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Hi,Can anyone tell me how to pronounce the ink blot test without using symbols?(My sound is disabled, which is the way I like it.)Thanks, - A.

Kooyeen · Accepted Answer

What do you mean? [:^)] How to pronounce "Rorschach"?
This is what it sounds like in German: http://www.forvo.com/word/rorschach-test/

I'm not sure there is a standard or common way of pronouncing it in English, but if you had to imitate the original pronunciation, I would give these possible transcprptions (with no strange symbols, as requested):

For American-like accents:

Row-uh-shock
Roar-shock

For British-like accents:

Row-uh-shark
Raw-uh-shark

Avangi · Answer

Thank you for rising to the challenge, Kooyeen. I know how you feel about symbols.

I've been fairly consistent with the "roar" through the years, but I've never tried a hard ending, thinking I needed some kind of gutteral sound followed by "tch" or "sh."
I have two psychiatrists in my singing group, and I try to cover up my ignorance by coughing or clearing my throat when I need to say it aloud. I don't hear it pronounced often enough to really zero in on the exact sound.

Thanks again, buddy!

CalifJim · Answer

A strong American H pronounced fairly far back in the throat will do!

CJ

Avangi · Answer

CalifJimA strong American H pronounced fairly far back in the throat will do!

Hi, CJ,
By "strong," would you suggest forcing enough air through to disturb the soft palate, as in "Johann Sebastian you-know-who?

- A.

Kooyeen · Answer

Avangithinking I needed some kind of gutteral sound followed by "tch" or "sh."
I have two psychiatrists in my singing group, and I try to cover up my ignorance by coughing or clearing my throat when I need to say it aloud.

But not using the right German sounds doesn't make you "ignorant" when you speak English. In fact, I think foreign sounds should never be used, because they just sound "wrong", or "pretentious", or "funny". English is English, and all you can do is use the English phonemes.
In my opinion, the only English phoneme that would make sense at the end of that word is /k/, so I would make it rhyme with "shock" in AmE (or "shark" in BrE).
I don't know any German, but according to the transcriptions the right
phoneme in German would be /x/, which Wikipedia says is often realized as [?] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_German ). I don't think it would be difficult to pronounce, but as I said I believe such foreign sounds are not supposed to be used in English. I always feel very weird when I need to pronounce English loanwords in Italian, because I need to mispronounce them and say them the Italian way, LOL.

Avangi · Answer

I generally agree with your position on "foreign" words.

But where do you stand on proper names? People, cities, countries?

Do you consider it an affectation to pronounce them as the natives do?

None of my teachers or classmates in "music school" pronounced "Bach" with a "k," and only one of them was German. (of course Bach is a special case)

Kooyeen · Answer

AvangiDo you consider it an affectation to pronounce them as the natives do?

Well, yes. When I'm speaking Italian, I know I tend to pronounce English words in English, but I try to avoid it, depending on the situation.. because I am aware of the fact that English sounds sound odd to those who don't know English well enough, who are the vast majority of Italians. Sometimes they might not even understand. That same goes for every other foreign language.
So, why should a person use foreign sounds and try to pronounce words of a language they don't even know? It doesn't make sense.

AvangiBut where do you stand on proper names? People, cities, countries?

If you wanted to pronounce them correctly, you would have to know the phonology of every major language, I suppose... which nobody knows, unless they are linguists. So foreign names are usually translated or adapted to fit in the phonology of another language: for example, Venezia was translated as Venice in English, and spaghetti when pronounced by an American sounds like "spoghedi" to us Italians. In Italian, London was translated as "Londra", and Brad Pitt is pronounced as "Bred Peet" (yes, Bred sounds like "bread"

). If Italians pronounced Brad Pitt correctly, they would have to use two vowels that don't exist in Italian... and it would sound ok to me, but werid to the average Italian. It would be as if you "trilled" your R's (like in Scottish or Spanish) whenever you had to pronounce "Ferrari". It would sound weird in English, I guess, and that's why the average American just keeps using the American R anyway.

AvangiNone of my teachers or classmates in "music school" pronounced "Bach" with a "k," and only one of them was German. (of course Bach is a special case)

Really?

That's weird! But I don't think the average American uses a non-native sound in "Bach"...do they? In Italian, it's pronounced with a /k/ sound.

Avangi · Answer

You're right about the average native american.

CalifJim · Answer

Avangias in "Johann Sebastian you-know-who?

Yes. And I do know who.

CJ

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