Do you pronounce the J in Johannesburg?
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Do you pronounce the J in Johannesburg?
According to our South African contacts, the English pronunciation of Johannesburg, and hence the one the BBC Pronunciation Unit recommends, is joh-HAN-iss-burg (-j as in Jack, -ur as in fur); whilst the Afrikaans pronunciation is closer to yoh-HAN-iss-burkh (-y as in yes, -kh as in Scottish loch).
Why do we pronounce J as Y?
The reason is very simple. We pronounce these J’s like Y’s because these words and names are borrowed from languages where the letter J is pronounced like English Y. Instead of changing the spellings to fit our pronunciation system, we kept the spellings from the original languages, and we kept the pronunciations.
How do South Africans pronounce their vowels?
Some vowels reflected as /ɒ/ may sound similar to /ɔː/ but significantly shorter. Some vowels transcribed as /e/ may sound longer, or some transcribed as /eɪ/ sound more steady (a sound like /eː/). In some words, /ʌ/ and /æ/ may also sound very similar to each other….Vowels.
| South African English | As in… |
|---|---|
| əʊ | goat |
| ɔɪ | choice |
How do you spell Johannesburg South Africa?
a city in S Transvaal, in the NE Republic of South Africa.
Why is the letter j pronounced differently in different languages?
The remarkable thing is that English pronounces “j” as /dzh/ (or /dʒ/, in proper IPA). It’s pronounced differently in different languages, such as “zh” in French and “h” in Spanish (and variants thereof in different dialects). Originally, “j” was another way of writing “i”; it was an “i” with a hook.
How do you pronounce Johannesburg in South Africa?
When speaking Afrikaans a South African would pronounce Johannesburg with a Y sound. The business language and lingua franca of Johannesburg has always been English and for that reason the English pronunciation is better known internationally.
Do German speakers pronounce words starting with J with a Y?
However, it’s usually not Germanic speakers who pronounce English words starting with a J using a Y sound: frequently it’s Spanish speakers, even though they pronounce the letter J as /x/ (see for example 18 English words that Spanish speakers mispronounce ).
What is the phonological change from the letter J to y?
The letter j, which was really special cursive form of i became the symbol for this distinct new sound. The phonological change from the “j” sound (/dʒ/) to the “y” sound (/j/) is called fortition. Fortition is the strengthening of a sound from a less restricted one to a more restricted one.