronunciation. For example, if I say “I would love a quesadilla, but I don’t have any queso or tortillas.” I’ll pronounce the “que” as “kay” instead of “kway” and the “illa” as “eeya” instead of “ila”, but in an American accent. The exception being if I’m pronouncing a place name, then I’ll pronounce it with English pronunciation. Like “Los Angeles”, I pronounce as “loss anjiless”.

Depends on how good I actually am at pronouncing the original version, how different the original version is from the current language and if I assume that my conversation partner is going to understand it. Also, I tend to have trouble with switching accents quickly. On the other hand, figuring out how to correctly butcher a pronounciation isn't that easy if you're not a native speaker of the butchering language.

I'm a native German living in Germany, English is generally fine, i.e. most Germans know English well enough that they aren't going to be confused by a correct English pronounciation and my pronounciation isn't that bad by German standards. Other languages can get dicey, though. TBH I tend to avoid pronouncing words that are neither German nor English and are hard to understand if you don't know much about the language - e.g. "burrito" isn't so different that Germans wouldn't understand the Spanish pronounciation, but many French words are not very obvious if you don't know French well, plus my pronounciation could be bad enough that it would even throw off native French speakers.

If I was in an anglophone country ordering German food, I'd probably pick the German pronounciation, because I'm not that good at guessing how anglophones in a specific area pronounce German words, and who knows how that would even come out if I try that with my German-accented English. But I'd expect that most of the servers don't know any German and have trouble understanding me. I'd probably just say the numbers if it's a numbered menu.

I say burrito the American-English way because it's also a word in English. But if I say "arepa" I say it the way it's pronounced in Spanish.

This trend of pronouncing it the way I first heard extends to dialects, too: Words that I first learned in an Argentine context I tend to pronounce in the Argentine way (eg. the letter elle makes a "zh" or "ĵ" sound) versus the rest of my Spanish which is more (central) Mexican.

I have often irritated or confused acquaintances when using famous quotations or phrases from Latin, which I pronounce in a Classical, rather than Italianate manner (eg. hard Cs and soft Vs).

It's kind hard to write clearly in print about how we pronounce things, huh?

It depends. "Burrito" is commonly used in English so it would be a bit silly to trill the 'rr'. For words that aren't as common in English it's more likely to be the Spanish pronunciation. Place names generally too.

I'm Chinese-American. Primary language is English, I don't speak Cantonese very well, and I don't really speak Mandarin (but both are based on the same language system so its not that hard to convert from Cantonese). If I were to go to a Chinese restaurant, I'm gonna speak, in this order: Cantonese, then its Mandarin, then English, but most of the staff probably speaks Cantonese. I'm not gonna be like "I want a 燒賣, thank you", like... that sounds so out of place lmfao, just speak the whole thing in the same language.

If pronunciation i would pronounce in the original language the word come from, in the accent of the language i most fluent with.

If I'm talking english and I have to say a word in spanish, I say it as it is.

bu-rri-to

Trilingual. I generally use the accent of the language I'm speaking, or I purposefully pronounce it as horribly as I can because idgaf