Speech segmentation errors

General discussion about learning languages
Chupito
Yellow Belt
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2018 1:57 am
Languages: French* and English
Learning: Spanish (beginner)
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Re: Speech segmentation errors

Postby Chupito » Sun Jan 20, 2019 7:46 pm

mjfleck2000 wrote:Anyone care to add a “speech segmentation error” example from a language that you were finally able to solve?


The first example that comes to mind is actually in my native French: I still have memories from nearly 20 years ago, of our chemistry teacher trying to explain the difference between "un ion" and "anion". It didn't help that she wasn't a native speaker and pronounced "un" closer to "an", leading to "l'anion est an_ion positif". Half the time, we couldn't tell which one she was saying.

Although I know something similar happened to me much more recently, I just can't remember the sentence.
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Iversen
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Re: Speech segmentation errors

Postby Iversen » Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:07 pm

The English word 'orange' could have been 'norange', but apparently the introductory 'n' in Spanish "naranja" was misinterpreted as the 'n' of the article 'an'. This explanation was once given in the quiz QI, but I haven't found the exact source. It is however also mentioned here
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