A Flurry of Consonants. Or, How to Spell Ljubljana.

English speakers get weirded out when too many consonants pile up in a word. Which is why we tend to tremble before Ljubljana, capital city of Slovenia.

Here’s a handy guide that will make Ljubljana much easier to spell:

  • LJ
  • UB
  • LJ
  • ANA

Comments

oliver's picture
oliver on November 7, 2004 - 03:52 Permalink

I think the true crisis here is one of pronunciation. I refuse to learn how to spell anything, the spelling of which leaves me flapping my lips with no idea whether there’s a language in the world I’m making sense in. It’s a disgraceful name and should be banned from print until guidelines for pronunciation are issued.

Ken's picture
Ken on November 7, 2004 - 04:55 Permalink

Culture currents as broad as your mind and as deep as your soul. Within our alphabet, estranged from our syntax, they say the same things we do.

oliver's picture
oliver on November 7, 2004 - 19:32 Permalink

Ahhh! Thank you, Peter. You may all resume.

oliver's picture
oliver on November 7, 2004 - 23:24 Permalink

I take that back partly. That Web site gives in audio form only the easy one of two pronunciations, which I suspect represents just a conventional English garbling. The printed phonetic guide for the other one is scary as I imagined, although I suppose it’s a source of encouragment.