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.
Showing posts with label general phonetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label general phonetics. Show all posts
16 July 2008
09 March 2008
The no voiced fricatives rule
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?
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?
18 December 2007
Nuevas normas de acentuación, o Know how to stress a word just by reading it
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.
03 December 2007
What American accent do you have?
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
18 September 2007
IPA, plus why you sound so gringo whenever you say /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/
If you entered the Sounds of English and Spanish animation, you probably saw that letters were written between bars. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you might have seen that here too. That’s the way we graphically describe a sound, for example, in Spanish, the letter "p" will always be produced phonetically as the sound /p/. In English, the letter "p" will be /p/ in most cases, but don’t forget about words like "phonetics" or "alphabet".
This system of phonetic notation is called the International Phonetic Alphabet. It was created in 1888 by what in 1897 would be known as the International Phonetic Association (also called IPA). It was a bunch of French linguists who wanted to create a phonetic system that could be applied to any language. The idea was to devise a way to teach a realistic pronunciation. I’d say they were pretty successful; the International Phonetic Alphabet suffered a few revisions, something completely natural considering it was created over a hundred years ago, but the core organization of vowels and consonants remains the same since 1888. You can see the last version here.
At the beginning, this Frenchmen’s idea was to allow sounds to have different articulations depending on the language, but soon they decided a universal alphabet was better. And this is where this useful tool could turn against you if you don’t know how to use it. Of course Peter and Pablo both start with the sound /p/, what there’s no way you’re going to convince me it’s the same sound! (Next paragraph contains same heavy theory, but if you skip it, you’re going to miss one very important revelation)
Both sounds are bilabial; the point of articulation being the upper and lower lips. Both sounds are voiceless; the vocal chords do not vibrate while saying /p/. Both sounds are plosive, or oclusivas, this means they are produced by a burst of air. But that’s the short explanation, the longer one would say plosives consist on three stages, 1.- closure of the oral cavity (closure, oclusivas, get it?), 2.- air pressure built up in the mouth, 3.-realease of that air in a burst (explosion, plosive, get it?). That is the manner of articulation, and the term says a lot about the sound. In Spanish they are called oclusivas, because the most important thing about the sound is the first stage, the closure. In English, on the other hand, they are called plosives, it’s all about the explosion. It’s so much about the explosion, that when the sound is in a stressed syllable, we even write /ph/. There’s so much air coming out, we say there’s some aspiration going on, an extra sound. And that’s the main difference between English plosives and Spanish oclusivas.
And that’s why you sound so gringo whenever you say /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/!
Notice how they’re all created with a burst of air, those are the plosives. I’ll go back to this in some other post, let it sink in, tell me when you’re ready.
This system of phonetic notation is called the International Phonetic Alphabet. It was created in 1888 by what in 1897 would be known as the International Phonetic Association (also called IPA). It was a bunch of French linguists who wanted to create a phonetic system that could be applied to any language. The idea was to devise a way to teach a realistic pronunciation. I’d say they were pretty successful; the International Phonetic Alphabet suffered a few revisions, something completely natural considering it was created over a hundred years ago, but the core organization of vowels and consonants remains the same since 1888. You can see the last version here.
At the beginning, this Frenchmen’s idea was to allow sounds to have different articulations depending on the language, but soon they decided a universal alphabet was better. And this is where this useful tool could turn against you if you don’t know how to use it. Of course Peter and Pablo both start with the sound /p/, what there’s no way you’re going to convince me it’s the same sound! (Next paragraph contains same heavy theory, but if you skip it, you’re going to miss one very important revelation)
Both sounds are bilabial; the point of articulation being the upper and lower lips. Both sounds are voiceless; the vocal chords do not vibrate while saying /p/. Both sounds are plosive, or oclusivas, this means they are produced by a burst of air. But that’s the short explanation, the longer one would say plosives consist on three stages, 1.- closure of the oral cavity (closure, oclusivas, get it?), 2.- air pressure built up in the mouth, 3.-realease of that air in a burst (explosion, plosive, get it?). That is the manner of articulation, and the term says a lot about the sound. In Spanish they are called oclusivas, because the most important thing about the sound is the first stage, the closure. In English, on the other hand, they are called plosives, it’s all about the explosion. It’s so much about the explosion, that when the sound is in a stressed syllable, we even write /ph/. There’s so much air coming out, we say there’s some aspiration going on, an extra sound. And that’s the main difference between English plosives and Spanish oclusivas.
And that’s why you sound so gringo whenever you say /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/!
Notice how they’re all created with a burst of air, those are the plosives. I’ll go back to this in some other post, let it sink in, tell me when you’re ready.
13 September 2007
Resources - The Sounds of English & Spanish, by the University of Iowa
This is one cool tool. Four different departments at the University of Iowa got together and came up with this neat flash animation, which shows the articulation of sounds in Spanish, English and German. Sounds are classified according to manner of articulation, place of articulation and voicing, and each one has an animated step by step description, along with several audio examples. Raising and falling diphthongs are included between vowels, along with semivowels. They even added an oral anatomy chart! Beautiful!
This will prove extremely useful when you find yourself without a clue as how to articulate a certain sound. But it’s also a nice way to get an overview of the phonetic system as a whole. Try browsing through the categories, see which sounds you already knew and which ones you never thought existed. Try checking how many /n/ sounds there are, probably more than you thought (4 times more, most probably; check out the /l/ while you’re at it).
There are a couple of points I don’t agree with, but that’s just how phonologists are, everybody’s got an opinion of their own. It’s all sounds after all, and there is hardly one unique way to articulate a sound. Also, you may find some terms with different names in some books, like the espirantes; according to the author, they may be called fricative, espirantes, expiradas or even semivowels. That’s not our concern anyway, but do check those out, as that kind of sound does not exist in English.
Something else I don’t like is that it’s almost impossible to get to the page from the University’s homepage, they really should put it out in the open. This post is my tiny bit of help to get this Phonetic Library the attention it deserves. Try it out, do you think it’s useful?
This will prove extremely useful when you find yourself without a clue as how to articulate a certain sound. But it’s also a nice way to get an overview of the phonetic system as a whole. Try browsing through the categories, see which sounds you already knew and which ones you never thought existed. Try checking how many /n/ sounds there are, probably more than you thought (4 times more, most probably; check out the /l/ while you’re at it).
There are a couple of points I don’t agree with, but that’s just how phonologists are, everybody’s got an opinion of their own. It’s all sounds after all, and there is hardly one unique way to articulate a sound. Also, you may find some terms with different names in some books, like the espirantes; according to the author, they may be called fricative, espirantes, expiradas or even semivowels. That’s not our concern anyway, but do check those out, as that kind of sound does not exist in English.
Something else I don’t like is that it’s almost impossible to get to the page from the University’s homepage, they really should put it out in the open. This post is my tiny bit of help to get this Phonetic Library the attention it deserves. Try it out, do you think it’s useful?
I’ve added a poll, you will find it on the sidebar. It would be great to know which subjects interest you the most, so please, feel free to click your opinions away.
11 September 2007
Base of articulation reloaded - Nacho Libre
UPDATE: Sorry guys, got a mail from YouTube, looks like Paramount Pictures Corp. placed a complaint for improper use of copyrighted material. I´ve already sent them an email, let´s just hope they´ll consider granting the rights for the educational use of the movie. In any case, I was already thinking of showcasing a different movie every month, there are many examples to show what a Spanish base of articulation should soud like.
Those of you who want to rent the movie, the old post will guide you to what you should be looking for when watching the movie, here it is:
Remember that base of articulation I was talking about just the other day? Listen to Jack Black speaking English with a Spanish base of articulation, and pay special attention to:
· the way he expires, real English needs more air pressure
· his vowels, short and pure, and all of them with the same tonal quality
· his /t/ /p/ and /k/ (can you hear what´s wrong with "cookies"?)
· his /r/ (think about the tapping)
And if you get to 02:40, that "forbidden" is just beautiful Spanish.
The fat guy smelling food while catching on fire gig is a bit overdone, don´t you think?
06 September 2007
Where to Start
Now that’s a hard one. Most students know very little about phonetics in general, let alone Spanish Phonology, but you can’t dive into theory cold turkey, that’s plain rude! Imagine your average student, interested in improving his or her pronunciation: he or she doesn’t care about plosives, rhotacism or liguovelar muscle tone, he or she just wants to order a cortado en jarrito without having to resort to sign language (and enough sexual correctness for this post).
So the first step is finding out what the student wants, what is it that makes her take some obscure Spanish pronunciation course? She must take Spanish seriously, maybe uses it every day to make a living. Maybe she is sick and tired of not being understood after the first try, or just wants to roll her /r/. Every student comes to the course with different expectations, and although I pass along the same knowledge to everyone, if I choose the right way to start, chances are the student ends up wanting it all.
My pronunciation teacher thinks differently, she starts with whatever annoys her the most, so you never know exactly what’s going to happen. But after a while, you end up with a list of about five mistakes, which change as you progress.
I like to start with something everybody knows, it’s called base of articulation and is a key concept when trying to achieve a decent accent. A base of articulation is a group of articulatory habits that affect every sound in a language, including intonation and breathing. For example, let’s consider English and French –not the sounds, but the overall feeling of their pronunciations. French speakers articulate their sounds with a lot of energy, we could say French has a tight base of articulation, as oppose to the relaxed base in English. That is also why we find pure vowels in French and a relatively stable tone. Think about English speakers: lots of different intermediary vowels and constant changes in the tone.
Spanish speakers find themselves somewhere in between, maybe closer to the French base of articulation. So, for you English speakers wanting to shake that accent off, these changes should be applied to your overall pronunciation right away: a)tense those muscles, specially lips and jaw, not too much, but more than when speaking English; b)use less air when talking; c)make those vowels short, and as clear as possible, remember we only got five; d) most English sounds are articulated near the back of the mouth, while most Spanish sounds are articulated near the teeth or alveolar ridge, changing this is easy, just try to leave your tongue as plain as possible, specially for /r/ and /l/.
Easier said than done, uh? A cool way to practice this is by speaking lousy English, that is to say, English with a Spanish base of articulation. That’s why the first piece of homework is watching Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black. I don’t know if the guy speaks Spanish or not, but somehow he manages to apply all those points we talked about, but still speak in English. Anybody seen it?
So the first step is finding out what the student wants, what is it that makes her take some obscure Spanish pronunciation course? She must take Spanish seriously, maybe uses it every day to make a living. Maybe she is sick and tired of not being understood after the first try, or just wants to roll her /r/. Every student comes to the course with different expectations, and although I pass along the same knowledge to everyone, if I choose the right way to start, chances are the student ends up wanting it all.
My pronunciation teacher thinks differently, she starts with whatever annoys her the most, so you never know exactly what’s going to happen. But after a while, you end up with a list of about five mistakes, which change as you progress.
I like to start with something everybody knows, it’s called base of articulation and is a key concept when trying to achieve a decent accent. A base of articulation is a group of articulatory habits that affect every sound in a language, including intonation and breathing. For example, let’s consider English and French –not the sounds, but the overall feeling of their pronunciations. French speakers articulate their sounds with a lot of energy, we could say French has a tight base of articulation, as oppose to the relaxed base in English. That is also why we find pure vowels in French and a relatively stable tone. Think about English speakers: lots of different intermediary vowels and constant changes in the tone.
Spanish speakers find themselves somewhere in between, maybe closer to the French base of articulation. So, for you English speakers wanting to shake that accent off, these changes should be applied to your overall pronunciation right away: a)tense those muscles, specially lips and jaw, not too much, but more than when speaking English; b)use less air when talking; c)make those vowels short, and as clear as possible, remember we only got five; d) most English sounds are articulated near the back of the mouth, while most Spanish sounds are articulated near the teeth or alveolar ridge, changing this is easy, just try to leave your tongue as plain as possible, specially for /r/ and /l/.
Easier said than done, uh? A cool way to practice this is by speaking lousy English, that is to say, English with a Spanish base of articulation. That’s why the first piece of homework is watching Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black. I don’t know if the guy speaks Spanish or not, but somehow he manages to apply all those points we talked about, but still speak in English. Anybody seen it?
13 August 2007
How&Why, plus shortest biography ever written
I hooked up with this pretty girl in Peru, in the Inca Trail, to be precise. Let’s call her Melissa, to protect her privacy. She was American, I was not only Argentinean, but also one of the few who could speak a somewhat understandable English and also managed to hold his rum after endless hours of mountain trekking –quite a feat. One thing led to another, and one month later, we met again in Buenos Aires.
This girl has this power, I don’t mean anything otherworldly, but she got me off my ass, and that’s a lot to say. She made me realize I had much to offer to the Argentinean society, but mostly to the expat part of it. During one of our enlightening conversations, the idea of a Spanish Pronunciation Course came up, and, as the weakest pup in the box, started nesting in my head. It was not the prettiest, but man, it had potential.
No one gives a darn about Spanish Pronunciation. I think there’s even some kind of pride in speaking lousy Spanish. But God forgive me if I ever dare to show up to a job interview with an English accent matching my sombrero! And what about those of you who want to teach English? How does your flawed Spanish pronunciation reflect on your language skills?
Acknowledged, it’s not entirely your fault. Most of the people who pick Spanish as their second language rarely get a decent teacher who can actually speak properly, and I’m not talking about a native teacher! The notion of the native teacher being the best option to teach a language is highly questionable. How can an English speaker tell me what the heck I gotta do with my mouth to say the “j” of “jelly”, when he himself has never faced such a challenge? Well, he would have to study a bit. Only then would he be able to tell me that that particular sound involves a total closure of the oral cavity and releasing the air with friction between the front of the tongue and the roof of the mouth and vibration of the vocal folds. In other words, he’d say it is a voiced palato alveolar affricate. Maybe he can also tell me that even native speakers have a hard time acquiring it, often not until the age of four. And regarding French, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Arabic or Spanish speakers... Well, we are in deep trouble, the little bugger does not even exist in those languages!
What about the other way round? If you’re still reading, I bet you are one of the many who, even after years of hard, demanding and time consuming Spanish courses, is still struggling with that erre de guitarra, erre de barril, cómo rueda la rueda de ferrocarril. Maybe you’re one of those who don’t know why people hear “e” when you say “i”. Or maybe, after years of living in Argentina, you still hear this weird anomaly in your “s”... Is it the same sound in sílaba and in cuesta? Is it the same “b” in bomba and in caballo? The same “n” in nena and in enfermo? And what about the “a” in man and in mamá?! Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with you, you’re not going crazy; the letter is the same, but the sound is different.
There’s no doubt that the Spanish phonetic system is much simpler than the English one. You crazy bastards have about twelve vowels! Twelve! We stopped at five! Moreover, when we write an “e”, you can be darn sure we’re gonna say an “e”. On the other hand, think about your “i”, like the one in “police”. That same sound can be spelled either ee, e, ea, ie, ei, ey, or (logically?) i, not to mention those weird weird words, like quay, or people. Looks like you’ve got the upper hand, why not take the advantage?
Ok, studying phonetics is no picnic in the park. It involves a couple of sciences, from general grammar to phonoaudiology, but what I consider key is the will to change. Surely, playing a musical instrument or just having a trained ear will help you a lot, but you can do without that as long as you’re willing to do the hard work. And of course, hard work is never enough:
Melissa left about a month ago, with quite a good accent (something I had nothing to do with, the girl’s a natural). But, when she got into the taxi that was to take her to the airport, it was not her accent that gave her away. She didn’t have to say a word for the driver to ask: You American, or European?
Having finished high school in a German institute in 2000, Martín Ventola toured through mayors as dissimilar as Veterinary and Journalism, until he started steering towards Language; first Sworn Translation in UCA, and then the English Teacher’s Course in Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández, where he’s currently studying to become, hopefully in about 3 years, a Literary-Scientific Translator. Presently, he attends Professor Roxana Basso’s Phonetic Tutorship in Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández, plays sax in the funky Teniente Pascual and teaches Spanish Pronunciation.
This girl has this power, I don’t mean anything otherworldly, but she got me off my ass, and that’s a lot to say. She made me realize I had much to offer to the Argentinean society, but mostly to the expat part of it. During one of our enlightening conversations, the idea of a Spanish Pronunciation Course came up, and, as the weakest pup in the box, started nesting in my head. It was not the prettiest, but man, it had potential.
No one gives a darn about Spanish Pronunciation. I think there’s even some kind of pride in speaking lousy Spanish. But God forgive me if I ever dare to show up to a job interview with an English accent matching my sombrero! And what about those of you who want to teach English? How does your flawed Spanish pronunciation reflect on your language skills?
Acknowledged, it’s not entirely your fault. Most of the people who pick Spanish as their second language rarely get a decent teacher who can actually speak properly, and I’m not talking about a native teacher! The notion of the native teacher being the best option to teach a language is highly questionable. How can an English speaker tell me what the heck I gotta do with my mouth to say the “j” of “jelly”, when he himself has never faced such a challenge? Well, he would have to study a bit. Only then would he be able to tell me that that particular sound involves a total closure of the oral cavity and releasing the air with friction between the front of the tongue and the roof of the mouth and vibration of the vocal folds. In other words, he’d say it is a voiced palato alveolar affricate. Maybe he can also tell me that even native speakers have a hard time acquiring it, often not until the age of four. And regarding French, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Arabic or Spanish speakers... Well, we are in deep trouble, the little bugger does not even exist in those languages!
What about the other way round? If you’re still reading, I bet you are one of the many who, even after years of hard, demanding and time consuming Spanish courses, is still struggling with that erre de guitarra, erre de barril, cómo rueda la rueda de ferrocarril. Maybe you’re one of those who don’t know why people hear “e” when you say “i”. Or maybe, after years of living in Argentina, you still hear this weird anomaly in your “s”... Is it the same sound in sílaba and in cuesta? Is it the same “b” in bomba and in caballo? The same “n” in nena and in enfermo? And what about the “a” in man and in mamá?! Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with you, you’re not going crazy; the letter is the same, but the sound is different.
There’s no doubt that the Spanish phonetic system is much simpler than the English one. You crazy bastards have about twelve vowels! Twelve! We stopped at five! Moreover, when we write an “e”, you can be darn sure we’re gonna say an “e”. On the other hand, think about your “i”, like the one in “police”. That same sound can be spelled either ee, e, ea, ie, ei, ey, or (logically?) i, not to mention those weird weird words, like quay, or people. Looks like you’ve got the upper hand, why not take the advantage?
Ok, studying phonetics is no picnic in the park. It involves a couple of sciences, from general grammar to phonoaudiology, but what I consider key is the will to change. Surely, playing a musical instrument or just having a trained ear will help you a lot, but you can do without that as long as you’re willing to do the hard work. And of course, hard work is never enough:
Melissa left about a month ago, with quite a good accent (something I had nothing to do with, the girl’s a natural). But, when she got into the taxi that was to take her to the airport, it was not her accent that gave her away. She didn’t have to say a word for the driver to ask: You American, or European?
Having finished high school in a German institute in 2000, Martín Ventola toured through mayors as dissimilar as Veterinary and Journalism, until he started steering towards Language; first Sworn Translation in UCA, and then the English Teacher’s Course in Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández, where he’s currently studying to become, hopefully in about 3 years, a Literary-Scientific Translator. Presently, he attends Professor Roxana Basso’s Phonetic Tutorship in Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández, plays sax in the funky Teniente Pascual and teaches Spanish Pronunciation.
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