Pronunciation Dictionary of Foreign Places

The way these words are transcribed or spelt in English must be enough of a clue;
there is a reason that english has its own name for some foreign place names, for example german München. English native speakers simply can't make the ü sound, neither the ch.

That doesn't help much with stress, though, Mathilda. Pamukkale, if I'm not mistaken, has primary stress on the first syllable and secondary stress on the third syllable but you can't tell that from the English, actually Turkish, spelling. I think the stress in ThessaLONiki is like that, and that's equally unknowable. I should know about Aswan and maybe Kashgar but I don't

I've got a pretty good hardbound copy of an old Webster's Dictionary of Geographical Names that I rescued from a trash bin that's good for this but I don't know a good online source. (And it's in my office and I'm at home so can't check on Aswan and Kashgar.)

I seem to remember that at one time the BBC had their pronunciation guide of difficult words and geographical names online, but I can't find it right now. That may have something to do with this book, which may be of help to you, but is not online.

Thanks all of you.
I also find a very helpful website at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary

In case anyone else is wondering, it's KASHgar and assWAN according to M-W.

In China we found that Kashgar was spoken of as KASHI, and Urumchi was pronounced ULLURUMCHI.

I think Kashgar and Urumchi are probably the English transliteration/transcription of the Uyghur names. Kashi and Wulumuqi are probably the English transliteration/transcription of the equivalent Chinese names. And these two Chinese names are probably the Chinese transliteration/transcription of the Uyghur names.

In China we found that Kashgar was spoken of as KASHI, and Urumchi was pronounced ULLURUMCHI.

In Mandarin Chinese, Kashgar is "Kāshí" and Urumqi is "Wūlǔmùqí." Kashgar and Urumqi are Uyghur cities, though, and it happens that the traditional English pronunciation is closer to the Uyghur than the Chinese is.

{simul-posted with #7}

Edited by: zashibis