I've spent the last half hour trying to find a complete list of the pronunciation for every country in the world.

For example:

Canada- Can-Ah-Dah.
Brazil- Brar-Zil.

If such a thing exists can someone point me in the right direction to find it.

I think it depends on your language and accent.

I can't help, mostly because my only interest in this subject is to find out why you need a pronunciation guide for every country in the world.

Maybe it'd be better to wait until you actually go there before learning how to pronounce it. Seems like less trouble. :shrug:

Yoonited States of 'Murica....

...at least whar I'm from.

For confirmation, curiosity and to prove a point.

Well its highly subjective to your language background and where you are from.

Like for me, its Bra-zil. Duno where you get that extra R from.

Ca-na-da. To my understanding, confirmed by several Canadians, that is how they say it.

I pronounce New Zealand like New Zealand. How it sounds. Not like New Zielund or Fush and Chups.

Can you read IPA? If not you'll have trouble anyway - most pronounciation guides are written in IPA because trying to approximate pronounciation with the standard Latin alphabet is highly subjective...

Any particular country (or countries) you want a pronounciation guide for? We can try and help...

I bet you also think you don't have an accent.

Just look up those words in the dictionary, there's always a phonetic transcription. Don't write it in normal alphabet, that's pointless because, like AMP says, everyone pronounces that differently. If you can't read or write phonetic, there really isn't much point. For instance, it's not "Brar-zil", it's pronounced [br??z?l], i.e. "Bruh-ZIL". And it's not "Can-Ah-Dah", but ['k?n?d?], so you'd have to write it "CAN-uh-duh". You can't write the ? sound in normal letters, so there's really no point in writing phonetically unless you use the alphabet designed for it. And if you must, you also need to note the stress syllable in capitals, and look up every country's phonetic transcription regardless, because you've only listed two words you transcribed and they're both wrong.

Also, you know there are phonetic dictionaries already out there, yes?

In particular:

Tuvalu
Kiribati
Sao Tome and Principe
Guinea Bissau
Azerbaijan
Guyana

About it...

It might be spelt "Brarzil" but it's pronounced "throat wobbler mangrove".

Unhelpfully, etc.

Zie?

Dude what?

Zielund?

LUND?

I heard someone throw an 'r' in there once. So it was something like "Zeelarnd". It must have been her accent. But still.

Anyone...?

That'd be kind of hard. Because every country in the world has a different pronunciation for every other country in the world. Well, not every country, some share accents, but you get the point.

It depends on your launguage and accent. Due to the brazilian accent, brazilians pronnounce Brah-ziew, while portuguese say it Bra-zeel :shrug:

Same for Canada but when in english I say it like Can-a-dah.

Can-ih-dah

Bra-zeal

Credits: Myself being Canadian, and my aunt, having been raised in Brazil.

EDIT: I love it when people add extra r's after vowels...I find it so fascinating.

ie. Idea( r )

...if you pronounce New Zealand like New Zealand, it comes out New Zieland or Zielund.


I've never been able to grasp the word "Nguyen". I've heard 25,015 ways to pronounce it, and according to each person who gave the pronounciation, they are all wrong.

ho does Zea come out as Zie?

Its like sea, but... a z.

I've always thought Nguyen was just Wen.

Can-uh-duh

Bruh-zil

Duh! Yeah, the attempts at phonetic spellings of Canada in this thread seem more Spanish than any English accent.

Apparently it's because in Vietnamese (?), like many languages in Africa, for instance, there is this thing called "double consonant" that means both consonants are prononced simultaniously... If you don't learn it with your mother tongue, it can take ages to master. Other consonants are prononced 'in between' of our standard. That's why Pekin became Beijin. Chinese told us it was closer to the real prononciation.

No, you pronounce New Zealand like Nyu Zeahlind.

And, no, I do not know of any kind of pronunciation list. It would vary from country to country, as others have said, due to the native language of the country. For example, we English speakers (well, in New Zealand anyway) say Cuba like Cue-bah, but my Spanish teacher told us to say it like Coo-bah. You may be able to find out the way your accent works and go from there,but that would probably be difficult and a bit of a waste of time.

I have a Nguyen friend. I prononce it "New win".