Re: Transcriptions of "Unicode"

[Alain LaBonté <alb@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

À 06:16 2001-01-15 -0800, Charles a écrit:
> Michael Everson wrote:
>
> "The pronuncuation ['juni:ko:d] with [i:] or [i] instead of schwa
> irritates
> me a lot. No one would pronounce "universe" with an
> [i]."

[Charles]
> I beg to differ; "universe" is
> commonly pronounced with a short [i] in the
> English Midlands.


[Alain]  A "schwa" for an i and an English u to pronounce
"Unicode" begins to be extremely different from the
pronunciation of "Unicode" in French (as I can't write with the
IPA on this list, I will add German "Ünicod" to Marco's
"ynicod" to make sure that most of you know how we pronounce
it). This word, in its written form, shocks nobody in French (« et ce
n'est pas peu dire ! »), even the most bigot and pious purists of the
French language... 

   But if you insist that the French speakers pronounce those
two letters, it is the contrary, we will have to write the
"mandated" IPA prononciation as « Iouneucôde » in French (there
is no real "scwha" in French, imho)... Otherwise you create a
strong issue in French.

   Please do not play with pronunciation... Unicode is not a
standard about pronunciation, but rather -- and it is where it is an
instrument of civilization -- a standard about writing... Writing tends
to unite people, spoken languages tend to disunite them... An English
speaker with a prefect knowledge of written French who does not pronounce
French correctly is absolutely not understood, and the reverse is
probably true too. I am a watcher of some American TV programs (mainly
sci-fi) on TV, but I have to put subtitles to fully catch what I don't
understand (unfortunately there is no subtitle in a meeting where English
is spoken, and it is *always* a handicap to me).

   Please, no official IPA transcription for
"Unicode"...

Alain LaBonté
Québec