Re:Drzymała's wagon
by adimitrov on Monday November 12, 2018 @05:09AM
(#18431624)
Both of these should be /d͡ʒ/, which is an affricate. In some Polish dialects, "drz" is pronounced basically like that. But it seems to me (I'm not a native speaker, merely an observing linguist) that standard Polish does not in fact form an affricate here, but two separate consonants. Compare "dżem" (with an affricate) and "drzem" (with two separate consonants.)
That's what's so hard to pronounce for English native speakers, who have trouble with word initial consonant clusters (compare the English pronunciation of "Dvorak" as "Duhvorak.")
An added difficulty is that the fricative part here isn't alveolar as in either George or journalist, but retroflex (not /j/ but /ʐ/.)
My favorite Polish word in this regard is drzwi (door.) A word initial triple consonant cluster with an alveolar, retroflex and labio-dental sound, all voiced. Fun times.
That's what's so hard to pronounce for English native speakers, who have trouble with word initial consonant clusters (compare the English pronunciation of "Dvorak" as "Duhvorak.")
An added difficulty is that the fricative part here isn't alveolar as in either George or journalist, but retroflex (not /j/ but /ʐ/.)
My favorite Polish word in this regard is drzwi (door.) A word initial triple consonant cluster with an alveolar, retroflex and labio-dental sound, all voiced. Fun times.