[Taxacom] pronunciation of Latin, concluding remarks

[Roger Burks]

There has been some research indicating that it becomes very difficult
to pick up some sounds after childhood. This blog:
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/the-bilingual-brain/

discusses some of that. It is not greatly surprising to me to find
North American individuals expressing helplessness here, with
Europeans expressing empowerment. To a certain extent people from the
USA, with its horrendous language education, can appear handicapped in
language learning.

There is variation, of course, but definitely there is an advantage
for those who have heard a wide variety of spoken sounds at an early
age (through television, visiting friends, and so forth). It is not
due to always laziness, but sometimes due to real problems that are
challenging to overcome. That does not mean that correct pronunciation
should not be tried, but it does mean that difficulty and occasional
failure should not be used as a means of discrimination against those
are trying their best.

Roger

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Pierre Deleporte
<pierre.deleporte at univ-rennes1.fr> wrote:
>
> Who says "impossible ?" It's just difficult, but maybe well worth the pain.
> Many people learn foreign languages. And motivated scientists are not
> children.
>
> It's difficult, not impossible, for non-native-English-speakers to learn
> some fairly correct English as professional language.
> This makes a lot of people on Earth.
> And they better learn to prononce E,glish some "academic" British or
> American way, rather than using any obscure vernacular accent far from
> any academic standard (and possibly difficult to understand for many
> English speakers as well) - this for efficiency of communication and
> profit for all.
>
> So, why not make the effort for using some approximately standard
> "academic" Latin?
>
> Now, I suspect that not the same persons would have to make the maximal
> effort in this case...
> As a native French speaking person, I feel very, very easy to pronounce
> Latin differently than with an incredibly strange and unintelligible
> English accent. Because I expect some latin pronunciation for Latin
> words, and of course for latinized words as well.
>
> Anyone his turn, hey?... :-)
>
> Pierre