My [a:], let me show you it

[pne]

n_true pointed me to Forvo, where you can listen to recordings of words in many languages or record your own, and I've been recording a bunch of German words.

(I wonder who requested those words... many of them look as if they came from a political text or something.)

After each recording, it's played back to you so you can choose whether to stick with it or try again, and I've found that my long /a:/ phoneme sounds different than the sound I thought I make :) Somehow more... back and rounded or something.

My short /a/ sounds as I expect, though, even though I read that in German, the two phonemes differ only in quantity, not in quality. (Unlike the other short-long vowel pairs, which differ in both.)

Comments

[nitaq.livejournal.com]

Just had some fun with the Klingon, Welsh and Japanese on that page. :)
I think I've recorded be'Hom.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! Even though they warn you only to record in your native language!

(I've considered doing Klingon, too, but I don't think I'd try Japanese.)

[nitaq.livejournal.com]

Don't worry. I didn't record anything in Japanese, but I tried to guess some words before playing them. With my limited vocabulary it's still quite exciting when I recognize a word.

[schnurble.livejournal.com]

I wonder who should record Klingon then...

[pne.livejournal.com]

Alec Speers?

You're right, though, the list of people who are "qualified" is extremely small (or possibly empty).

Similarly with Ancient Greek, and *maybe* with Sanskrit (I've heard rumours of a village in India where people have revived Sanskrit, though I don't know whether it's the children's native language or whether they merely learn it at school and only speak it later in life).

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

"even though I read that in German, the two phonemes differ only in quantity, not in quality."

I've read the same but find it hard to believe it, at least in my pronunciation.