Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2008 May 26

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May 26

Hindi and Bengali: mutually understandable

If you speak one of them, can you understand the other? At least halfway? 217.168.1.95 (talk) 12:16, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

The article on Mutual intelligibility would suggest that you couldn't. Some different dialects of Bengali aren't even mutually intelligible. Fribbler (talk) 18:48, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Pronounciation on the pinyin "zh"

How is the pinyin "zh" pronounced? I've tried to search for the answer but different sources have different answers and my very limited knowledge of IPA is no help. --RMFan1 (talk) 15:23, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Roughly like the English "j" in "jerk". The exact articulation is slightly different, and it's devoiced in Chinese, but using the English "j" sound will get you very close to Mandarin "zh". —Angr 15:49, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

As to articulation, according to our article on retroflex consonants, you should keep your tongue flat (i.e. not curl up the tip), with the blade of the tongue (the top surface of the tongue near the tip) touching the roof of the mouth behind the alveolar ridge. To practice the sound as unvoiced, whisper words like "jerk" and "merger".  --Lambiam 16:03, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Rather like the ch of Spanish (which I see you speak), as opposed to "ch", which is rather like the ch of English. kwami (talk) 09:45, 27 May 2008 (UTC)