I know it's not your greatest literary accomplishment by far but I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for the pronounciation guide at the begining of Speaker for the Dead.
When I first read Speaker I thought it was great that you included it. From then on I used it to help my english speaking friends and family to pronounce portuguese words. Your suggestion to read the "ão" sound like "owng", while non-intutive to a native portuguese speaker, is great because it WORKS. Prior to seeing your guide I never once managed to teach an english speaker to say ão. I recently used your guide to teach a friend to say his wife's name (João) correctly for the very first time.
Couldn't have done it without you! I and João thank you.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
I'm glad you found a use for it! I know I asked readers to do a lot of work - but I know that I appreciate being able to pronounce names correctly.
I'm merely puzzled at having a woman be named Joao ...
Posted by Miriya (Member # 7822) on :
quote:I'm merely puzzled at having a woman be named Joao ...
Her name is in fact Maria João. Since just about all portuguese women are named Maria something or something Maria, no one actually says the Maria part.
If Tony in West Side Story had been calling out Maria in Portugal or Brazil he would have caused more commotion than if he'd yelled FIRE. Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
I'm slightly disappointed that one of the characters in SftD wasn't called Jose de Maria de Aperecida Fonseca.
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