Estonian Pronunciation and
Alphabet
| Pronunciation In Estonian the pronunciation is quite simple and should cause no headache - except for some vowels that are not used in English, the basic rule is - what you see written is what you get to say. Estonian is very clear and straightforward to speak, this feature is similar to German and Italian, nothing like Russian or French. In the words of Estonian origin the first syllable is always the one emphasized (in the words of foreign origin the stress may naturally be somewhere else) . The alphabet looks like as following (the letters given in brackets here are common to foreign words and names only). The pronunciation is described with the help of appropriate English words consisting the sound. Where the description is missing, it's because of the similarity of the pronunciation of corresponding vowel or consonant in English and Estonian. Alphabet Scroll down to see all the letters a - as in bizarre b - pronunciation is the same as in English (b,d,g may be spoken somewhat stronger, more similar to p,t,k than in English, but not relevantly) (c) d e - let f g - ring h - hint i - sit j - is simply short form of 'i' k - k,p,t are all very dry/laconic sounding consonants in Estonian l m n o - blond p (q) r - more distinctly drumming sound than in English s - ('s' with a 'v'-like stroke above it) rush z - ('z' with a 'v'-like stroke above it) as in the French name Jean t u - pull v (w) - ('o' with a line above it) the pronunciation is similar to the vowel in the North-American 'girl'. This letter is somewhat similar to the (the vowel after next) but the mouth is more open, relaxed, so is the tongue, which lies quite straight in the mouth, tip touching the edges of front teeth. Feels like vowel was formed in the back of the mouth. - ('a' with two dots above it) as in gal - ('o' with two dots above it) as in the British pronunciation of 'girl' - ('u' with two dots above it) as in German 'Gefhl' or French 'Lucille' (x) (y) (z) Click here for Electronic Dictionaries for teaching English |
|
|
|
|
