Discussion Post #4

[Lila Taylor]

There are both sounds in Spanish that don’t exist in American English and letters that sound differently in Spanish than they do in English. An example of a word that uses a sound that exists in English, however, uses a letter formation we do not have, is the word “lleno” (full). In the word “lleno” the double ll is pronounced the same way the y is in English (in words like “yes”), and the double ll does not exist at the beginning of words in this way in English. Examples of sounds that exist in Spanish that do not exist in American English are the Spanish tap /ɾ/ (as in pero) and the alveolar trill /r/ (as in perro). To my understanding, there are 5 Spanish vowel phonemes, and they are as follows: / i / = i iguana, / e / = e elefante, / a / = a arte, / o / = o oso, / u / = uva. There are three open vowels: / a /, / e /, and / o /, and two closed vowels: / i / and / u /. Open vowels are pronounced with the mouth open, and the tongue stays in the lower part of the mouth. Closed vowels are pronounced with the mouth less open (more closed) and the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth. I will be conscious of how I am pronouncing open versus closed vowels and ensure that I am utilizing the Spanish tap and trill when I pronounce r’s when I produce these sounds in my speech. Lastly, something I have noticed and found interesting which varies greatly in different dialects of Spanish is the pronunciation (or lack thereof of s’s, c’s and the double ll). In Argentinian Spanish, the double ll is pronounced like “sh” while in most other parts of Latin America it is pronounced more like the “y” in English. In Latin Spanish, the “c” is pronounced similar to how we pronounce the “s” in English (in the word Barcelona), while in Spaniard Spanish it is pronounced more similar to how we pronounce the “th” in English. When I was in Costa Rica people would say “Buenas” pronouncing the “s” at the end of the word, while in Chila the “s” at the end of Buenas and other words were frequently omitted.