I (and most most English speaking Canadians) pronounce the 'o' in Monica as /ɔː/ (the same way I pronounce "paw" or "caught"), is that what you mean? I don't see an "o" in the IPA key.

I think we should have T-Shirts with the IPA for Maemo on them.

No, that was not really what I meant. I meant that both my suggestion /ma'æ:mo/ and qgil's /ma'ɛ:mo/ are basically the same (the one he uses in his address). We had the same sound in our heads when we wrote these, just with different 'interpretations' of the IPA (yes, they vary sometimes).

And about the way you pronounce 'Monica': really? The /ɔː/ sound usually refers to the way the British pronounce 'paw' and 'caught'. Compare the pronunciation in the link for the British pronunciation with the usual AmE pronunciation in this one (the website shows a similar IPA transcription but the sound is clearly different from the IPA symbols there). Try this for disambiguation, and to clarify what I meant in the beginning =). Maybe you meant /ɒ/?

Love the idea . We could even joke about this whole mess of different pronunciations. Put them all in the front of the shirt with question marks in each and the (hopefully) chosen mascot in the back with an official Maemo logo (which I believe is the one in the top (??) )

Bobbe:

Wonderful to have a language geek on the forums.

You're right; I'm wrong.

I don't know the IPA phonetic system, so I assumed North American pronunciation of of the example words (using the "C" dialect if I remember from my single phonetics class). So while it is correct that I pronounce the o in Monica in the same way that I pronounce the "aw" in paw and the "au" in "caught", the British version of "paw" is very different from my pronunciation. The pronounciation of "caught" is different too, but it doesn't sound like the same vowel sound as "paw".

So I don't know. Still no "o" symbol in the Wikipedia IPA table, though. Did you mean "ɔ"?

But it seems the Brits pronounce "Monica" much the same way as Canadians: harmonica ... With an "ɒ" sound!

So should Maemo be written:

/ma'ɛ:mɒ/

Thanks! I've been teaching English here in Brazil for the last few years, and this pronunciation issue is quite fun to watch. It's language 'erupting', in a way.

Which "o" are you trying to find a symbol for? The "o" in "harmonica" (which is /ɒ/) or the "o" in "Omen"? The "o" in Omen, in English, is always a diphtong, so you'll always find it as /oʊ / (or with a schwa, /əʊ/. (The schwa /ə/ is the weakest vowel in English, and it's kinda hard to explain the sound of that diphtong over there, but think of the sound of 'a' in 'about' together with a /ʊ/ sound.) The IPA for Japanese shows the 'o' sound in 'oniisan'. Is that what you were looking for?

Like I said, the /ɔ/ is generally not found outside British English (and/or Australian and NZ English, with some variations). So I probably meant /oʊ/ or /əʊ/ or /ɒ/ (like explained above)

That is the difference I found between Jesus' explanation of how he meant the word to be pronounced (exactly like you transcribed, considering that's how he would pronounce "Monica") and the way I heard it pronounced in qgil's address, /ma'ɛ:mo/ (or /ma'ɛ:məʊ/ as most English native speakers will almost definitely pronounce it).

(However, I couldn't find the word "maemo" in the other presentation he linked here, from Ari Jaaksi. If he could point it out I'd be grateful.)

And that's where the confusion still stands =)

As an American, I have been endowed with the god-given right to mispronounce any word, as I see fit. (Thanks W.!)

May-Moe it is!




(better late than never )

///EDIT:

did we ever get that recording of Jesus saying it?

lol

Americans are worse at it, true. Mispronouncing foreign words is a matter of patriotism for Uncle Sam, right alongside bizarre phenomena such as the Freedom Fries thing (sorry if I sound offensive, but that was just hilarious).

But English speakers as a whole will pronounce everything they see as it was written in English and be done with it. Right after that they will make fun of the Japanese when they try to say fly lice and say fried rice instead.

Lingua Franca privileges, I guess =)

"It's FRIED RICE, YOU PLICK!"

-Lethal Weapon 4

Because a classic never dies

The whole confusion over the british/american pronunciation of "Monica" could perhaps be disambiguated by referring to the way each side of the Atlantic pronounce the word "pot"....at least, that's what it sounds like to my ear.

3 syllables? Really? Mah-Eh-Mo....that will feel awkward for a while. I defaulted to the "encyclopaedia" 2 syllable Mee-Mow. What's the rythm for the 3 syllable version? Even beats, or more like "potato"?

The 2nd syllable is really deemphasized. You're probably better off just saying "my-moe".