Spanish Pronunciation 101

Phonetic conferences in September

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Not many posts lately, I've been really busy translating this incredibly long book. BUT, for those of you knowledge starving conference going prosumers of whatever it is you blog readers are, here is a list of VERY interesting phonetic congresses and conferences from all around the world to attend in September.

8-12 September
TSD 2008 Eleventh International Conference on Text, Speech and Dialogue
Brno, Czech Republic.

15-17 September
3rd TIE Conference on Tone and Intonation
Lisboa, Portugal.

18-20 September
Phonetics and Phonology of Media Discourse
Warsaw, Poland.

22-26 September
Interspeech 2008
Brisbane, Australia.

22-26 September
Special Session of Interspeech 2008: Forensic Speaker Recognition: Traditional and Automatic Approaches
Brisbane, Australia.

26-28 September
Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology
University of Texas, Austin TX, USA.

Nothing in Argentina, sadly. If you attend any, please tell me how it went!

Plosive epenthesis, part II

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:03:00 +0000

Last post started with a joke and ended with a couple of questions:

1. Do the words 'tense' and 'tents' sound alike when said by a native English speaker?

Well, yes they do, as some fellow phonetic enthusiastics commented. But, some people are not convinced yet. Chris left a comment explaining why: "Some native speakers may say they sound different but most likely they are only seeing the letters in their head as they say the two words, imagining a difference." For the skeptics out there, here is further evidence:

Exhibit a. Gimson's Pronunciation of English, sixth Edition, page 187.

"Few speakers regularly maintain the distinction between /ns/ and /nts/ which is widespread in regional speech, e.g. distinguishing the final clusters in mince-mints, tense-tents, assistance-assistants, /nts/ tending to be used in all cases."

Exhibit b. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Just look the words up, either tense, assistance or mince. You'll find a little /t/ between the /n/ and the /s/ in all of them.

Exhibit c. Well, if the words tents and tense sounded different, the joke would not be funny, would it?

But you're here to learn Spanish pronunciation, so let's see the second question:

2. Do the words 'tense' and 'tents' sound alike when said by a native Spanish speaker?

As you guys mentioned, it depends on the speaker's phonetic proficiency. I'll tell you about my personal case: after studying English phonetics for about 4 years, I just realized last week I pronounced once with no /t/ between the /n/ and the /s/. Is that a pronunciation mistake? No. Does it sound like something a native English speaker would say? No.

So... WHERE IS THE POINT?

English speakers usually say /nts/ all the time, in words like canción, ansiedad or cansado, and it sounds horrible. To make things worst, you guys don't even realize it, because there is no distinction between /nts/ and /ns/ in English! In Spanish there is a huge distinction: /ns/ sounds ok, /nts/ sounds like you just got off the plane and are looking for a place to exchange your dollars, or euros, as this issue is very common for German speakers as well.

How to avoid it?

Good question! Again, Gimson's wise words come to our help. Bear in mind he's talking about how this thing is done, we want to avoid it:

"This plosive epenthesis, the insertion of /t/ between /n/ and /s/, results from the raising of the soft palate before the oral closure for /n/ is relaxed for the fricative /s/.

I did promise theoretical mumbo jumbo did I not? Gimson writes for specialists, I'm sure there must be an easier way to explain this. What do you do inside your mouth to say /ns/ instead of /nts/?

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Plosive Epenthesis. Yes, it does sound complex.

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:50:00 +0000

Guy goes to the doctor and says, Doc, I've got a problem! One day I feel like I'm a teepee, the next day I fee like I'm a wigwam. Teepee! Wigwam! Teepee! Wigwam!

Doctor says, Relax! You're two tents! (too tense!)

Behind this rather stupid joke (thanks Kid's Turn Central) you will find a device utterly common in English pronunciation. This very same device sounds utterly horrible when speaking Spanish.

I'll give you a clue. Plosive means 'sound produced by a total closure of the oral passage' (that would be your mouth). Epenthesis means 'insertion of a sound'. Second clue: there's no name for that thing in Spanish.

Theoretical mumbo jumbo will arrive in some post soon. In the meantime, I've entrusted one of my students with a little poll:

-Do the words 'tense' and 'tents' sound alike when said by a native English speaker?

-Do the words 'tense' and 'tents' sound alike when said by a native Spanish speaker?

What do you think?

If you don't want to miss the answer to this week's mystery riddle, subscribe to the Spanish 101 RSS feed. If you want to insult me for abusing bold letters, send me a mail, or leave a comment below.

Why do we study pronunciation?

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:05:00 +0000

To keep our god-fearing heads attached to our bodies...

Judges 12:6
«then they would say to him, "Say now, 'Shibboleth.'" But he said, "Sibboleth," for he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim.»

More on shibboleth and the use of language to distinguish social groups, here.

Rule#3, part II, Spanish vowels end differently from English vowels

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Sat, 24 May 2008 20:43:00 +0000

I took some time off. Off blogging actually -I turned in some papers, started some group pronunciation workshops and sat for a couple of midterms, including a German pronunciation Klausur. Chaos seems to be over now, so back with our Spanish vowels.

Some time ago I posted an overview of the Spanish vowel system, and told you there were three general rules you should follow:

1.- Spanish vowels are short
2.- Spanish vowels are pure
3.- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!

Last post was about how Spanish vowels started, with a slow vibration, as opposed to English vowels, which usually start with a glottal stop. But, how do they end? It´s fairly simple, and it´s also connected with the two other rules we´ve previously discussed.

When an English word ends with a vowel, our vocal folds stop vibrating slowly. This gives the vowel that extra length, along with that extra sound quality, a sort of diphthong that is produced as the vowel slowly fades out. Just try it yourself, the vowel sound from "not" has not the same length as the vowel sound from "no".

In Spanish, if you say "no" with that long, diphthongized vowel sound, well, you won´t be speaking Spanish at all. When a Spanish word ends with a vowel, that vowel is short, and the vibration of the vocal folds ends sharply, the completely different from the ending of English vowels. Actually, it resembles the way English vowels begin, and if you think it doesn´t, you should be reading the previous post.

This happens with every vowel sound, but is specially noticeable for the sound /o/. Just below you´ll find a clip from the movie "Take the lead", featuring Antonio Banderas. I didn´t like the movie at all, but I just love the way Antonio Banderas seems to be completely unable to produce English vowels properly. Pay special attention at 0:30, when he says "no". He mimics the diphthong, he does says /nou/, but the vowel ends way too sharply to sound English.

Now I don´t know if he´s faking the Spanish accent or just can´t help it, and I actually don´t care much. This same clip would be very useful to discuss the Spanish base of articulation, those general rules that govern the whole of the phonetic system -what makes Spanish sound Spanish. I´ve already told you about the vowels, can you hear anything else?

Rule #3- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:40:00 +0000

If you´ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you already know how Spanish vowels are:

1.- Spanish vowels are short
2.- Spanish vowels are pure
3.- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!

Today´s topic is rule#3. I´ve decided to split this one in two. This post will be about how vowels start. And please, if you come up with any shorter way to say that "Spanish vowels start and finish differently from English vowels", leave a comment below! But you should read the whole post first.

How do English vowels start?

Put yourself in `careful speech´ mode, and say cooperate, geometry and reaction. If you were careful enough, you must have noticed a short pause, a sort of staccato, like co-operate, ge-ometry, re-action. This device is used as a syllable boundary marker, and is called glottal stop, represented [ʔ]. In English, we also use this glottal stop when we want to apply a particular emphasis on a word, for example, It´s [ʔ] empty, She´s [ʔ] awfully good. But this glottal stop is not only a pause...

Your vocal folds are two folds of ligament and elastic tissue which can be pressed together or parted through muscular action. The opening between these folds is called the glottis. Biologically, the vocal folds are a valve, they prevent stuff to enter our lungs (other than air, duh!). When we produce the [z] sound, like a bee, those folds open and close about 150 times in a second, pretty amazing! But we can also close them, building air pressure below them, and that is called a glottal stop.

As I just said, in `careful´ English, we produce this glottal stop to either emphasize a word, or to show a syllable boundary. In German, we use glottal stops all the time, whenever words or syllables start with a vowel. The reason I´m telling you this? In Spanish there is no such thing as a glottal stop. That brings us to the next question...

How do Spanish vowels start?

In Spanish, whenever a word starts with a vowel, our vocal folds start vibrating slowly. And when there are two adjacent vowels, we do not make a pause between them, we actually join them together.

If it sounds easy, it´s because it actually is. But reading won´t help you much. Start by listening to yourself and others. Are you producing a glottal stop at the beginning of vowels? Do Spanish speakers produce glottal stops?

This is only half the problem. Now I got you thinking, maybe you can tell me: why do we say that Spanish vowels finish differently from English vowels?

Subscribe to the Spanish Pronunciation 101 RSS feed for the last post on Spanish vowels, coming soon!

Rule #2, Spanish vowels are PURE

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:51:00 +0000

Did you know that the 5-vowel system is the most common vowel system in the world? The next two are the 6 and the 7-vowel systems. Now, you can count English vowels in whatever way you like, but there will be only one result: the English vowel system is by far one of the less common and more complex types. Amazingly, babies acquire the complete vowel system earlier than the consonant system, usually by the age of 2. Regrettably, I´m assuming we´re all a bit older than that, and learning the English vowels, for me, was a pain in the butt, just like learning the Spanish vowels will be a pain in the butt for you. Let´s recap those Spanish vowels rules:

1.- Spanish vowels are short
2.- Spanish vowels are pure
3.- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!

So, what do we mean by "pure"? When asked to describe the Spanish vowels, one of my students said: "Suenan igual a como se escriben". Well... not very technical, but true nonetheless. I´ll give you some definitions, you pick the one that suits you the best:

Pure vowels are monophthongs.
Pure vowels have one and only one tongue position.
Pure vowels do not glide from one vowel sound to another.
Pure vowel´s initial and final articulations are relatively fixed.

And yes, Spanish vowels are pure, while, according this Wikipedia article, "In the English language, there are in practice relatively few monophthongs". Still, what does this mean?

It means that whenever you say "no", you´re producing a vowel glide, the quality of which pretty much depends on the type of English accent you´ve got. A vowel glide, again according this Wikipedia article, is "a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement, or glide, from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme".

Switching back to Spanish, what does this mean? Well, it means that if, when saying "mono", the two /o/ sounds do not come out with the same quality, you´re probably sounding like a tourist.

Every vowel in Spanish is produced with one and only one vowel sound.

And that´s what we mean when we say that Spanish vowels are pure.

It´s not that hard, really, but it does involve some work. What kind of work exactly? I´m glad you asked, because that means you haven´t read this blog much. To produce the Spanish vowels properly, you just have to apply stronger tension to the muscles around your mouth (one of the main features of the Spanish base of articulation, remember?).

So... what about diphthongs, you ask? Of course there are diphthongs in Spanish, silly! But that´s a story for another post.-

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Rule #1, Spanish vowels are SHORT

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:20:00 +0000

Last post was about vowels, remember? If you haven´t read it, don´t worry, here´s the gist of it:

1.- Spanish vowels are short
2.- Spanish vowels are pure
3.- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!

For those of you who think the rules are not self explanatory, I´ll write a post on each of them separately, starting with rule #1.

Long vowels and short vowels

In English we have long vowel sounds, like /i:/ from feel, and short vowels, like /ɪ/ from fill. We all agree on that, right? The same with the long /ɑ:/ from bard and the short /ʌ/ from bud. Long vowels seem to last more, don´t they? You can´t possible think that these vowels last the same:

bid and bead
good and food
cad and card
cod and cord
(for)ward and word

(Scottish readers out there, yes: maybe some of those vowels have the same length, but only when YOU say them!)

(Really picky readers out there: yes, the opposition between these vowels is not only the length, it´s actually a complex of quality and quantity, and of those two factors it is likely that quality carries the greater contrastive weight. Nevertheless, today´s topic is duration, so bear with me)

Now, suppose that long /i:/ from feel lasted 1 second (I know it doesn´t last that long, just play along for pedagogical reasons), and suppose that short /ɪ/ from fill lasted 0,5 seconds, how long would you say a Spanish vowel sound like the /i/ from sí lasts? No idea? Let´s consider this:

There are no long vowels and short vowels in Spanish, they all last roughly the same. If you grab a recorder and start measuring sound waves, surely they will not all measure exactly the same, but the thing is, those Spanish vowels that are a bit shorter, are longer than short English vowels, and those Spanish vowels that are a bit longer, are shorter than long English vowels. Not easy to follow, so back to the example:

If a long English vowel lasted 1 second and a short English vowel lasted 0,5 seconds, every single Spanish vowel would last about 0,6 seconds. And most importantly, the difference in duration between Spanish vowels is so subtle, that you should aim at keeping them not only short, but also as similar in duration as possible.

Short vowels and shorter vowels (aka prefortis clipping, for us phonetic geeks)

Now you know why I say Spanish vowels are short, but there´s a lot more to say about vowel length, specially if your mother tongue is English. Let´s see an example using a diphthongs: play, payed and plate. Don´t be shy, say them out loud. It is the same vowel sound, but does it have the same length every time?

Prefortis clipping is the name for this "shortening" of vowel sounds, and it occurs when a vowel is followed by a voiceless (fortis) sound.

Prefortis clipping: the phenomenon we´re talking about
shortening: when something gets shorter, like the diphthong in plate, compared with the diphthong in played
voiceless (fortis) sound: those sounds produced without any vibration of the vocal cords, in Spanish, [p t k f s ʃ x].

So why the hell would you care about this? Bottom line: English vowels change their duration all the time, Spanish vowels do not! You guys tend to lengthen stressed vowels, and it sounds horrible. You guys tend to shorten unstressed vowels, and it sounds horrible. You guys tend to lengthen vowels when they´re followed by a voiced consonant (like /r/), and yes, it sounds horrible.

If you´ve read this till the very end, congratulations!You deserve the golden rule:

EVERY SPANISH VOWEL HAS THE SAME DURATION, SHORT!

Bonus link: Pronunciación de las vocales, by Bárbara Kuczun Nelson

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The real deal about Spanish vowel sounds

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:29:00 +0000

There are three rules which apply to every single vowel in Spanish, but first, do you like the picture? I made it myself. Let me make the introductions: readers, these are the Spanish vowel sounds, Spanish vowel sounds, these are the readers. Please notice the use of the words vowel sounds, which is something quite different from vowel letters. Both in English and Spanish we have five vowel letters, "a e i o u". With those five letters, in Spanish we produce five vowel sounds (the same happens in Greek, Hindi, Japanese and most Bantu languages). It really could not be simpler. It’s the opposite scenario for English, where, with those five letters, we produce the whooping amount of twelve vowel sounds. Even if English is your native tongue, it would be absolutely normal if you had no idea there where so many. In case you don’t believe me, let’s take a look at them.

/i:/ as in feel
/ɪ/ as in fill

/u:/ as in fool
/ʊ/ as in full

/ɒ/ as in lot
/ɔ:/ as in law

/e/ as in head
/ɜ:/ as in heard

/æ/ as in bad
/ɑ:/ as in hard

/ʌ/ as in love
/ə/ as in accept

Why is it important to know your English vowels? Well, in order to learn new sounds we have to compare them to sounds we already know, and figure out their differences and similarities. You can think of the Spanish vowel system as a simplified version of the English vowel system. In other words:

Spanish /i/ as in sí

In English you’ve got two sounds which resemble the Spanish /i/: /i:/ and /ɪ/. There are two main differences between those two sounds: the /i:/ as in feel is long, and the tongue is tense. The /ɪ/ as in fill is short, and the tongue is lax, it sounds a bit like the /e/ from bed, doesn’t it? The Spanish /i/ is a bit of a mixture: it is short, but the tongue is tense. Try to avoid that /e/ quality.

Spanish /u/ as in mucho

I could almost have copied the previous paragraph: the English /u:/ as in fool is long and tense, the English /ʊ/ as in full is short and lax. The Spanish /u/? Short and tense.

Spanish /o/ as in no

Again, in English we have two similar sounds, a long one, /ɔ:/, and a short one, /ɒ/. And again, the Spanish /o/ is somewhat short, but resembles the long /ɔ:/ regarding the position of the tongue. Also, consider this: have you ever heard that short /ɒ/ from lot in final open position (as in a word ending with a vowel)? I’m thinking you haven’t. Let’s consider the Spanish word no: think about it as a short /ɔ:/ sound. If you make it long, we’ll all know it’s not Spanish you’re speaking.

Spanish /e/ as in té

We could say it´s the same sound as the English /e/, but please, try to avoid that /ɜ:/ sound from heard, it´s way to long to sound Spanish (among other technical details rather hard to explain, the easiest of them being the part of the tongue that is raised, central for /ɜ:/ and front for /e/).

Spanish /a/ as in mamá

Now this one is hard. I’ve read the Spanish /a/ sounds a lot like the English /ɑ:/ from hard and father. This is not completely true: when producing the English /ɑ:/ we raise the back of our tongue, but when producing the Spanish /a/ we raise the central part of our tongue. Also, you have to avoid the /æ/ as in bad, because of that /e/ quality. The English /ə/ from accept should also be avoided, but that sound demands a title of it´s own.

English /ə/ as in accept, aka the schwa

This vowel sound does not exist in Spanish, and in English, it only occurs in unaccented syllables. That’s why it´s pretty common to use it in unaccented syllables in Spanish, but that is wrong. It´s the sound from alone, about, over, China (see how it´s never stressed). It´s a weak, lax vowel, it even disappears sometimes, we could just as normally say /lɪsən/ or /lɪsn/ for the word listen. This is something that never ever happens in Spanish. Every written vowel is going to have a vowel sound.

It’s a bit complicated, I know. But if you paid attention, you must have noticed some things which seem to happen to every vowel. That’s because there are three general rules which apply to every single Spanish vowel sound. Over the next days I’ll expand on each of these rules separately, but if you just can wait, you can start applying them right now:

1.- Spanish vowels are short
2.- Spanish vowels are pure
3.- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!

Stay tuned for this series of posts on Spanish vowels by subscribing to the Spanish Pronunciation 101 feed .

A World Without Courses

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Do you know George Siemens? It’s ok if you don’t, I didn’t until I somehow run into his World without courses presentation. You should check it out, it gets a bit slow after 10 minutes, but it’s definitively worth the time. As part of an informal system of education, I felt I had something to add.

I said it in the Spanish pronunciation course Syllabus: I’ll give you no credits, no diplomas. In fact, not a single means of recognition or accreditation is handed out at the end of the course. But, people visit this blog everyday, and they do wanna take classes, and they even do their homework and work hard to change the way they speak. Why? WHY?!

A thought has been haunting me for some time now, and even though I doubt it’s in my best interest to share it with any potential students, all of you must have thought about it sometime: learning to speak proper Spanish is a luxury, something which is pleasant to have, but is not really necessary. I know, last time I commented here I said something about my students taking their oral skills seriously usually because either their job or their social survival depends on it. A bit dramatic, but true: if you want to start a conversation that dark haired, green eyed a girl who has been drawing your attention since you entered the bar, it will be easier if she understands what the hell you’re saying. And if you want to ask your Spanish speaking boss for a raise, you can’t go mumbling in Spanglish.

But -God I love arguing with myself-, foreign accents are damn hot for picking up chicks. And you could probably tell your boss that you want to discuss something serious, and therefore you would feel more comfortable doing it in English (he will be the one mumbling then). See, there is no need to study Spanish pronunciation. Unless you want to, of course.

Last time I saw my shrink, we talked about el deseo. Weird thing, our desires. It seems that sometimes, when we wish something really badly, we can’t do it, we get afraid. Or we decide it’s not what we want, then we change our mind again. Think about relationships: when we have strong feelings towards somebody, that’s when we start having doubts. One day we wanna get married, and the next we wanna be alone. In Spain they´ve got a saying for it, porque te quiero te aporreo, it´s because I love you that I hit you.

The words I liked most from George Siemens´ presentation were these:

Learners who are motivated, learners who are engaged, will, in a space where there is an abundance of open access information, be able to find the need or the nature of the learning they require. Whether that’s through access to open courseware initiatives (...) or simply through searching online. Learning, that learners wish to engage in for their own personal value, they will find a means to satisfy.

Isn’t it beautiful?

If you’re thinking where is the "Spanish pronunciation" of this post, don’t you ask for your money back yet. For you engaged, motivated learners out there, I leave you with this excellent post on Spanish regional variations by Graham Stephen and Karin Sequén from English/Spanish Exchange.

¡Saludos!

The no voiced fricatives rule

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:59:00 +0000

Last week, Eleena, from Voces en español, released a podcast we recorded together, you can listen to it here. It deals with the base of articulation: the main differences between the overall "feel" of the two languages. You can find out more about that here and here.

The base of articulation is not a new concept, I´ve first read about it in a book edited in 1937. But, for some unknown reason, it´s been neglected in recent Spanish phonetic books. To those four rules Eleena and I discussed, I´d like to add a new one, it´s really simple: there are no voiced fricatives in Spanish, as opposed to the relatively complex series of English fricatives.

Too much too fast? Don´t panic. If you want to understand why you sound so gringo when saying words like manzana, jueves or calle, just keep on reading. One step at a time, I promise you will get it at the end.

So, what is a fricative again?

If I ask any of my students what a fricative is, he or she will probably say it´s a sound produced by friction. Now you know too, congratulations! So which are the sounds produced by friction? It´s easy, try to make any sound, if you can make it really really long, chances are it´s a fricative. For example, /s/. Try it, say ssss, you could go forever -if you had air enough.

Now you know what a fricative is. There are more, can you guess which ones they are? If you guessed /n/ or /m/, you are wrong! You can produce a really long nnnn, but /n/ and /m/ are nasals (the air escapes through the nose), so think about the other sounds that can be really really long. Nothing? Ok, I´ll help you.

English fricatives

/f/ as in leaf AND /v/ as in leave
/θ/ as in thing AND /ð/ as in this
/s/ as in soup AND /z/ as in zoo
/ʃ/ as in station AND /ʒ/ as in vision
/h/ as in heal

Now, the following are the Spanish fricatives, tell me if you see a pattern. It should be noted that I´m talking about the Spanish used in Argentina.

Spanish fricatives

/f/ as in fácil
/s/ as in sol
/ʃ/ as in coyote
/x/ as in joder

If you don´t see a pattern, don´t worry, bear with me just a bit more.

Voiced vs. voiceless

If I ask any of my students why I wrote those fricatives in pairs, he or she will say that the sounds from each pair share the same place of articulation, but the one of the left is voiceless and the one on the right is voiced. Let´s translate that: to make the sounds from the pair /f/ /v/, your mouth and tongue are in exactly the same position, but the difference is that when you say /v/, your vocal folds vibrate, when you say /f/, they don´t. If you still don´t know what the hell I´m talking about, just do this: put your hand on your throat, and say ffff. Now say vvvv. Which one produced a vibration? If you guessed /v/, congratulations, you´ve just discovered what a voiced sound is! If you´re not sure yet, this may also work: put you hands on your ears, and say ffff, then vvvv, noticed any vibrations? (Thanks Charlotte for the tip!)

Now that we know what a voiced sound is, why don´t we rewrite those lists?

English fricatives

voiceless------------voiced
/f/ as in leaf AND /v/ as in leave
/θ/ as in thing AND /ð/ as in this
/s/ as in soup AND /z/ as in zoo
/ʃ/ as in station AND /ʒ/ as in vision
/h/ as in heal

Spanish fricatives

voiceless------------voiced
/f/ as in fácil
/s/ as in sol
/ʃ/ as in coyote
/x/ as in joder

Seeing any patterns now people? Nothing yet?! We´re almost over.

The no voiced fricatives rule

In English, almost every letter "z" is pronounced as the sound /z/, like zoo, zip or quiz. But, how will you pronounce the letter "z" from Spanish words like zapato or azul?

In English, almost every letter "v" is pronounced as the sound /v/, like vine, savage or love. But... how will you pronounce the letter "v" from Spanish words like voz or avión?

You taking the hint? In Spanish, the letter "z" will always we produced as the sound /s/. If you still don´t know what´s the diffeerece between /z/ and /s/, I must ask: have you even read this whole thing, or have you just skeemed through the headlines? One last time: /z/ is produced with vibrations of the vocal folds, /s/ has no vibrations whatsoever! And what´s more important: there is no /z/ in Spanish!

As you can see, there is not one voiced fricative in Spanish. We´ll say ssss in words like cazar, zápate, corazón, we´re are so crazy we´ll even say ssss in zoológico. If you don´t, you will sound like a tourist, sorry! What about the letter "v", you ask? Just pretend it´s a "b", because we´re out of our minds, we don´t care if we write jueves, vaca, violín or nieve, we will say juebes, baca, biolín and niebe, don´t you dare us!

Now, the philosophical part of the blog, why is it there are no voiced fricatives in Spanish? We can simply guess, or study philology, but I´d rather guess, is funnier and doesn´t take as much time. I guess it´s connected with the relatively strong muscular tension that characterizes the Spanish language, as opposed to the rather relaxed English pronunciation. These voiceless sounds are all fortis, which means that they require more tension around the mouth. But it´s just my very personal guess. You got any better?

Practice makes perfecto

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:32:00 +0000

Last year a got a mail from Olivia Keetch, she wanted to start some pronunciation classes. But she also happened to be a reporter. She works in The Argentimes, and wanted to write a piece about my classes. Well, the article is out, click below to read it.

Don´t know The Argentimes yet? It´s a free, English written newspaper "aimed at the youth market". I usually grab my copy at the California Burrito CO, at Lavalle almost Paseo Colón.

Unique phonetic advice on how to shake that gringo accent off is on the way, stay tuned by subscribing to my RSS feed!

Spanish pronunciation course syllabus

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:09:00 +0000

This course will get you no credits. There are no grades, no textbooks and no assignments. In a perfect world, the objective of this course would be to make you sound like a native Spanish speaker. In a world where pronunciation practice just gets juggled along with work, studies, friends and family, we´ll have to lower the bar a bit. Understanding the many processes that take place in our mouths, realizing the potential of our speech organs and acquiring the ability to consciously change the sounds we produce will have to do. It still sounds like hard work, hu? Well, it is.

Unit #1 is all about the sounds. ¿What is it that gives a language its particular "feel"? When we speak a second language, those sounds and features of our mother tongue seem to give us away. The set of characteristics that define the overall "feel" of a language is called base of articulation-I´ve written about it in this post.

Unit #2 goes about describing isolated sounds. Words are easy, they are either nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions or modifiers, but what about sounds? How can we tell the difference between vowel and bowel, between /b/ and /v/? Every sound has a unique combination of three features, and that allows us to tag them and tell them apart.

Units #3, #4, #5 and #6 deal with consonants, starting with the major groups, the fricatives and the plosives. You can read about them here or here. On the /r/ you can read these posts, and I´ve written this one about the /l/.

Unit #7 deals with vowels. We´ve already said there are +12 vowels sounds in English and only 5 in Spanish... it´s only a matter of cutting them down. Sort of. This post will give you an idea.

Units #8 and #9 are hard. First, #8, word stress -that´s really not that hard, at least compared to #9, intonation. A lousy intonation is probably one of the main reasons English speakers can´t be understood in the first place; you guys just apply the same intonation patterns you use in English, and believe me, it doesn´t work that way.

You can take the course alone or with friends, and classes usually consist of one or two hours once a week, in your place, mine, or at my college. The first class is always free. For more info on days, rates, or if you just want to ask me something about phonetics, write to martin.ventola (a) gmail (.) com.

If you´re interested in shaking that gringo accent off, but don´t want to take the course yet, why don´t you subscribe to my RSS feed? I´ll be posting some usefull tips and exercises from my own classes every week. Sort of.

Diseño nuevo

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:28:00 +0000

Hola a todos. Temporariamente el blog va a estar fuera de servicio, esto es, mientras intento hacer que el nuevo diseño funcione correctamente. En el siguiente post voy a publicar la currícula del Curso de Pronunciación Española 2008.

Mientras tanto, pueden:

- Suscribirse al feed de Spanish Pronunciation 101

- Bucear en el foro How to learn any language

- Bajar material educativo en casi cualquier idioma en UZ Translations

- Mirar las animaciones de los sonidos del inglés y el español de la Universidad de Iowa

- Aprender a escribir los símbolos fonéticos en Unicode

Saludos a todos.-

Happy new year

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:05:00 +0000

You might have noticed I stopped posting sometime around December 18th. Well, I gave myself some time off. No more classes till mid-February, if not March. And off to the beach -sunny Mar del Plata, oh yea.

I´ll be back, though, with some new material about phonetics. Thank you Melissa for sending the books! Waiting eagerly for them.

Some podcasts may be on their way.

And even some exercises.

I´ve also got my hands on a BG Super Revelation ligature, to fit to my Berg Larsen mouthpiece. Quoting the cheesy ad, "exceptional radiance, a more brilliant and compact sound, easy staccato". Better, worse? Forever mystery. Drop by next time we hit it with el Teniente Pascual, or just call us to funk your party up.

And about new year -and past-, it was fun, saludos a todos.-

Nuevas normas de acentuación, o Know how to stress a word just by reading it

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:44:00 +0000

Hi everybody, just finished a report about word stress, hope you find it useful.

Acentuación

El objetivo del acento es enfatizar un sonido o grupo de sonidos. En español, y también en inglés, el elemento más importante del acento es la intensidad, que depende de la amplitud de las vibraciones del sonido. En español, una palabra sólo tiene una sílaba acentuada, llamada también tónica. El resto de las sílabas de la palabra son llamadas inacentuadas o átonas.

Características principales de la sílaba acentuada

1-más energía articulatoria.
2-una mayor abertura de la boca para las vocales.
3-una mayor tensión articulatoria para las consonantes (con un mayor cierre de los órganos articulatorios).
4-una mayor sonoridad.

Clasificación de palabras dependiendo de la posición del acento

1-agudas; la sílaba acentuada está al final de la palabra: papel, reunión, cortar.
2-graves; la sílaba acentuada está en el penúltimo lugar en la palabra: hermano, mesa.
3-esdrújulas; la sílaba acentuada está en el antepenúltimo lugar de la palabra: célebre, bolígrafo.
4-sobresdrújula; la sílaba acentuada está aún antes del penúltimo lugar de la palabra: tomándoselo, cómetelo.

Reglas de acentuación, o Know how to stress a word just by reading it

1-todas las palabras terminadas en n, s o vocal son graves.
2-todas las palabras terminadas en cualquier otra letra son agudas.

Cualquier palabra que viole estas reglas será multada con una tilde, o acento gráfico (á, é, í, ó, ú), que se escribe sobre la sílaba tónica.

Ejemplos:

Regla nro 1

esta: no lleva tilde, entonces cumple con la regla, es grave.

hombres: no lleva tilde, entonces cumple con la regla, es grave.

comen: no lleva tilde, entonces cumple con la regla, es grave.

está: lleva tilde porque viola la regla, entonces se acentúa la sílaba donde está la tilde.

canción: lleva tilde porque viola la regla, entonces se acentúa la sílaba donde está la tilde.

sábado: lleva tilde porque viola la regla, entonces se acentúa la sílaba donde está la tilde.

Regla nro 2

Salvador: no lleva tilde, entonces cumple con la regla, es aguda.

albañil: no lleva tilde, entonces cumple con la regla, es aguda.

árbol: lleva tilde porque viola la regla, entonces se acentúa la sílaba donde está la tilde.

hábitad: lleva tilde porque viola la regla, entonces se acentúa la sílaba donde está la tilde.

Por qué el sistema de acentos del español es simple y lógico

Un diccionario tiene aproximadamente 85.000 palabras, y la mayoría son graves. Sin tomar en cuenta los verbos conjugados y los plurales, aproximadamente 68.000 terminan en terminan en n, s o vocal. Entonces, solamente el 18,7% de las palabras del español precisan tilde (aproximadamente 15.000). De las palabras que precisan tilde, sólo 382 no terminan en n, s o vocal.

Diferencias entre la acentuación en ingles y en español

En inglés, muchas vocales no acentuadas reciben el sonido genérico llamado schwa, representado por este símbolo: /ə/. Por ejemplo, en palabras como photOgraph y photOgraphy. Entonces, en inglés, la contraposición entre vocales acentuadas y no acentuadas no se basa solamente en la acentuación, sino que las vocales no acentuadas se debilitan, lo que altera también el ritmo de la oración. En español hay que tener especial cuidado de no debilitar las vocales no acentuadas.

The other side of the /l/

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:48:00 +0000

Buenos días a todos. Hoy me sumo a la postmodernidad: quiero una solución rápida y momentánea para un problema complejo. Si quisiera resumir la clase de hoy en tres oraciones, eligiría éstas:

1. En inglés, la letra “l” tiene dos variantes: /l/, como en let; y /ɫ/, como en well, aka the dark /ɫ/.

2. En español, la letra “l” tiene una sola variante, como en lonja o gol (la misma de let, por si no lo notaron).

3. La dark /ɫ/ no existe en español; se debe usar el mismo sonido de let para palabras como gol y sal.

Creo que es una regla simple. Uno la lee, y la entiende enseguida. Pero lo más probable es que se la olviden en no más de diez minutos, o la recuerden pero sin ponerla nunca en práctica. En definitiva, el sonido que le damos a cierta letra es un hábito, algo en lo que no pensamos, algo sale automáticamente… ¿cómo se cambia un hábito? Sabemos que no alcanza con leer tres oraciones, pero… ¿qué es lo que hacemos entonces?

1. Theoretical background

Hay gente a la que le encanta leer teoría. A mi me encanta, siempre y cuando pueda conectarla con la realidad. Si describimos los dos sonidos, y los comparamos, nuestro cerebro va a estar mejor preparado para escucharlos… suena lógico, ¿no? Entonces, ¿qué es esto de que existen dos “l”?

Clear /l/ [the one you have to do all the time]

The front of the tongue is raised, the tip of the tongue touches the area just behind the upper teeth. It happens [a] in the beginning of a syllable, like in leave or look, [b] following another sound in the same syllable, like in placebo or flow, or [c] at the end of a word following /j/, like in feel it or will you.

Dark /ɫ/ [the one you must never do (in Spanish)]

The front of the tongue is somewhat lowered, the back of the tongue is raised, and the tip of the tongue touches the area right behind the upper teeth. It happens [a] after vowel before consonant, like in feel or help, and [b] when the “l” is syllabic, as in table or middle.

Ya está, ya sabemos qué tenemos que cambiar… ¿alcanza?

2. Ejercicios prácticos

Estamos cambiando un hábito: años y años de usar la dark /ɫ/. Les propongo balancearlo, practiquemos mucho tiempo la otra /l/. La dark /ɫ/ se da al final de la sílaba, pero como no existe en español, las siguientes palabras se van a decir con la clear /l/:

final de palabra ágil azul cal canal débil fiel gol hiel

igual mal miel piel riel sol sal

final de sílaba palco polca talco alto esbelto multa

almirante Peralta álgido hilvanar sultán

colcha malta palta calco

¿Cómo practicar? Primero, en inglés. En voz alta, digamos las palabras let y well. Si tenés a un amigo cerca, llamalo y pedile que te las diga. Si tu amigo no tiene un acento muy bueno, es muy probable que escuches la clear “l” en las dos palabras. Supongamos que no tenés un amigo cerca, y leés las palabras solo. No me vas a decir que se trata del mismo sonido, ¿o si? No, no es el mismo sonido, es bastante diferente. Observá atentamente tu boca, y mentalizate en hacer el sonido de let mientras repetís las palabras de la lista de arriba. Yo creo que si las leés todas las palabras, una vez por día, a los siete días va a ser de lo más normal usar la clear /l/ siempre. O, al menos, cada vez que uses la dark /ɫ/, te vas a dar cuenta de lo horriblemente ajena al español que suena.

You might have noticed I could finaly write some phonetic symbols. If you want to add phonetic symbols to your webpage, you may find this link useful: IPA transcription in Unicode. Thanks, University College London! I´m reading the About Us page, and just found out that A. C. Gimson himself was Head of the Linguistics Department in 1971, WOW! Thanks for the great phonetics books Gimson!

What American accent do you have?

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:34:00 +0000

Your English accent affects your Spanish accent directly. British people have the hardest time learning proper Spanish pronunciation, and while it’s easier for Americans, your American accent can cause you some trouble, or give you a head start.

This quiz sounds really interesting. My theory: New Yorkers and Midwesterns are the ones who got it really easy, as their accents are really Spanish-friendly. But you should try it out yourself, and tell me the results. Here’s the quiz.

Important note: you’re supposed to read the words out loud and trust your ear, not your eyes!

If you’re interested, here’s my result:

Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.

Cómo pronunciar la R (II)

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:29:00 +0000

Buenas días queridos lectores. El tema de hoy: la R.

Doy por sentado que ya todos saben la diferencia entre este famoso sonido vibrante múltiple: PERRO; y este otro famoso sonido vibrante simple: PERÓN. Sobre el simple ya escribí. Hoy, le toca al múltiple.

De pequeños borregos, aprendimos a hablar imitando los sonidos de nuestros papis, que, en español, se caracterizan por una alta tensión de los músculos bucales. La r es uno de los mejores ejemplos. Este sonido exige un tono muscular particular, y si ni siquiera podés hacer RRRRRRR, como si estuvieras andando en moto, entonces te espera un mes de entrenamiento bucal. Si vas al gimnasio, tu lengua se merece lo mismo (sacarle afuera mientras corrés no cuenta).

Supongamos que sí pueden hacer ese sonido tan primitivo y sensual, entonces es momento de refinarlo hasta que suene como una ERRE correcta. Lo importante es la lengua. Con la boca entreabierta, lean las siguientes instrucciones. Lo que sigue tiene mucha información, les conviene leerlo varias veces, cada vez van a encontrar cosas nuevas.

Cómo articular la R, user´s guide

1 Con la boca apenas entreabierta, levante la lengua. Apoye la punta justo atrás de los dientes de arriba, y aplique presión.

2 Los costados de la lengua tocan las muelas superiores (the upper side teeth), ¡que el aire no se escape por ahí! Poner la lengua en forma cóncava (concave shape).

3 Dentro de la boca, junte aire. Mucho más y con más presión que para otros sonidos. La presión del aire vence la resistencia de la punta de la lengua, que se separa del paladar en forma intermitente.

YOU MAY FORGET EVERY SINGLE WORD EXCEPT THIS:
It’s the air what makes your tongue vibrate. The tip of your tongue should be pressed on the palate, almost but without touching your upper teeth. Take a deep breath and then just let the air do all the job.

Ejercicio de la semana

You might know this TV ad, feel fry to shadow it, you got the script down there.

"El terrateniente Ramón Pueyrredón Aguirre arreaba rumiantes en su remoto rancho. Se aburría Ramón encerrado en su recurrente rutina. Resuelto a romperla, arrancó rumbo a tierras rimbombantes.

¡¡ARRE!!

Recorriendo Recoleta Ramón reparó en un rodaje. Y de repente, una revelación:

¡¡RAYOS!!!

Resolvió arrimarse al reconocido realizador Rasputín Romanof, y correr el riesgo de requerirle un rol de reparto en su relato. Romanof sonrió, "eres atorrante... ¡y churro!". Ramón, zorro, le regaló un riquísimo Navarro Correas recelosamente reservado que recordaba el terruño y el ruso regodeándose respondió: rendirás.

¡¡A RODAR!!!

Y resultó que en la remake Romance Río Arriba Ramón representó a un terrateniente que arreaba rumiantes en su remoto rancho. Ramón, realizado, recuperó su sonrisa.

¿Cuantas erres tiene su vino?"

5 Spanish Consonant Sounds that do not exist in English

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:35:00 +0000

You guys got it easy, they’re only a few, and if you have no clew about how they sound, then you could probably use some coaching. Or just pay some extra attention, some of the words you never understand the first time you hear them probably have some of these sounds, which can get a bit tricky to articulate when combined. If you want to hear a sample, just open that “Sounds of English and Spanish” animation that the University of Iowa so kindly made available for us all, here’s the link.

/x/ as in ajo, genio, reloj
Phonetic description: voiceless velar fricative

Whenever an English speaker says any of those words, chances are he is producing the /h/ of behave rather than the Spanish /x/. Those two sounds are pretty similar, the main difference is the friction –the Spanish /x/ has a lot, the English /h/ has very little. Note also that the English /h/ is glottal, this means the friction is slightly deeper, on the glottis, than the Spanish /x/, which articulated on the velum.

“aspirated s” as in espacio, costa, mosca
Phonetics description: voiceless glottal fricative

This sound is tricky. If you’ve just started learning Spanish, you probably think we do not say the “s” in those words, but we do! It is hard. I’d say it’s even harder than the “r”. English speakers have a similar sound, the /h/ of words like behave or have. But, the /h/ never happens at the end of a word or syllable (I dare you come up with a word finishing with that sound). The “aspirated s” never occurs at the beginning of a word or syllable, it’s just air expelled almost without any tongue movement. Don’t worry about it if you’re going to Spain, over there they only have one /s/, pretty much the same as the English /s/.

UPDATE: if you scroll down, you´ll see Peggy´s comment about the aspirated s. Turns out it is used in Spain, apparently in the south. Mexicans, on the other hand, don´t have this sound. There´s going to be a post about this in the near future.

“b” as in Evo, “d” as in hada, “g” as in ego
Phonetic description: voiced bilabial/dental/velar espirante

Yes, those three sounds do not exist in English. I’ve already written about them, click here to read the post. I will probably write about them again, in the meantime, can anybody tell me what those three sounds have in common?

English consonant sounds that do not exist in Spanish

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:04:00 +0000

This post is intended for people who have just recently started studying Spanish. Most probably, you do not realize much of what’s going on in your mouth, you just open and shoot -which is alright for beginners- but if your own gringo accent is driving you crazy, or absolutely nobody understands what the hell you’re saying (nobody except teachers, we are so nice), then it’s likely you are using English sounds which do not exist in Spanish. They are just a few, so take a look, and remember, whenever speaking Spanish, avoid them like socks with sandals.

Sound: "z", as in zoo, cheese, exit
Phonetic description: voiced alveolar fricative

Whenever we say azabache, zoológico, azar or any word with "z", we make the same sound as we would when saying "s". So, asar (as in asar la carne) and azar (as in suerte en el azar) sound exactly the same, there is no phonetic distinction between them. The difference between the two sounds, /s/ and /z/, is that in /z/ there is vibration of the vocal folds; try to produce the sound in isolation, sounds like a bee hu? (it should) The /s/ sounds like a hiss, and that’s the sound we Spanish speakers produce whenever there’s a "s" "z" or "ce" "ci" (in Spain it’s a bit different, see below).
Now, the same goes for "x". In English, if the "x" is in between vowels, you say /gz/, as in exit. In Spanish there is no /z/, so whenever there’s an "x", we say /ks/, as in axe or éxito.

Sound: "th" as in think, anthem
Phonetic description: voiceless dental fricative

No, we don’t have it, unless you go to Spain. Here in America we dropped it, but in the old continent they make a distinction between "s" and "z" "ce" "ci". For the last three, they make the same sound you make when saying think, so you save yourself the trouble of finding out whether they meant casar or cazar (pretty big difference).

Sound: "th" as in the, with
Phonetic description: voiced dental fricative

No, we don’t use that either... forget about it.

Sound: "v", as in vase, cover
Phonetic description: voiced labio-dental fricative

When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that vaca and burro did not start with the same sound. Twenty years later, the world’s changed, turns out, they do start with the same sound! So vaca, bacán, boca and vocal, they all start with the same sound, which is pretty similar to (but not exactly like) the English /b/. In Spanish, the sound is not very easy, as it has two variants (for more info on that click here).

Sound: "j" as in jungle
Phonetic description: voiced palato-alveolar affricate

Seven times no...

Sound: dark /l/ as in well, help, table
Phonetic description: voiced lateral approximant

In English, you’ve got two /l/ sounds, a clear one, and a dark one. In Spanish, we only use the clear /l/. But... what the hell is a dark /l/? Say these words aloud: leave, lock, silly, all over. Now say these words: feel, help, table, apple. Is it the same /l/?
The last batch have the dark /l/. The main difference is that the back of the tongue is raised, which gives a back vowel resonance... It really is not that important, just try not to do that /l/ in words like cal, mal, alto.

Sound: "g" as in genre, gigolo, "s" as in vision, measure, "g" as in beige
Phonetic description: voiced palato-alveolar fricative

This sound is actually French (historians out there remember how much the English language was affected by the French). Even though a few people use it for the letter "y", as in yo, I find it snobbish. Your choice; I don’t use it.

Sound: "h" as in heat, ahead
Phonetic description: voiceless glottal fricative

No dude! When you say ahí, ahora, almohada -remember, the letter h is "mute" in Spanish! Just pretend it’s not there, and it will return the favor.

Sound: "r" as in right, carry
Phonetic description: voiced palato-alveolar approximant

Hold your horses, we do have an "r" sound in Spanish, but who in his right mind would say it’s the same sound as the one used in English?

In the near future, Spanish consonant sounds which do not exist in English, stay tuned.-

Spanish Dictionaries review

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 22:32:00 +0000

As promised, here’s the Spanish Dictionary review. Sorry it took so long, but, luckily, I’ve been working a lot this week. Without any further ado, here’s the list of the best Spanish Dictionaries available in the market (according to my very personal opinion).

Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (ex DRAE, now DiLE), by the Real Academia Española

This should be your go-to dictionary; the best thing about it is that it’s online. Go to the webpage of the Real Academia Española (click here) and search for anything you want. It’s quite useful, you’ll find a lot of terms that are usually missing in the pocket dictionaries, along with phrases and most common collocations. As all of the Academia´s publications, it is a bit stiff and unrealistic in with certain subjects... but hey, it´s free.

Diccionario Panhispánico de dudas, by the Real Academia Española

This is the dictionary you should use when dealing with texts from anywhere outside Spain. It’s got entries from all the Spanish speaking countries, most of them in America. But beware, some propositional collocations may vary according to the country they are used in. That’s why phrases considered wrong in Spain or even in Argentina may be accepted in other countries in America. I don’t want to start splitting hairs, but don’t forget that detail. As the previous one, you got the free online version here (and the same disadvantages).

Diccionario de uso del español, by Maria Moliner

This is my personal favorite. Legend says Maria Moliner worked as in a library, and one day, when she was 51, started writing the most complete dictionary she could, getting the words from newspapers and such. It was published seventeen years later, though it was not finished yet, according to her. The best thing about it, it’s a “usage” dictionary; this means that every entry has an example of how the word is used in actual language, isn’t that great? On the downside, it’s not free, and actually quite expensive, though I’ve heard you can download it or something like that…

Diccionario de Dificultades de la Lengua Española, by Manuel Seco

Now when you get that feeling that a word is not what it seems, and after looking it up in the previous two dictionaries you still can’t shake it off, then it’s time for the backup. This dictionary has those hard to find terms, and those way too ambiguous words, and is also available on the net, if you know where to look.

Diccionario de las Preposiciones Españolas, by Alicia María Zorrilla

This is a very specific dictionary, used a lot in translations. For those of you who constantly get doubts about whether you’re using the right preposition or not, it is definitely a must.

Oxford Spanish

There had to be a bilingual dictionary in this list, and of all I’ve tried, this one I liked the most. It’s unbelievable how many phrases it’s got, yesterday, while doing some actual work, I came across the entry “bad hair day”. That’s what I call a complete dictionary! It’s got sense indicators and field labels, so you always know whether you can use that word or not; for example, if you look for fresa, you got one entry under the Botanic label (strawberry), another under the Metallurgy label (milling cutter) and another one under the Dentistry label (drill). You just can’t go wrong!

If you ever read my profile, you found out I´m studying Translation, and just could´t go through Translator´s day without some kind of landmark. To all wannabe translator out there, hope you benefit from this dictionary review.

This is forbidden!

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 18:30:00 +0000

There is a huge difference between /b/ /d/ and /g/ in English and in Spanish, let’s watch that Nacho Libre flick one more time...

What’s wrong with the Mexican monk’s consonants? Does he sound English or Spanish? We all know he sounds Spanish, but can you tell me why?

Those Spanish consonants are tricky, each of them has two variants, a "strong" one and a "weak" one. The strong one is pretty similar to the English consonant, but only occurs after a pause or after "m" or "n". In all other cases (in most cases actually), in Spanish we use a weaker form.

Listen to the monk again...

This is forbidden!

To say /b/ in English, we put our lips together; the monk doesn’t, he just closes the mouth a bit, but there is no total closure as in English.

The same for /d/. In English, we would touch the roof of the mouth with the tip of the tongue. He does lift the tongue, but there is no contact with the roof of the mouth (alveolar ridge, for the ones who have been reading this bog for any amount of time).

These sounds do not exist in English, and very few English speakers notice them. It’s awfully common to hear them produce those so very strong consonants where they should use the weak variants. Think about it the other way round, why do Spanish Speakers produce such lousy consonants in words with /b/ /d/ and /g/? A word I always hear is about with that weak /b/, and it sounds horrible!

If you teach English, pay attention to your students´ sounds, are they doing it properly, or are they using those weak consonants instead?

Today is the International Translation Day. Next week, as a celebration, I will post some research I’ve been doing on Spanish Dictionaries. I hope it will prove useful for those of you who are planning on buying one any time soon. My regards and salutations to all translators out there.

Shake that /k/ookie /p/api, or how to pronounce the rest of the voiceless plosives properly

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:21:00 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with this blog. My main concern is: should I explain a basic vocabulary which will be used constantly throughout every post (what I do when I teach), or should I try to keep the terminology as simple as possible, so that anyone entering the site for the first time will understand what I’m talking about right away? I’ll choose option number two, for now, even though I know some explanations will be painfully wordy if I don’t to use the correct terminology.

That being said, let’s talk about the rest of the voiceless plosives. See how easier it is to classify sounds into categories which share the same features? There are six plosives (that sound produced with an explosion), three of them voiceless (because the vocal folds do not vibrate): /t/ /p/ and /k/.

I’ve already talked about the /t/, and to tell you the truth, pretty much the same happens with the /p/ and the /k/. With these sounds, the point of articulation is the same as in English, but there are two main differences:

1 No aspiration

Just like the /t/; when saying /k/ and /p/ try not to expel all that air! I’ve said the difference is that, in English, the air expelled comes from the lungs, while in Spanish the throat is closed and the only air expelled is what had remained inside the mouth. This is exactly what Antonio Quilis, a Spanish phonetician, says about the subject, but... This doesn’t mean that you have to consciously close your throat every time you say /t/ /k/ or /p/, that could actually be a bit dangerous for your throat and vocal folds. Try not to think about your throat, but do apply more muscular energy when articulating those sounds, mostly around your lower jaw and tongue. This is one of the points I mentioned when I wrote about the Spanish Base of articulation. The aspiration is one devise the English speakers have to be able to tell /p/ and /b/ apart, as well as /t/ /d/ and /k/ /g/. I’ll write about that in the next posts, in the meantime, think about how you say bin and pin, and what would happen if you didn’t make any aspiration for the /p/.

2 No affrication

Again, affrication is that extra sound we hear when /k/ is in stressed syllables, like in come. If said slowly, we would hear /ks/. And again, avoid this please! Keep those plosives short and clean! I don’t want to hear no extra sounds, nor extra air!

For more info on this, see also:

Shake that gringo accent off, 3 /t/ tips

Base of articulation reloaded - Nacho Libre

Introducing my new ad

noreply@blogger.com (Martín V.) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 17:30:00 +0000

Those of you living in Buenos Aires might come across my new ad. If you like it, feel free to express your gratitude to my pal Alejo, aka Carnaza Común. You can browse more of his work at http://www.alejoromano.com.ar/.