Talk:Miriam Makeba

Audio files added

I've added the audio files to this article infobox which demonstrate the correct pronunciation of the article's title which can be accesses on creative commons here. Bobbyshabangu _talk 19:43, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Cool, thanks, perfect! I've removed the request template then. When I read the edit summary in the above-linked edit, you were the first Wikimedian I thought of, so I contacted you. Graham87 (talk) 10:30, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

Also see this archived discussion; I'll leave the IPA (if we go down that road) to someone else. Graham87 (talk) 10:36, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

Thank you so much for seeing this through. I hope y'all see why it was essential for a South African to record the audio. I also don't know how to use the IPA(c), so I'll leave it to someone. Thank you again. dxneo (talk) 10:51, 21 September 2024 (UTC)

I've tagged it as needing IPA; @Kwamikagami:, could you help here? Thanks. Graham87 (talk) 02:42, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Is that the Xhosa pronunciation? Normally for the lead we give the English. I've always said m@-KAY-b@, but I don't know what's usual -- I've also heard MAK-i-b@ and m@-KEE-b@. — kwami (talk) 12:05, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Yes it is. I've mostly heard the first one by monolingual English speakers. Graham87 (talk) 14:33, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

I can certainly add that, tho it's a bit OR-ish.

I could do the Xhosa, based off the recording, but my knowledge of that language is minimal, and I don't know we need it. Better to have s.o. who knows what they're doing IMO. — kwami (talk) 14:41, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Also, although my impression was that her first language was Xhosa, i don't know it wasn't Swazi, or that she wasn't natively bilingual, so maybe Swazi should get equal attention? — kwami (talk) 14:46, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Yeah I'm not sure what to do here. I've never heard of her speicifically using the Swazi language (even for recordings) but that doesn't mean that she didn't speak it. Graham87 (talk) 15:02, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

But we do know of Xhosa, so we should probably just go with that. And i could do the IPA, but it would be better if a speaker did that. — kwami (talk) 15:10, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Yeah makes sense ... I've pinged Bobbyshabangu. Graham87 (talk) 15:16, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

@Kwamikagami on average South Africans speak 4 languages fluently. Miriam Makeba could speak all the Nguni language fluently including Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele and IsiZulu. Having lived in Soweto means she could also speak and understand Sesotho, Pedi, and Setswana. In fact she has songs written in all these languages including my favorite "Hauteng" written in Setswana about the sad living conditions of the miners in Gauteng during the apartheid era. I know she could also speak French fluently being a citizen of 10 countries and carrying 9 passports. . Being fluent in different languages myself including SiSwati (my mother tongue) and IsiXhosa, I'll do the IPA. Bobbyshabangu _talk 18:39, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Thank you Mr Shabangu. dxneo (talk) 19:10, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Yes, thanks.

I was thinking of the reason we have her name in Xhosa, and that's that she's Xhosa. But she's also half Swazi, and that challenges our choice. — kwami (talk) 00:01, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

Hello, everyone. I have attempted n IPA transcription of the Xhosa pronunciation in order to group all pronunciations together, and have only now seen this discussion. If someone could double check my IPA, it would be perfect. (To be fair, I didn’t dare to transcribe the whole name, I stopped at the surname.) Thanks for uploading the audio. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 21:03, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

IPA(?)

Question, are these two different pronunciations, where /məˈkeɪbə/ mə-KAY-bə is English, and [máˈkʼêːɓà̤] is Xhosa? Because the first one is definitely not how the name is pronounced. dxneo (talk) 20:22, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Yes, the first is the English one. Could you elaborate on that though? I quickly searched and /məˈkeɪbə/ is the only approximation I found, at least as a phonetic transcription – see the source I just added. ~ IvanScrooge98 (talk) 20:54, 1 December 2024 (UTC)