Re: [tied] Moldova Confusion

I treat it as a silent letter, like the p in pterydactyl or the ch in chthonic. Duh-neice-ter sounds like the sister of duh-nephew-ster.

----- Original Message -----

From: Piotr Gasiorowski

It's only me, Piotr, packing my suitcase.

1. DNISTER. The Ukrainian pronunciation is ['dnister] ("dneester": two syllables, a tense [i], [d] pronounced).

2. DNIESTR. The Polish pronunciation is ['dnjestr] ("dnyestr": one syllable, [nj] = palatal nasal like French "gn", voiceless [r], [d] pronounced).

3. DNESTR. The Russian pronunciation is ['dnjestr], more or less the same as in Polish.

Impress your friends with your flawless Slavic. If you can't quite make the [dn], "Duh-NIECE-ter" or "Din-YES-ter" should sound tolerable.

Piotr

> And I think I even know better. Outside of English, /ei/ is > >consistently the vowel in 'buy', with /ie/ representing that in 'be'. > >It's not the nigh-stir, but the knee-stir. Erh, I've been pronouncing it "din-KNEE-stir". Is this a silent thing as in pneumonia, psychology and knife? English pronunciation is oh so confusing :) - gLeN