Pronunciation help with Latvian song text

[Curt Woolhiser]

Dear Hugh,
I'd suggest you contact Guntis Smidchens at the University of Washington (
guntiss at uw.edu), I'm sure he'd be able to help you.

Best,
Curt Woolhiser
Brandeis U


On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 1:43 AM, HUgh Olmsted <hugh_olmsted at comcast.net>wrote:

> Friends and colleagues, brāļi un māsas!****
>
>
> I am preparing the text of a well-beloved Latvian song, "Kas tie tādi," in
> slightly modified transcription to help a chorus pronounce it reasonably,
> and am writing to request help from you who really know the language and
> the text.
>
> As you know, standard Latvian orthography uses a single letter, e , to
> represent two different sounds: "closed" [ɛ] and "open" [æ]; the former
> sounds something like US standard pronunciation of the vowel in "head"or
> "led" or "gem"; the latter sounds more like the vowel in US standard
> "had"or "lad" or "jam". (As with other vowels, both of these "e"-variants
> can occur short or long, standardly written "e" or "ē".) If you don't know
> the language, when you meet a graphic "e" or "ē" you can't very well tell
> which pronunciation to give it, like head/led/gem or had/lad/jam. ****
>
> In the text below (four verses), my intention is to indicate this
> difference by using an arbitrary "e*" for the open (had/lad/jam) variant. I
> have done my best to do so, but there are probably some mistakes remaining.
> I would be very grateful for corrections of mistakes I may have made in
> this or any other feature (long/short syllables, for instance).  It
> probably makes most sense to respond off-list.
>
> Many thanks.  Liels paldies!
>
> Hugh Olmsted
>
> Kas tie tādi, kas dziedāja,****
>
> Bez saulītes vakarā?****
>
> Tie ir visi bāra bē*rni,****
>
> Bargu kungu klausītāj’.****
>
>  ****
>
> 2.****
>
> Kurin’ ugun, silda gaisu,****
>
> Slauka gaužas asaras,****
>
> Krimta cietu pe*lavmaizi,****
>
> Avotiņa mē*rcē*dam’.****
>
>  ****
>
> 3.****
>
> Saulīt vē*lu vakarāi,****
>
> Sēžas zeltā laiviņā,****
>
> Rītā, agri uzlē*kdama,****
>
> Atstāj laivu līgojot.****
>
>  ****
>
> 4.****
>
> Kam, saulīte, vē*lu lēci,****
>
> Kur tik ilgi kavējies?****
>
> Aiz viņiemi kalniņiemi,****
>
> Bāra bē*rnus sildīdam’.****
>
>  ****
> [note: e* pronounced like ‘had/lad/jam']
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