men.male

chazaThreads: 49 Posts: 266 Joined: Dec 21, 09 ♂	Edited by: chaza Mar 1, 10, 21:26 #1
how do you pronounce the word for men or male. i just cant seem to get my tongue round it. chaza

MatowyThreads: 1 Posts: 519 Joined: Jul 4, 09 ♂	Mar 1, 10, 21:35 #2
Do you mean the Polish word "Mężczyzna" ? Like all Polish words, it's simply a matter of knowing the components to be able to pronounce it. If you know how to pronounce "ę", "ż" and "cz" on their own, then you can pronounce this word.

♂

Mar 1, 10, 22:42 #3

Matowy:

If you know how to pronounce "ę", "ż" and "cz" on their own, then you can pronounce this word.

Not this time. In the word mężczyzna we pronounce:
ę>en
ż>sz

Chaza let me tell you something general, I am afraid you cannot learn Polish pronunciation thinking about your tongue. Find Polish native speaker and repeat after him. I think only imitation and continuous corrections is a good method. At the beginning You cannot even hear all Polish sounds.

Make a list of all coponents of Polish pronunciation, and find somebody who will read it for you. You should repeat component by component and you shoulkd be strictly corrected.

Then pronounce syllables

Then pronounce

Allways pay attantion to see components, thanks to this you will notice that Polish
pronunciation is very regular.

♂

Mar 2, 10, 09:51 #4

Polish Tutor:

Not this time. In the word mężczyzna we pronounce:
ę>en

I strongly disagree. I have never in my life pronounced or heard this word as menszczyzna. You never ever pronounce "n" in mężczyzna.

wymowa: IPA: [mɛ̃w̃ʃˈʧ̑ɨzna], AS: [mẽũščyzna], zjawiska fonetyczne: utr. dźw. utrata dźwięczności • nazal. nazalizacja • asynch. ę asynchroniczna wymowa ę

Polish Tutor:

I am afraid you cannot learn Polish pronunciation thinking about your tongue. Find Polish native speaker and repeat after him. I think only imitation and continuous corrections is a good method.

I disagree again. Millions of adult people never arrive at good pronounciation just imitating and repeating after native speakers (only the children do). On the other hand, if you are aware of how your tongue should move (the best would be to see pictures of the movements of the tongue on a screen) and you then you repeat and make contrastive phonetic exercises, your pronounciation can substantially improve or even, if you make very decent effort, can match the one of native speakers.

chazaThreads: 49 Posts: 266 Joined: Dec 21, 09 ♂	Mar 2, 10, 11:27 #5
so the sound will be 'mensh chee-na chaza

gumishuThreads: 17 Posts: 3,943 Joined: Apr 6, 09 ♂	Edited by: gumishu Mar 2, 10, 11:42 #6
chaza: so the sound will be 'mensh chee-na men -shcheez - na - the italics stand for accented syllable it is approximate pronounciation - in fact Ziemowit had already written Poles pronounce it with ę not en - but I don't want to complicate things for you

♂

Mar 2, 10, 11:45 #7

chaza:

so the sound will be 'mensh chee-na

No.

Mężczyzna - Break it up into:

Męż - Czyz - Na

Men-ż-chiz-na - As per usual, the emphasis goes on the "iz" sound.

*The "ę" sound seems to be a matter of personal taste, but for simplicity in text I use the "en" form.

http://www.ivona.com/online/editor.php?tmpl=15 - Use this for pronunciation. Polish is much more linear in pronunciation than English, so it's pretty accurate. Just type in the word you want, select on the right Jacek, Maja or Jan, and press the play button. Ewa is very high-pitched and misses some key nasally sounds in Polish, in my opinion. For some laughs you can also type in Polish sentences and select a British pronunciation.

SzwedwPolsceThreads: 13 Posts: 1,915 Joined: Feb 21, 09 ♂	Mar 12, 10, 22:01 #8
Polish Tutor: Make a list of all coponents of Polish pronunciation, and find somebody who will read it for you. You should repeat component by component and you shoulkd be strictly corrected.

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