Re: Paralititan pronunciation

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

 

or *Tsintaosaurus*....<<

 

This
becomes a bit simpler if one knows that the city is now spelled Qingdao. As
soon
as one knows that these are 2 syllables _and manages to pronounce the q_ (I
think I can do it, but I can't possibly explain it in writing)... and knows
the
tones...

The "q" in Chinese is probably prounounced much like the "c'" at the end of
your own name.

It's indeed the closest thing I can find in Indo-European languages. However, it is more palatal, one has to bulge the tongue more upwards and forwards. It took me quite some time to learn it. (I've begun to learn Chinese IIRC 3 years ago, but I had to stop it after a year due to extreme lack of time.)

"d" in pinyin is like "t" in French, Spanish, or Italian

I'd say it's a bit softer

(but _not_ like in
English, German, or Scandinavian languages--in many positions, at least, most
Germanic languages put aspiration on p, t, and k;

I'd say that's largely limited to English alone. English lessons in German-speaking countries involve teaching the proper aspiration of p and t, which takes quite long to learn for most pupils. (K is indeed the same in German and English, but Chinese k much more aspirated, it has a Gaelic/German/Czech... ch after it [like in some southwestern German dialects]).