Pronunciation of English proper names
Thread poster: Klaus Urban
Klaus Urban
Klaus Urban  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:55
Member (2005)
English to German
+ ...
Nov 21, 2016

Where can I find the pronunciation of English proper names, e. g. ***Big Sur*** in California.
My regular sources, English Wikipedia and Pons online dictionary, don´t provide the pronunciation for this term.
I do have many other geographic proper names with the same issue.

Tnank you in advance.

Klaus

[Edited at 2016-11-21 15:00 GMT]

[Edited at 2016-11-21 15:01 GMT]


 
Valeria Ancillotti
Valeria Ancillotti
Member (2010)
English to Italian
+ ...
Forvo Website Nov 21, 2016

Hi Klaus,

Take a look a this website:

http://forvo.com
http://forvo.com/search/big%20sur/

Hope it helps!


 
Klaus Urban
Klaus Urban  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:55
Member (2005)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Great! Nov 21, 2016

Hi Valeria,
Thank you! This is exactly the type of resource I was looking for. Great!
Klaus


 
Valeria Ancillotti
Valeria Ancillotti
Member (2010)
English to Italian
+ ...
You're welcome! Nov 21, 2016

Hi Klaus, sounds great, glad to be of help

Ciao!
Valeria

[Edited at 2016-11-21 13:19 GMT]


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 22:55
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
What a great resource! Nov 21, 2016

Valeria Ancillotti wrote:
Take a look a this website:

http://forvo.com
http://forvo.com/search/big%20sur/

I gave it what I thought would be a non-starter - an unremarkable English suburban town near where I grew up that I remember tourists have an incredibly difficult time with: Ewell. A second later I had four perfectly acceptable audio recordings of the name (which is pronounced "you'll").

[Edited at 2016-11-21 14:32 GMT]

[Edited at 2016-11-21 14:33 GMT]


 
Thomas Pfann
Thomas Pfann  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:55
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
A great resource, indeed Nov 21, 2016

Sheila Wilson wrote:

I gave it what I thought would be a non-starter


Another great thing about forvo: If you really have a non-starter, it won't stay a non-starter for long. For words which are not yet included in the database, you can simply add the word and will receive a notification as soon as someone has provided a recording (which shouldn't take long - at least not for non-exotic languages).

You can sign up and provide recordings yourself as well. It's quite simple and works almost a bit like KudoZ. I used to do it for a while - just for fun. Whenever you log in, you see a list of terms for which other users requested pronounciations and you can, if you want, provide your own recording.


 
philgoddard
philgoddard
United States
German to English
+ ...
Wikipedia Nov 21, 2016

often has the pronunciation in the top righthand corner of the entry, though not in the case of Big Sur.

 
Mirko Mainardi
Mirko Mainardi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 23:55
Member
English to Italian
Crowdsourcing Nov 22, 2016

IMO the problem with similar resources is that you can never be really sure about the quality/accuracy of what you get...

Maybe you won't find everything you're looking for here, but Merriam Webster should have at least some of the most famous (US) names you're looking for, and they usually come with a phonetic transcription AND an audio clip with their pronunciation.

E.g
... See more
IMO the problem with similar resources is that you can never be really sure about the quality/accuracy of what you get...

Maybe you won't find everything you're looking for here, but Merriam Webster should have at least some of the most famous (US) names you're looking for, and they usually come with a phonetic transcription AND an audio clip with their pronunciation.

E.g.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Big%20Sur
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Cupertino
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/San%20Jose


P.S. Incidentally, there also is an "Ewell", although that's not the town Sheila was referring to... http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Ewell
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Pronunciation of English proper names






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