Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

Each language in the world has some particular sounds which makes the distinguishable to foreign speakers. E.g. Tamil has the AaaA-ending, Bengali has lots of “Thik-Ache”, “Bhaaalo”, and “ache” and Telugu has many “u” and “ulu”. I do not know, how German sounds to the foreign ears since it is my mother tongue. But I can imagine that it is very much forced. For instance, if we say “Zug” (train) then the Z in the beginnning is very much forced, so that is sounds like the s sound made by a snake. Or the CH in Nacht (night) which is a sound as if someone snores hard.

Since most people in the world have a mother tongue different from English, it is quite interesting to guess from where someone comes from. The Americans roll the R in the back of the through and the British have a nice intonation. In Indian languages there are some things quite different:

First, many sayings and sentences are translated one-by-one into the English language. So sometimes you understand the single words, but the meaning of the total sentences is a mystery. One example: If you tell a story wbout something that had happened or the conversation get stuck, many times my friends asked me “Then?”. Then? I do not know. I mean the story is over or I do not know, what else to say. It can be quite irritating. Just imaging someone keeps saying “Then?” all the time, when you tell something.

In many Indian languages there are two different pronounciations for T: One is a dental T spoken with the tongue touching the teeth, the second one is produced by touching the gum with the tongue. Although I do not hear the difference, many Indians can tell, what kind of T has been just said. However since the existance of a dental T many Indians do not know the difference between the dental T and the English th, since the position of the tongue is almost the same. In addition the R is not spoken in the back of the throat, but with the tip of the tongue vibrating against the gum. This make sometimes funny sounds, such as TttRRRRilleRRR for thriller (a cycle brand) or “Absolutely notting was tere.”