Can You Help Me Pronounce Krstse in English?

[tribdog]

sounds pretty kirstsed up to me

 

[Moonbear]

Okay, assuming it's Croatian and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_language is correct...
k, s, t denote the same sounds as in English: [k] as in key, as in see, [t] as in tea.
e denotes a sound that I'm not familiar with and isn't a phoneme in any English dialect I know of. It's somewhere between the vowels [e] in bait and [?] in bet; according to that site, it's closer to bet.
r denotes the alveolar trill [r], which is similar to English's alveolar approximant [?], for which we use r. Their /r/ is sometimes syllabic just as our /?/ sometimes is (both vowels in herder), which means it can be a nucleus.
So it looks like option (2) is out, and the others were pretty close. e is a nucleus, so the word could be one or two syllables, depending on whether r is syllabic or not. If r is not syllabic, I can't imagine an English approximation because krsts just really doesn't work as an onset. If r is syllabic, it would be something like kirstseh. I'm not sure about stress, duration, or pitch though. I could read about it if anyone really cared. It's still possible that it's pronounced in a completely different way, and more likely so if it's a name or foreign word.

Drawing on my eensy beensy bit of Polish knowledge, I'd be inclined to say it's pronounced more like kris-che (in Polish, whenever you see far too many consonants in a row, you can often pronounce the whole mess as -ch- unless you can find a place to insert invisible vowels ).

It's all Britain's fault. They use up so many extra vowels that there aren't any left by the time the words get to the poor Slavic countries. (Is Croatian considered a Slavic language? It looks like it resembles it, but maybe it isn't?)

I only know one word in Croatian, and it's a type of sausage (there was one Croatian stand amidst all the stands selling Greek food at the Greek festival in Cincinnati, and since nobody else was in line when I got food there, I made the guy selling it pronounce it about 5 times for me before he was satisfied I pronounced it right...I told him I wanted to know how to order it without just pointing at the sign...unfortunately, I have no idea how to spell it now, just how to say it). Somehow, when I only know one or a few words in a language, I invariably learn foods first.

 

[tribdog]

I learn how to ask someone to sleep with me. Just about every time.

 

[Moonbear]

I learn how to ask someone to sleep with me. Just about every time.

So, how many languages have you learned "No" in? (You walked right into that one! )

 

[tribdog]

I would never use them, of course, it's just easier to remember things you are interested in. HAD I used them I would have learned NO in 4 languages. Although my German is probably wrong, the English translation is "Come here with your pants in your hands."

 

[honestrosewater]

Drawing on my eensy beensy bit of Polish knowledge, I'd be inclined to say it's pronounced more like kris-che

You mean you'd be inclined to say it's pronounced that way in Polish? Using Polish pronunciation rules to try to pronounce a presumably Croatian word in Croatian just increases your chances of mispronouncing it.

(Is Croatian considered a Slavic language? It looks like it resembles it, but maybe it isn't?)

Yes, it's classified as Indo-European>Slavic>South>Western. I read a little about its history, since it was suggested that Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian were the same language or at least very closely related. (And recall that Astronuc said he thought it looked Bosnian or Serbian.) Apparently, there are some differences, but if you can speak one of them, you can speak with speakers of the other two. It seems like the arguments about their classification are politically motivated.

I only know one word in Croatian, and it's a type of sausage <snip> unfortunately, I have no idea how to spell it now, just how to say it).

The Croatian alphabet is largely phonemic -- one distinctive sound per symbol and one symbol per distinctive sound. So if you can pronounce it and it isn't one of the exceptions, you can probably spell it by simply following the rules, thanks at least in part to someone named Ljudevit Gaj.

 

[Moonbear]

You mean you'd be inclined to say it's pronounced that way in Polish? Using Polish pronunciation rules to try to pronounce a presumably Croatian word in Croatian just increases your chances of mispronouncing it.

No worse than trying to pronounce it in English.

 

[honestrosewater]

No worse than trying to pronounce it in English.

Kirstse!