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This may not be as exotic as, say, Basque or Sorb, but I can lead off with German:

1 eins (the "ei" is pronounced like the "i" in "Hi".)
2 zwei stvi
3 drei dri
4 vier feer
5 fünf foonf (not quite, but English doesn't have an ü-sound)
6 sechs sex
7 sieben zeeben
8 acht oct (the "ch" is actually just as in the Scottish pronounciation "loch")
9 neun noyn
10 zehn tsayn

The number "eins" is also inflected as the indefinite article, but I will spare you the (potentially involved) grammar lesson.

Also, for those of you who know your way around multiple keyboards, you can add keyboard layouts in CONTROL PANEL -> REGIONAL AND LANGUAGE SETTINGS, "Languages" tab. A button then appears in the system tray showing the currently active language abbreviation; click here to load a different keyboard layout.

"Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease." - Kurt Vonnegut

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Thu Jun 16th, 2005 at 01:02:27 AM EST
You might want to adjust your phonetic pronunciations a bit.  Tell a German that you want sex (or zex) and they're going to look at you a bit odd, especially in the south.

On a trip to Austria many years ago, a friend of mine got on an elevator.  Different people were calling out their floors to the person by the buttons.  She called out "sex, bitte" and everyone stared a bit.  Yes, she'd said "SEX, please" instead of "six, please."

I was always lousy at pronunciation, but I believe the chs sound is a bit softer than an x.  It sounds more like you're hissing towards the back of the the throat than the full stop you get with x.
by Hoya90 (hoya90jmk-at-yahoo-dot-com) on Thu Jun 16th, 2005 at 04:19:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well now of course you're reminding me of the classic movie "European Vacation" ;)

I've lived in more than one Spanish speaking country and to this day I still have difficulty getting people understand me when I say "tres" (3).  Usually I hold up three fingers whenever ordering 3 anything...

Approximate pronunciations are all we can do sometime ;)

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

by soj on Thu Jun 16th, 2005 at 04:37:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I take your point about the s in sex. Zee it shall be!

I'm going to stick with the x though... Although you are correct, I suspect that difference may be a little fine for most US natives to master right off the bat.

"Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease." - Kurt Vonnegut

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Thu Jun 16th, 2005 at 08:11:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Remember in German it is Sex (for sex) and sechs (for six), emphasizing the zee sound would only reinforce the problem!!

It's all in the x!!  Go with the ch as in the Scottish word Loch.  That might be enough to help most US natives.
by Hoya90 (hoya90jmk-at-yahoo-dot-com) on Thu Jun 16th, 2005 at 04:50:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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