Pronunciation ChallengeThe Rosetta Stone - 6 Minute English

People were exploring all sorts of means of trying to decipher, including trying to link the script with Chinese to see if that offered a parallel.

It was known from the classical authors that the Egyptian script contained great, mysterious pearls of wisdom from the Egyptian philosophers and people had hugely high expectations and all attempts to decipher, to get a grip on the script, I think, had really failed.

People were exploring all sorts of means of trying to decipher, including trying to link the script with Chinese to see if that offered a parallel.

“What I hate is ignorance, smallness of imagination, the eye that sees no farther than its own lashes. All things are possible… Who you are is limited only by who you think you are.” – Egyptian Book of The Dead


Yo! It’s me, Hubert, and I’ve been in the mood for topics relating to language learning lately, so why not go back in history and talk about the famous Rosetta Stone! In the last episode I touched upon computers and the difficulties with learning a language. In this episode, we’re watching a video about how the Rosetta Stone was deciphered and how it revealed a lot of Egyptian history to humankind! Actually, do you guys even know about the Rosetta Stone? Stay tuned to find out but first, let’s get to today’s featured sentence.


Today’s featured sentence:
“People were exploring all sorts of means of trying to decipher, including trying to link the script with Chinese to see if that offered a parallel.”


I’ll say that again.

“People were exploring all sorts of means of trying to decipher, including trying to link the script with Chinese to see if that offered a parallel.”

Ok, now time for the Pronunciation Tips.

First word.
Decipher (duh·sai·fr)
Three syllables. First syllable is duh (which has a short ‘u’ sound), then sai (like the word ‘sigh’ like a big sigh) and then fr (sounds like ‘fer’). Fer. Decipher.

Next one is,
Script (skript)
One syllable. I chose this word because of its spelling. It’s a very soft ‘p’ sound for the word, script. Be wary of that. Script.


And our last one for pronunciation would be:
Parallel (peh·ruh·lel)
Three syllables. First we have peh (like a short ‘e’ sound), then ruh (like a short ‘u’ sound) and lel. Parallel.



Moving onto Vocabulary!

The first word is:
1. Decipher
Definition
to discover the meaning of something written badly or in a difficult or hidden way
Used in a sentence you could say,
“Can you decipher this code for me?”

Next word,
2. Script
Definition
a set of letters used for writing a particular language
An example would be,
“The invitation was written in beautiful italic script.”

And lastly,
3. Parallel
Definition:
If two or more lines, streets, etc. are parallel, the distance between them is the same all along their length.
Used in a sentence you can say:
“Draw a pair of parallel lines.”


Although the video contained nothing more than a picture of the Rosetta Stone, the content was still very interesting. Much of ancient Egyptian history could still be a mystery had it not been for all the hard work of Jean-François Champollion and the people who came before him. Have any of you been to Egypt? Visiting Egypt has always been on my bucket-list. What’s a bucket-list? Well, I’ll have to start by giving you another idiom. “Kick the bucket”, means simply, to die. A bucket list would mean a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime before they die. What’s on your bucket list? Record your recordings and maybe even include some bucket list items! It’ll be interesting to read all of your answers! Alright, that about does it for today’s episode of Pronunciation Challenge. See ya!