Hi all, Italo Vignoli wrote:
> I am not a native English speaker, but I think that "liberty" - which > has the same root of libre - is not pronounced as "laiberty". I have > heard many native English speakers pronounce libre, and they all > pronounce it the same way. > > On 3/30/11 8:37 AM, M Henri Day wrote: > > > What, pray, is «the English pronunciation of "libre"» ? If the first vowel > > is to be pronounced as «aɪ» as in, say, «live», it differs vastly from the > > customary pronunciation in almost all European languages - Germanic as well > > as Romance - which is much closer to «iː», and can hardly serve as «the > > reference for every language».... I agree with both of you: Even if "library" is pronounced differently, I'd like to hear "libre" to be pronounced like "Libra", the zodiac balance sign. Unlike to "liberty", the "i" is a long vowel. This is the most ambiguous pronounciation issue, so I think we should address it by providing a recommendation. Pronounciation of the "b" might be different for some roman languages (turning to a "v" like "livre"), but that's hardly an issue, as it sounds quite similar. Same non-issue with the "r" (rolling in different ways, not rolling at all): These differences are marginal in my eyes. If the "e" is spoken or not depends on the speaker too: French people tend to skip it, others pronounce it. I remember my first OOoCon when I found out that most speakers talked about "OpenOffice - dot - org" while I was used to "OpenOffice org" in German. It didn't take long that I used the "dot" version in English, while I stayed without in German. It will probably the same in your local community too: You will agree to one pronounciation once you met personally (on a fair or at any other event). Perhaps this version is not the one used by the majority of community members when they speak English. Don't think you *must* fit any "official" pronounciation. if we could agree on an English version with long "i" like "Libra" instead of "ai" like "library", this would probably help spreading the word in a similar way, but any other example should be just an example. Best regards Bernhard -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ *** All posts to this list are publicly archived for eternity ***
