Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Mispronunciation |
MispronunciationNoun1. Incorrect pronunciation. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Crosswords: Mispronunciation |
| Specialty definitions using "mispronunciation": verbage. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
All speakers must adhere to some standard of pronunciation in order to be understood by others. But standards vary among groups, and the extent to which any group has authority to claim that their standard is better, or even that they have the right to impose such a standard, is often the main source of contention.
Those who make claims about correct pronunciation often cite dictionaries as their authority, and so at this point a summary of the principles by which pronunciation guides in dictionaries are written may be helpful. We start by discussing two distinct standpoints from which pronunciation standards can be viewed.
Pretty much every area of linguistics can be treated in either a prescriptive or a descriptive way. Prescription is the formulation of rules explaining how things should be done, while description is the formulation of rules explaining how things actually are done.
Applied to pronunciation, a prescriptive approach involves telling people that this word should be pronounced in this way, that word should be pronounced in that way, and so on. For example, one might say that the word nuclear should be pronounced "N(Y)OO-klee-ur". Applied to pronunciation, a descriptive approach involves telling people that some people pronounce a word in this way, while others pronounce a word in that way. For example, one might say that the word nuclear is pronounced "N(Y)OO-klee-ur" by some people, and as "NOO-kyuh-lur" by some other people. (See nucular)
At its simplest, the prescriptive approach requires less work, since it does not necessarily depend on how words are actually spoken; one could simply write down one's own pronunciation rules, and add a note saying that this is what everyone else should do too. In practice, it is more complicated, since the prescriber will usually add further constraints relating to orthography (the way words are written), etymology (the way words originated), and other factors. On the other hand, the descriptive approach depends on fieldwork in which the differences in pronunciation systems used in day to day life among different people are researched and catalogued.
Before the advent of the modern scientific method, scholars in Europe largely looked to the Ancient Greek philosophers for the ways to do things. Aristotle was still regarded as the foremost authority in many areas of knowledge. His laws of logic were intended as prescriptions for (rather than descriptions of) thought, and a similar ethos was applied to other areas of life. There was a prevailing attitude that the route to knowledge was through studying ancient texts and reasoning about them in a detached way. After the birth of science, careful observations of how things actually worked began to be advocated instead. However, this methodology took a long time to be applied to language.
In England, scholars were unaware of how languages actually developed, and saw the modern tongues as mere corruptions of the old ones. They attempted to remodel English along the lines of Latin, resulting in the invention of such arbitrary rules as the rejection of the split infinitive. However, in the 18th century, William Jones did a detailed comparison of several languages, including Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and the Germanic languages, and proposed that they may have evolved from a common root language, perhaps extinct. (See Indo-European language.)
This study is often considered to have been the birth of modern linguistics. After that, more attention was paid to detailed comparisons of languages, and many of the mechanisms by which languages evolve were worked out. It became clear that languages have been constantly changing, splitting up, and diverging, ever since language began. Largely as a result of this, in the 20th and 21st centuries, there has been a trend towards acknowledging diversity within languages as a natural consequence of language evolution, and more effort has been put into studying the diversity than in actively trying to reduce it.
However, this is not to say that linguistic uniformity is not without its advantages. If everyone agreed to a single common standard of grammar, vocabulary, orthography, and pronunciation, then communication would be made easier. On the other hand, much diversity would be lost, and the study of linguistics would lose a lot of its subject material. Which is more important is debatable.
Early dictionaries, such as that by Samuel Johnson in England and later Noah Webster in the United States played a large role in making spelling more uniform. When dictionaries began to add pronunciation guides, they played a similar role there. At first, American dictionaries (at least) tended to avoid listing pronunciations that they considered non-standard, and thus they played a prescriptive role (the British tradition is far more descriptive). However, following the general trend in linguistics, American dictionaries are now becoming more descriptive while British dictionaries are becoming less so (with Australian ones remaining in between); this is the case in other respects as well as with pronunciation. For example, the pronunciation of the word nuclear as if it were spelled nucular is one that is frowned upon by some, but the pronunciation is listed in some dictionaries. However, to take this to mean that the pronunciation is considered either "correct" or "incorrect" is to misunderstand the role that these dictionaries are playing. They are simply reporting current usage.
We will now consider some examples of processes by which pronunciation can change, illustrating them with examples of words and names which are pronounced in varying ways, and describing arguments that have been put forward as to whether or not some of the ways are "mispronunciations". It should be noticed that both formal and slang English can be mispronunced.
There are many examples of words whose etymologies show them to have lost phonemes (consonant or vowel sounds) somewhere in their histories. For example, the silent k at the start of many words in the English language was originally pronounced. The word knight derives from the word cniht in Old English. Here, two consonant sounds have been lost: not only the c, but also the h were sounded, the latter being a voiceless fricative. Such changes have been happening throughout history, and few would seriously propose that we should reverse them all and pronounce knight as cniht. However, when the same thing happens in the present day, the simplified forms are widely labelled as "incorrect". For example, the word Antarctic is etymologically derived from the word Arctic ("ARK-tik"), and originally both cs were pronounced in the former word, as in the latter ("an-TARK-tik"). Indeed, this is still the usual pronunciation of the word. However, some speakers omit the first c sound from Antarctic, resulting in a pronunciation ("an-TAR-tik") which some disapprove of.Standards of pronunciation
Prescription versus description
The move from prescription to description
Treatment of pronunciation in dictionaries
Pronunciation change
Omission of phonemes
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mispronunciation."
| "Mispronunciation" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Mispronunciation" is used about 7 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 7 | 133,076 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
mispronunciation | 9 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "mispronunciation"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | خطأ لفظي. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | prononciation incorrecte. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | falsche Aussprache (mispronounciation). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | κακή προφορά, εσφαλμένη προφορά, εσφαλμένη παραπομπή (misquotation). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | "'י" לא כו ". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | rossz kiejtés, helytelen kiejtés. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | pronuncia scorretta, pronuncia sbagliata. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | mee-ockleymagh, mee-choraaghey (mispronounce). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ispronunciationmay pronúncia errada, adulterar a pronúncia de. (various references) pronunţie greşitã. (various references) неправильное произношение. (various references) mala pronunciación. (various references) yanlış telaffuz (lisp). (various references) peltek. (various references) неправильна вимова (cacology). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "mispronunciation": mispronunciations. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "mispronunciation" (pronounced 'Mis`pro*nun`ci*a"tion'): Abacination, Abaction, Abalienation, Abarticulation, Abbreviation, Abdication, Abduction, Aberration, Abevacuation, Abirritation, Abjection, Abjudication, Abjuration, Ablactation, Ablaqueation, Ablation, Ablegation, Abligurition, Abnegation, Abnodation, Abolition, Abomination, Abortion, Abreaction, Abrenunciation, Abreption, Abrogation, Abruption, Absentation, Absolution, Absorbition, Absorption, Abstention, Abstraction, Absumption, Accentuation, Acceptation, Acceptilation, Acception, Acclimatation, Acclimation, Acclimatization, Accombination, Accommodation, Accreditation, Accrementition, Accretion, Accubation, Accusation, Acervation. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-i-i-i-m-n-n-n-o-o-p-r-s-t-u" | |
-2 letters: pronunciations. | |
-3 letters: pronunciation. | |
-4 letters: conspiration, criminations, unionisation. | |
-5 letters: acrimonious, anisotropic, conniptions, consumption, crimination, inscription, insinuation, inspiration, nominations, nonmusician, positronium, ruminations. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-i-i-i-m-n-n-n-o-o-p-r-s-t-u" | |
+1 letter: mispronunciations. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4D 69 73 70 72 6F 6E 75 6E 63 69 61 74 69 6F 6E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
|
| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
|
Morse Code (1836) (references)-- .. ... .--. .-. --- -. ..- -. -.-. .. .- - .. --- -. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
|
Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001101 01101001 01110011 01110000 01110010 01101111 01101110 01110101 01101110 01100011 01101001 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)M i s p r o n u n c i a t i o n |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004D 0069 0073 0070 0072 006F 006E 0075 006E 0063 0069 0061 0074 0069 006F 006E |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)47758582848180878069756786758180 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage Frequency 4. Expressions: Internet | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Derivations 7. Rhymes 8. Anagrams | 9. Orthography 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
| Note to the press & webmasters - this dictionary can be linked, indexed, or referred to using the following non-English expressions: woordeboek, fjalor, معجم, قاموس, diccionariu, речник, diccionari, diksyonario, diksinario, 字典, gérlyver, slovník, ordbog, woordenboek, shimiyuc p'anca, orðabók, orðbók, dictionnaire, wurdboek, wörterbuch, λεξικό, אוצר מילים, szótár, uqausiit tukingit, dizionario, 字引 , じい, じびき, じて", ディクショナリー , じり", じしょ, '"かい, ディクショナリ , 사 , dizionari, recnik, fockleyr, dikshonario, słownik, dicionário, dicţionar, dicziunari, словарь, lolomi fefiloi, foclair, abardair, faclair, briathrachan, pukuntau, leksikon, rečnik, vocabbulariu, diccionario, sí-chazamagâma, ordbok, lexikon, พจนานุกรม, sözlük, ansiklopedik sözlük, словник, довідник, có tính chất sách vở, geirlyfr, geiriadur, for dictionary; definisie, qartësi, përcaktim, saktësi, الوضوحية في الشيء, حد, تحديد, تعريف, التحديد, الإيضاحية, яснота, сила, очертания, дефиниция, 定義 , 定义, definice, deskriptordefinition, definitie, määritelmä, définition, ορισμός, "'"ר", "'בל", meghatározás, definíció, definizione, 確定 , ディーゼル電気車 , デ'ドロ酢酸 , デフィニション , ディフィニション , ていぎ, かくてい, 의, geyrid, meenaghey, keeayllaght, baght, definishon, definição, definiţie, determinare, definire, определение, definicija, definición, definition, açıklama, belirleme, belirtme, kesinleştirme, tanım, tarif, seçiklik, tanımlama, чіткість, тлумачення, виразність, визначення, дефініція, ясність, чітка чутність, sự định rõ, sự định nghĩa, lời định nghĩa sự định, diffiniad, darnodiad, for definition; vertaling, transferim, transmetim, ترجمة من لغة أجنبية للغة الأم, ترجمة, إفتتان, транслация, огъване, превод, предаване, поддаване, тълкуване, превеждане, 翻译, překlad, oversættelse, translatie, taajuusmuutos, translaatio, traduction, oersetting, Übersetzung, μετάφραση, תור'מ ות, תר'ום, "עתק", "עתק, fordítás, traduzione, 翻訳 , へい"ういどう, やくしょ, やくしゅつ, "うどく, ほ"やく, トランスレーション , やくじゅつ, ほ"やくしょ, 번역, tradukshon, tradução, translaţie, tãlmãcire, traducere, сдвиг, трансляция, перемещение, перевод, tumačenje, traducción, översättning, tercüme, процес перекладу, переклад, пояснення, переміщення, sự dịch, sự biến th nh sự giải thích, trosiad, for translation; Arabies, arabishte, العربية, عربي, اللغة العربية, арабски език, арабски, 阿拉伯 , arabský, arabština, arábiskt, arabialainen, arabe, Arabysk, arabisch, αραβικόσ, ערבית, ערבי, arab, arabo, 아라비아, Arabish, arabir, arabic, арабский, Arapi, arapski, árabe, arabisk, าษาหรืออักขระอาหรับ, เกี่ยวกับอาระเบีย, arapça, arap, araplara özgü, арабська мова, арабський, tiếng A-rập, thuộc A-rập, for Arabic; Franse taal, Frans, franceze, francez, frëngjisht, frëng, frëngjishte, فرنسي, اللغة الفرنسية, الشعب الفرنسي, gall, френски език, френски, Pranses, 法國 , 法文 , 法語 , 法语, francouzština, francouzský, franskur, franskt, ranskalainen, français, Frânsk, französisch, γάλλοσ, γαλλικόσ, γαλλική γλώσσα, γαλλίδα, צרפתי, צרפתית, francia, Fraincis, francese, フレコン化 , フランス" , 仏文 , 仏 , ふつぶ", フレンチ , フランセ , ふつ, "랑스, Perancis, Ny Frangee, Mooinjey ny Frank, frances, franses, francês, francezii, francezã, franţuzesc, franţuzeşte, французский, Falani, francuski jezik, francuski, francuzi, francés, sí-Fulentji, fransk, franska, fransızca, Fransiz, fransızca ile ilgili, fransız, fransa ile ilgili, французька мова, французький, Ffrengig, isiFulentshi, for French; Duits, Duitser, Duitse taal, Germaan, gjerman, ضرب من الرقص, جرماني, المانية, الماني, اللغة الألمانية, роден, германски, немски език, немски, немец, готически, германец, 德語 , 德语, 德文 , 德國 , nìmecký, nìmec, tysker, Duitse, týskur, týskt, týskari, saksalainen, Allemand, Dútsk, Deutsche, Deutsch, "ερμανός, gjermanisht, 'רמ י, 'רמ ית, német, þjóðverji, þýskur, GearmÚnach, GearmÚinis, tedesco, ジプシー音楽 , ジャーマン , 독일, todesch, Germaanagh, Garmane, Germaanish, Carmane, aleman, Niemiec, niemiecki, alemão, alemand, neamţ, немецкий, Siamani, germanski, alemán, Tudesku, Doysri, mjeremani, mdachi, sí-Jalimáne, tysk, เยอรมัน, าษาเยอรมัน, Alman, німкеня, німецький, німець, $sisters german$ chị em ruột, $cousin german$ anh chị em con chú bác ruột, sister, Almaenwr, isiJalimane, iliJalimane, iJalimane, for German; Grieks, Griek, الإغريقي, يوناني, اللغة اليونانية, Griegu, гръцки език, гръцки, грък, Griyego, 希臘語 , 希腊语, řecký, řeètina, řek, græker, grikst, kreikkalainen, grec, Gryk, Gryksk, Gryks, grieche, ελληνικόσ, 'Ελληνας, יו ית, יו י, görög, Grikki, greco, ギリシア語 , ギリシア", 그리스, Greagish, Greagagh, grego, grèc, greacã, греческий, Eleni, grk, grčki jezik, grčki, griego, grek, Yunanli, yunanlı, yunanca, yunan, Rumca, yunanistan'a ait, rum, грек, гречанка, грецька мова, грецький, kẻ cắp b gi gặp nhau, quân bạc bịp tôi không thể hiểu được điều đó thật l kỳ phùng địch thủ, người Hy-lạp tiếng Hy-lạp kẻ bịp bợm, kẻ lừa đảo, Groegwr, for Greek; Jood, Hebreeus, Israeliet, hebraishte, يهودي, عبري, اليهودية, اللغة العبرية, العبرية, Hebréu, иврит, древен жител на юдея, юдейски, израилтянин, евреин, староеврейски, староеврейски език, юдей, 西伯来, 希伯來語 , hebrejský, hebrejka, hebrejec, hebrejština, joods, Hebreeuws, hebraiskt, juutalainen, hébreu, Hebrieusk, hebräisch, hebräer, εβραϊκόσ, εβραϊκά, εβραίοσ, עברית, עברי, zsidó, héber, izraelita, Eabhrais, ebraico, ebreo, ヘブライ語 , ヘブライ", Ewagh, Ew, Ewnish, hudiu, hebraico, hebreu, ebrèu, limba ebraicã, izraelit, evreu, evreiesc, ebraic, еврейский, еврей, древнееврейский, древнееврейский язык, Eperu, hibru, hebreo, dyu, Myahudi, Yahudi, hebreiska, hebreisk, jude, ชาวฮิบรู (ปัจจุบันคือประเทศอิสราเอลและปาเลสไตน์), าษาฮิบรู (ปัจจุบันคือประเทศอิสราเอลและปาเลสไตน์), musevi, ibranice, ibrani, іудей, старо"врейська мова, старо"врейський, іврит, "врейський, "врей, người Hê-brơ, Hebraeg, Hebreaidd, for Hebrew; Hongaars, Hongaar, hungarez, الهنغاري, مجري, هنغاري, المجري, اللغة الهنغارية, Húngaru, унгарски език, унгарски, унгарец, Hungaryan, 匈牙利語 , 匈牙利语, maïarský, maïar, maïarština, ungarer, Hongaarse, ungarskt, unkarilainen, hongrois, Hongaarsk, ungar, Ούγγρος, "ו 'רי, magyar, ungherese, 헝가리, Ungaarish, Ungaaragh, Węgier, ongrés, ungureşte, ungur, limba maghiarã, unguresc, maghiar, limba ungarã, венгр, венгерский, mađarski, mađar, mađarski jezik, húngaro, ungrare, ชาวฮังการี, macarca, macar, угорська мова, угорка, угорський, угорець, người Hung-ga-ri tiếng Hung-ga-ri, for Hungarian; Italianer, Italiaans, Italiaan, شخص إيطالي, اللغة الإيطالية, الإيطالي, إيطالي, Italianu, италиански език, италиански, италианец, Italyano, 意大利 , 意大利語 , 意大利语, italština, italský, ital, italiener, italienskt, italialainen, Italien, Italjaansk, italienisch, Ιταλός, italisht, איטלקי, איטלקית, olasz, Ítali, IodÚilis, italiano, 이탈리아, Iddaalish, Włoch, italianã, italienesc, italieneşte, italian, итальянский язык, итальянский, итальянец, Italia, italijanski, italijanski jezik, italijan, sí-Taliyáne, italienare, italiensk, italienska, เกี่ยวกับอิตาลี, ชาวอิตาลี, าษาอิตาลี, italyanca, italyan, італі"ць, італійська мова, італійський, італійка, for Italian; gjuha e popullsisë së ishullit men, manský, manština, manx, mann-szigeti nyelv, Gaelgagh, Yn Ghaelg, Manninish, Manninagh, язык жителей о-ва мэн, с о-ва мэн, s ostrva mana, los habitantes de la isla de man, lengua de la isla de man, de la isla de man, från ön man, man dili, man adası, менський діалект, менський, for manx; Portugees, portugez, portugalisht, اللغة البرتغالية, البرتغالية, البرتغالي, португалски език, португалски, португалец, Potuges, 葡萄牙语, 葡萄牙人 , 葡萄牙語 , portugalský, portugiser, portugisiskt, portugalilainen, portugais, Portugeesk, portugiesisch, πορτογάλοσ, ορτογάλος, portugál, Portaingéilis, portoghese, ポルトガル語 , ポルトガル", 포르투갈, Portiugish, Portiugagh, portugues, Portugalczyk, português, portughez, португальский, portugalski jezik, portugalski, portugalac, portugués, Mreno, si-Putúkezi, portugis, portekiz, Portekízlí, portekizli, portekizce, португальська мова, португальський, португалець, người B"-đ o-nha tiếng B"-đ o-nha, for Portuguese; Roemeen, rumun, Rumanu, румънски език, румънски, румънец, Romanyan, 罗马尼亚语, rumunský, rumunština, rumæner, Roemeens, rumenskt, romanialainen, roumain, Roemeensk, rumäne, ρουμανόσ, Ρουμάνος, román, rumeno, 루마니아, Roomainagh, romeno, romanés, român, румын, румынский, rumunski, rumunski jezik, rumano, rumänsk, румунська мова, румун, румунський, румунка, for Romanian; Russies, Rus, الروسية, روسي, اللغة الروسية, Rusu, руски, руски език, руснак, Rusyan, 俄語 , 俄语, 俄文 , ruština, ruský, russer, russur, russiskt, venäläinen, Russysk, Russe, russisch, Ρώσος, רוסי, orosz, rússneskur, Rússi, Rúisis, russo, ロシア語 , ロシア", 러시아, Rooshish, Rooshagh, russisk, Rosjanin, русский, Lusia, ruski jezik, ruski, ruso, sí-Rashîya, ryss, ชาวรัสเซีย, rusça, росіянка, росіянин, російська мова, російський, người Nga tiếng Nga, for Russian; Spaans, Spaanse taal, spanjoll, اللغة الأسبانية, الأسبانية, أسباني, испански език, испански, espanyoles, Espanyol, 西班牙语, 西班牙文 , 西班牙語 , španìlský, španìlština, spanskt, espanjalainen, espagnol, Spaansk, spanisch, ισπανικά, ισπανικόσ, ισπανοί, karaiñe'êmegua, ספר"ית, ספר"י, spanyol, SpÚinnis, spagnolo, スペイン語 , スパイ罪 , スペイン", スパニッシュ , 스페인, Spaainagh, Spaainish, spañó, espanhol, espanhòl, spaniolesc, spanioleşte, spaniol, испанский, Sipaniolo, španski jezik, španski, español, spanska språk, spansk, ispanyollar, ispanyolca, ispanyol, іспанська мова, іспанський, for Spanish; Turks, turk, تركي أحد أبناء تركيا, اللغة التركية, Turcu, турски, турски език, Turko, 土耳其, 土耳其語 , tureètina, turecký, turkist, turkkilainen, turque, turc, Turksk, türkisch, τούρκικοσ, טורקי, török, Yn Turkish, Turkagh, turcesc, турецкий, turski jezik, turski, turco, turkisk, türk, türkçe, турецька мова, турецький, tiếng Thổ nhĩ kỳ, for Turkish; Тюркменски Език, turkmener, Turkmeen, Turkmeense, turkmenistanilainen, Turkmène, Turkmene, Turkmenin, Τουρκομάνος, turkmeno, turcomano, turquemeno, turquemene, turkmenistanier, for Turkmen; 乌克兰, for Ukranian; |
