Hello,
I’m looking for any website or free programs that have audio pronunciations of words not normally found in the dictionary. I know about m-w.com, answers.com, dictionary.com, and all those, so I don’t mean that.

I mean audio dictionaries for last names, first names, place names, medical terms, technical jargon for any field of study, company names, species names, or anything else you can think of that wouldn’t be easy to find in a dictionary. This would also include any audio dictionaries for other languages. I know I can go to answers.com and find the audio pronunciation for just about any English word, but I’ve searched and searched and I can’t seem to be able to find a corresponding website for French, or Russian, or German.

As a second option, are there any good sites that have literal, phonetic pronunciations? So that the word "pronunciation" is written out "pruh-NUN-see-ay-shun" instead of with all the symbols that the IPA uses. I’m doing this for a website where volunteers produce free public domain audio books.  Most people there find IPA style confusing. Also, I don’t mean any websites that give general tips on how to pronounce French, German, etc. This is not for people who want to learn the language - it’s for people who, while reading, occasionally come across foreign words or words difficult to pronounce.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  

. . . foreign words?  There’s a lot about pronunciation and even intonation that I could perhaps help with—words are never articulated in their native land or isogloss, just as if right out of some internat’l dictionary with IPA and whatnot!

Well I don’t know much about the snake-oil mechants besetting the forum, but I would like to start a fountain-manufacturing company, and call it “Viagra Falls”.

Forgive me if that is a repetition, but it remains an ambition.

. . . foreign words?  There’s a lot about pronunciation and even intonation that I could perhaps help with—words are never articulated in their native land or isogloss, just as if right out of some internat’l dictionary with IPA and whatnot!

. . . foreign words?  There’s a lot about pronunciation and even intonation that I could perhaps help with—words are never articulated in their native land or isogloss, just as if right out of some internat’l dictionary with IPA and whatnot!

OK, maybe “Bandito Falls” - it just never stops.

Whew, it’s about high merry time someone finally purged this insipid web thread—hallelujah!

>> I’m looking for any website or free programs that have audio pronunciations of words not normally found in the dictionary. <<

There is a multilingual speech synthesizer here :
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

. . . foreign words?  There’s a lot about pronunciation and even intonation that I could perhaps help with—words are never articulated in their native land or isogloss, just as if right out of some internat’l dictionary with IPA and whatnot!

Eakins or his circle of friends during Eakins’s lifetime.

As regarding names, there is this site too:

http://www.behindthename.com/

orpoporo - 27 November 2008 05:45 AM

>> I’m looking for any website or free programs that have audio pronunciations of words not normally found in the dictionary. <<

There is a multilingual speech synthesizer here :
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

This one is a useful site. I like how it works. Thumbs up!

sleeper - 18 June 2009 04:00 AM

orpoporo - 27 November 2008 05:45 AM

>> I’m looking for any website or free programs that have audio pronunciations of words not normally found in the dictionary. <<

There is a multilingual speech synthesizer here :
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

This one is a useful site. I like how it works. Thumbs up!

I like that, thanks, I’ve added it to favorites.

Last night, I was thinking about the pronuciation of the word ‘jetta’. I’ve seen the word wit volkswagen. Volkswagen jetta. This thread just come in my thoughts just on time!

And of course that site told you how to say it. I wonder where the word comes from.

Volkswagen jetta is a kind of a car. Jetta sounds like jeda. I’ve been searching it in dictionary.com but there is none.