This happens to me a lot in the medical field. “Parenchymal” has been my most recent, and I have to think about it every time I hear it or try to say it
I read it in my head as PAIR-EN-KIME-AL, but it’s pronounced PA-RINKA-MAL… though how I read it does help me to spell it
Some words I still can’t pronounce, but I know how to “read”, such as “klebsiella aerogenes”
While we’re on the subject: “Tachypneic” is pronounced like “TA-KIP-NIK”, but I never hear anyone try and pronounce “Bradypneic”. One would assume that it’s pronounced like “BRA-DIP-NIK” (or maybe “BRAY-DIP-NIK”), but I can’t confirm. I think saying “bradypneic” intimidates people
English fails hard at conveying phonetics through written language. In Brazilian portuguese (my native language) those words would be written as:
- parenquimal (from “parênquima”);
- taquipnéico;
- bradipnéico;
The lack of diacritics (and several other characteristics) makes English really easy to learn but in contrast you get those kinds of problems. I’ve never seen anyone get those words wrong in my field (I’m a vet)
That’s really cool, and I appreciate the insight! I always liked Spanish (‘Latin American’ in my case) because you can pronounce the words as they are spelled. Doesn’t matter if you know what it means, but you can still pronounce it (for the most part)
I’ve always been told that Portuguese is like “Spanish and French had a baby”. Not sure how much truth there is to that, but a quick anecdote: My wife and I were in a cab with a native Portuguese speaker who knew a bit of English and a bit of Romantic languages. My wife knows a bit of French; I know a bit of Spanish… and between the three of us, we were able to speak to each other in a kinda “creole type” delivery. It was really cool to experience
Lastly, I have to ask… do you think “bradypneic” would be pronounced “BRAY-DIP” or “BRA-DIP” in English?
Doesn’t matter if you know what it means, but you can still pronounce it (for the most part)
That’s the beauty of the added gramatical complexity these languages have compared to English, although there are still cases where things get ambiguous. For example, the following words are written differently but pronounced the exact same, generally relying on their context to differentiate them:
- sela/cela;
- censo/senso;
- assento/acento;
- cozer/coser;
- concerto/conserto;
- tacha/taxa;
I’ve always been told that Portuguese is like “Spanish and French had a baby”.
Having studied Spanish, French and English I can confirm that those similarities are definitely present!
My wife and I were in a cab with a native Portuguese speaker who knew a bit of English and a bit of Romantic languages. My wife knows a bit of French; I know a bit of Spanish… and between the three of us, we were able to speak to each other in a kinda “creole type” delivery. It was really cool to experience.
What an interesting story! Where I live there are a lot of Haitian immigrants and communicating with them also involves that “creole type” language. In comparison talking to Cuban / Venezuelan immigrants is made much easier due to the similarities with Spanish. Regardless, the fact you can have a basic talk with an entire continent because of this is so cool.
Lastly, I have to ask… do you think “bradypneic” would be pronounced “BRAY-DIP” or “BRA-DIP” in English?
Definitely the second pronunciation (“BRA-DIP”) is the correct one!
“Tachypneic” is pronounced like “TA-KIP-NIK”,
I’m clearly not qualified to lecture you, but deriving from words like pneumonia, and consulting merriam-webster, are you sure the “p” isn’t silent here, and that the “e” is?
I can confirm that the “p” is not silent in tacypneic, unlike in pneumonia. It’s a weird one imo, but that is how it is
