Hot answers tagged pronunciacion
24
It’s a basic rule of Spanish phonotactics. In a nutshell, the structure of a Spanish syllable does not allow it:
(C1 (C2)) (S1) V (S2) (C3 (C4))
A Spanish syllable consists of an optional onset, consisting of one or two consonants; a required nucleus, consisting of a vowel optionally preceded by and/or followed by a semivowel; and an optional coda, ...
20
In Ancient Castillian, words like "caja", "bajo", and "jaraba" were originally spelled with an "x", and pronounced as "sh" (voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant).
In the mid- to late-1700s the spellings were changed from an "x" to a "j", including words like "Mejico" and "Tejas". During that time, the "j" was actually pronounced as a "j" in English. Over ...
18
This is a very common defect. This is one of the last sounds the children learn.
In fact, I was unable to pronounce it correctly until I had some corrective training.
Usually, it's not considered a speech impediment, but it will make the speaker sound dorky.
It's worth noting than some regions (for example, many provinces in Argentina) do not pronounce ...
15
Cuando se trata de siglos, los números romanos del I al X se leen indistintamente como ordinales o como cardinales y se da preferencia, en el lenguaje culto, al uso del ordinal, pero del siglo XI en adelante solo se utiliza en la lectura el cardinal.
Así, por ejemplo:
Siglo I: "siglo primero" o "siglo uno".
Siglo II: "siglo segundo" o "siglo dos".
Siglo ...
13
Generally there is no difference in the pronunciation, sometimes it could be a difference in the stress, the pronoun would never be used as a "weak form" or contracted.
"No iremos porque (e)l niño no quiere ir" The bracketed "e" could be elided.
"No iremos porque él no quiere ir" The final "e" in porque and the inital "e" in él would be both pronounced.
10
See the Wikipedia article on yeísmo, which includes maps of the pronunciations. To summarize:
in some regions, ll /ʎ/ and y /ʝ/ are distinct
in other regions, ll and y have merged to /ʝ/ ("yeísmo")
in very few areas, ll and y have merged to /ʎ/ ("lleísmo")
Note that some specific dialects, like Rioplatense, pronounce their merged /ʝ/ as [ʒ] or [ʃ].
9
The "strong R" (as in Rat) is spelled as just one r when in the middle of a word follows an L, M, N or S. As it's said in the comments, maybe M should not be considered because I can't think on any word with "mr".
Examples:
Alrededor, Conrado, desratizar...
la letra R
8
Dialects
There are three different terms used to describe this dialectal difference: ceceo, seseo, and distinción.
Dialects that are said to have the ceceo use "th" instead of an "s" sound. Dialects with the seseo use the "s" sound. The distinción actually uses both, distinguishing between one and the other.
Example
For example, the words "casa" ...
8
When 2 vowels appear in a row in he same word they belong to different syllables (there's an hiatus on them). So you would pronounce a longer sound but you have to take into account that you should make the stress in the stressed syllable of the word.
For example
"Le" vs "Lee"
Le: one syllable
Lee: 2 syllables (le-e)
In this case "Le" has ...
8
No, tal como dice la RAE:
f. Séptima letra del abecedario latino internacional y octava del español, que representa, ante las vocales e, i, un fonema consonántico fricativo, velar y sordo, y en los demás casos un fonema consonántico velar y sonoro. Su nombre es ge.
ORTOGR. Para representar el fonema velar y sonoro ante e, i, se escribe una u ...
7
They are usually pronounced as if the "p" didn't exist. It's because these words comes from Greek. Here RAE explains it.
For words starting with Ps-
El grupo consonántico ps, resultado de la transcripción de la letra
griega psi, aparece en posición inicial de palabra en numerosas voces
cultas formadas sobre raíces o palabras griegas que comienzan ...
7
Esto es lo que dice el DPD sobre la pronunciación de las siglas:
2. Tipos de siglas según su lectura
a) Hay siglas que se leen tal como se escriben, las cuales reciben
también el nombre de acrónimos (→ acrónimo): ONU, OTAN, láser, ovni.
Muchas de estas siglas acaban incorporándose como sustantivos al
léxico común. Cuando una sigla está ...
6
The RAE's Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas explains the pronunciation of ll is:
The voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ (e.g. English yeast, close to English j) in the majority of Spanish speaking regions. This pronunciation is identical to the recommended pronunciation for y and this merger is called yeísmo.
The palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/ (e.g. Portuguese ...
6
Por lo que yo tengo entendido, los extranjerismos, específicamente los anglicismos que es de lo que estamos hablando, son palabras de lenguas extranjeras llevadas al ámbito de uso del idioma local, es decir, que el idioma se ha apropiado del término llevándolo a su terreno.
Esto se traduce en, muchas veces, un cambio en la escritura de la palabra, y en la ...
5
LL is usually pronounced like the "y" in "yellow." There are some regional variations, however. In parts of Spain it has the sound of the "ll" in "million," and in parts of Argentina it has the "zh" sound of "azure." Examples: llama, calle, Hermosillo. See here.
5
X pronunciation in Spanish:
The Spanish x is usually pronounced as the English ks between vowels, or as the English s before consonants and at the beginning of words. In words of foreign/indigenous origin, it is pronounced as the English h or sh.
In the two examples you provided, the origin of the words is a foreign or indigenous language:
The name ...
5
Wikilengua has this:
Atlas Oral
It's a website where people from all the word can upload their own recordings of short sentences indicating the accent they have. The site has different maps of countries or regions and over it you can see the recordings uploaded with the accent or the origin of the speaker. For example for Argentina is this one. So far, ...
5
You are right. This phenomenon goes all the way back to Vulgar Latin and applies to other Romance languages, as well.
First of all, a little phonetics background: the vowels /e/ and /i/ are what phoneticians call front vowels, because they are articulated in the frontal part of the mouth, unlike, for example, /a/, /o/ and /u/, which are articulated more to ...
5
I am an Spanish speaker struggling with English, and I can't do anything but recommend what I do when trying to improve my English pronunciation. I'm not sure if what I do is good, bad or just so-so... It's just what I do and what I can say based solely in my personal experience :)
Try to watch movies or TV shows in Spanish. In the case of the TV shows, ...
5
Yes, in Spanish there is generally no way to abbreviate the years. The only time it is used is referring to the years in the XX century. Example:
Do you remember that concert back in eighty-nine?
Recuerdas ese concierto en el ochenta y nueve?
Other than in that case, the full year is pronounced. Even for this century's years.
Do you remember ...
4
Generally speaking, when you have a diacritic accent, its role is solely to mark the grammatical function of the word, and does not have any influence with the stress of that word.
The stress, as @Laura already stated, depends only on the type of word, so:
An article (el) will be elided but a pronoun (él) won't
A possessive adjective (mi) would be elided ...
4
Spanish words can't begin with sibilant blends, so when such a word is made or borrowed, an "e" is usually prepended to mesh with the pattern of Spanish pronunciation. It's not just "sp."
Some English cognates, either with common Latin origins or borrowed anglicisms:
esbelto (svelte)
escasez (scarcity)
esfera (sphere)
eslogan (slogan)
esmog (smog)
esnob ...
4
In spanish all syllables must have at least a "vowel sound" because without a vowel a consonant can't be pronounced. With vowel sound we can also add the letter "Y" in words like whisky (for syllable ky).
So as all words starting with the sound "ESP"/"SP" should be divided in two syllables so S should be the first and P should belong to the next one. As the ...
4
When I started learning Spanish in high school, I was not able to roll my r's. I learned over a weekend by practicing almost constantly (perhaps to the annoyance of some of those around me).
The movement of the tongue when pronouncing the single r is the same as when you pronounce the t in "water". I practiced by making that sound by itself, then trying ...
4
I only found Dialectoteca del Español (on the popup window click on "Factores geográficos"). It has some videos of native speakers from different regions.
But I think it's missing some dialects (for instance, there are no speakers from Argentina there).
Edit
Look for the "Audio clips" section on this blog post, there are recording from various Spanish ...
4
There is an orthographic rule:
a, e, o are strong vowels, i, u are weak vowels. y is like i.
There can be only one strong vowel in a syllable, they never combine into a diphthong. ca-os, le-ón, le-er
When a strong and a weak vowel are next to each other (or separated by h) they form a diphthong. Eu-ro-pa, hia-to, rei-na
There are cases when a strong vowel ...
4
In a book I have on Spanish phonetics and phonology (Fonética y fonología españolas by Armin Schwegler and Juergen Kempff), this is classified as la conversión de hiatos en diptongos (interior de palabras). Some excerpts (note that not all linguistic symbols are exact, emphasis on toalla mine):
Como ya hemos explicado en el capítulo anterior, en el habla ...
4
Como ha aclarado JolSauron, en el centro y norte de España no hay ceceo, sino el dialecto castellano puro y duro, que pronuncia /s/ o /θ/ según esté en el español escrito la "s" o la "z" (o la "c" cuando tiene sonido "z" en "ce" y"ci"), y que en España se ha considerado mucho tiempo, y de hecho se considera, el español "culto", "correcto" u "ortodoxo".
El ...
3
It depends on what correct means and in which circumstances.
In a Spanish exam, you'll certainly fail with the example you gave, but if all you want is to be understood by native speakers, you'll mostly be alright as we all spanish speakers can understand each other no matter what dialect each one speaks.
This being said, I'm Argentinian and once in ...
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