User talk:Mr KEBAB/Archive 4

Native language?
Hi, what's your native language? According to your wonderful new user page, English doesn't seem to be your native language. — AWESOME meeos ！ *  ([ˈjæb.ə ət məɪ])) 15:12, 30 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It's Polish. I wish I spoke Tatar, but it's a Turkic language and its grammar looks like a nightmare to learn. Plus, I'd almost never use it... (And thanks for calling my user page wonderful, it could use some work though). Mr KEBAB (talk) 15:42, 30 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm actually surprised I haven't disclosed my native language until now. I thought I did it months ago... Mr KEBAB (talk) 15:43, 30 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Turkic languages are always difficult in grammar (when I lived in Korea I felt something very similar learning Korean). And thanks very much for revealing a lot more personal information on your user page! — AWESOME meeos ！ *  ([ˈjæb.ə ət məɪ])) 00:06, 1 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Yep. No problem, I've actually just noticed that you asked me the same question in May. Sorry for not responding back then, whatever was the reason. Mr KEBAB (talk) 19:41, 1 July 2017 (UTC)

Sorry...
Hi, sorry to 'annoy' you again, but with your native language Polish, are there any pronunciation irregularities (e.g. stress, silent letters etc?). It's like nearly midnight from where I live and can't bother reading the Polish phonology page! — AWESOME meeos ！ *  ([ˈjæb.ə ət məɪ])) 13:57, 3 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Pretty much everything is covered on Help:IPA for Polish. Our orthography is acceptably phonemic, but it could be better. The fact that we're indoctrinated to worship our current orthography doesn't help people like me who want to reform it.

Gylfi Sigurðsson
Can you double check the IPA for me, I didn't think you would use it on player articles, in fact I have never seen that before on a football player article and in Icelandic? I thought it was for only English articles. Cheers. Govvy (talk) 13:22, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid I'm not the correct person to do that. Icelandic phonetics are not the easiest thing to learn and I can say only a few words in that language. With that being said, most of the transcription looks correct to me, but you obviously need to ask someone else to confirm that. Mr KEBAB (talk) 13:42, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
 * If it's unsourced IPA should it be removed? Govvy (talk) 13:44, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I personally find it a very bad practice. As far as I'm concerned, find someone who is acquainted with Icelandic phonetics to confirm the IPA and you're good to go. It's likely correct or very close to being correct. Mr KEBAB (talk) 13:45, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Okay, well I brought it up on the Football Project talk page anyway, cheers know, Govvy (talk) 13:47, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Languages you can understand + surprise
Hi, as a native speaker of a Slavic language (Polish), how well can you read or listen to related Slavic languages from your own, with only guessing and referring to your cognate words?

I also complement you by giving you an  grade for your English - your grammar and usage on English on your mini bio in your user page is right on the mark! I am so bad at other languages (even if I try my best to learn them!) — AWESOME meeos ！ *  ([ˈjæb.ə ət məɪ])) 04:40, 21 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I can't really say. I think I can figure out from 5% to 50% of what is said in a video. Imagine talking to a homeless guy with missing teeth in Glasgow or rural Ireland, that's more or less the kind of experience I'm talking about. It's a bit annoying and you can't be sure if you understand someone or it's just your imagination. There's also a huge problem with grammar, often you can't figure out whether what is being referred to is a male, female, thing, past, present, future or whatever else it is. This video is a great example of all of these problems, as much as I'd like to fully understand it (Malagurski didn't provide any subtitles, which I understand - it's hours of work). Don't even get me started with Russian vowel reduction. Yeah, if your native language is Polish, other Slavic languages are definitely foreign and must be learned in order to understand them and to be sure of it. I almost never read in other Slavic languages, there's no need to.


 * Thanks, but what I wrote on my profile still stands. The fact that I may have written it with perfect grammar and spelling doesn't change the fact that it's way, way too small a sample to judge my proficiency in English from. My English is lacking, en-3 (or en-us-3, as that is the variety I've been exposed to the most) is all I deserve at the moment. Mr KEBAB (talk) 08:56, 21 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks. According to H:IPAP, it mentiones something about 'contrasts affricates with stop–fricative clusters', e.g.  "clean" versus   "three hundred". How exactly are can they be differentiated on Wikipedia (considering the fact that the ties are omitted 'as they do not display correctly in all browsers')? Sorry, but I just want to know for future reference. — AWESOME meeos ！  *  ([ˈjæb.ə ət məɪ])) 12:33, 21 July 2017 (UTC)
 * They aren't. You have to look at the spelling and/or listen to the audio file to figure that out. Mr KEBAB (talk) 12:49, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Greetings
Hi there, my ethnicity is Polish and I was just wondering if you have heard of my surname, Cuch :) Rovingrobert (talk) 08:29, 22 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Hi. Unfortunately I haven't, but I googled it and it is Polish indeed. It sounds very close to German Zug pronunced with a northern accent. Mr KEBAB (talk) 08:54, 22 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you, interesting observation. My family have always commented that the name sounds more German than Polish. Rovingrobert (talk) 08:54, 30 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Your surname could be Kashubian. Their dialect has Low German influences (and so is Zug as in German). Mr KEBAB (talk) 23:19, 31 July 2017 (UTC)

Modern General British vowel chart
I came across the new vowel chart File:Modern General British monophthong chart.svg and I thought it was impressive, the values are clearly more similar to modern General British. However, according to the research papers and internet articles I've seen, and I think including the book you cited as the source (I cannot refer to the cited page because google books won't let me, sorry about that), the sound is too open. From what I've read, it is close-mid but slightly closer than that, so if we refer to only three vowel heights it generally patterns with the close vowels. For example, this page shows the GenAm and General British vowel diagrams, which look more similar to your new diagrams than the previous ones, except for the vowel mentioned above. Thoughts?--Officer781 (talk) 11:56, 23 July 2017 (UTC)
 * is exactly as open as the source claims it is. But I agree, the chart isn't perfect, is a bit too close,  is too open indeed,  can be even more back than the source claims it is and  is somewhat too front. But all of it is in agreement with the source. The chart you linked to is a formant vowel chart, not a cardinal one. We can't use it to replace the current chart, and we shouldn't modify it either. If you find a better chart, we'll think about replacing this one. Mr KEBAB (talk) 12:52, 23 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Alright, thanks for the clarification.--Officer781 (talk) 01:56, 24 July 2017 (UTC)