Mastodawn

I'm sorry your previous visits to our planet have been so unsuccessful. Now you've explained your purpose, I see there's been a huge misunderstanding.

You need to reword your request. "Where can I hear someone singing Schubert?" or "I'd like to hear a recital of German art songs" will get you much closer to what you're after than "Take me to your Lieder".

Good luck!

#AdviceToAliens
#HashtagGames

Tim J 3d ago

Alice McPhotos 4d ago

#TextureTuesday

Tim J May 9

Keith Frankish May 8

I was thinking of setting up a stall to sell copies of Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, Brideshead Revisited, and other works by the same author. But that would have made me a . . .

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Tim J May 9

It would be useful for them also to understand that <ff> and <f> are pronounced like in the English words "off" and "of" respectively. But one thing at once . . .

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Tim J May 9

(Hence the difference between Gwyneth and Gwynedd, for example.)

It beats me how someone who knows they're going to have to repeatedly say a non-English word on air can think it's OK not to know the pronunciation.

(Though to be fair, I think some of them were trying. But they mostly only got either the <e> or the <dd> right, rarely both at once.)

Tim J May 9

Dear Radio 4 election commentators,

• "Senedd" does not rhyme with "Kenneth".

Please take the time to understand that:

• Welsh spelling is phonetic. The <e> in <Sen> and the one in <edd> both represent exactly the same sound. Don't turn the second one into /ə/ just because it's unstressed.

• English writes two different sounds as <th>. The one in "the", and the one in "bath". Welsh has both sounds too, but distinguishes them: <dd> is the voiced one, and <th> the unvoiced one.

Thank you.

Tim J Apr 23