Liusu
I have a question about native English-Speakers.

I wonder if a native speaker of English knows right away how to pronounce a word or some name even when they never saw them before.

Are you able to pronounce someone's name and some unusual words just by looking at what letters they consist of(or by experience)?

For example,Schwardz(a name),Sivan, aphasia and so on.


2016년 4월 1일 오전 10:55
댓글 · 3
Depends on the persons education, intelligence, size of their vocabulary etc. For a new word many people can guess pronunciation. Meaning can sometimes be guessed.
2016년 4월 1일

Yes, we can make a good guess at a word's pronunciation. However, in some cases the word may get anglicised.


For example, Schwarz is a German name. Sometimes we add the "t" (Schwartz) to remind us of the original German pronunciation. However, the original vowel sound in German is "ah", whereas we'd pronounce it (= anglicise it) with an "or" sound, like quartz or war.


Sivan might be pronounced with the same stress as Milan.


Aphasia is very straightforward. The stress is on -pha-, but we anglicise it again into an "ey" sound.


The suffixes usually tell us if something is a disease. Common endings include -itis and -ia.

2016년 4월 1일
And when you first see some word,would you know it is kind of  a medicine or a name of someone or a kind of disease.Can you discriminate?
2016년 4월 1일