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?
Showing posts with label vowels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vowels. Show all posts
24 May 2008
04 May 2008
Rule #3- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!
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!
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!
23 April 2008
Rule #2, Spanish vowels are PURE
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.-
You wanna shake that gringo accent off? Stay tuned for more usefull tips by subscribing to the Spanish Pronunciation 101 feed.
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.-
You wanna shake that gringo accent off? Stay tuned for more usefull tips by subscribing to the Spanish Pronunciation 101 feed.
09 April 2008
Rule #1, Spanish vowels are SHORT
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
Like what you read? Keep in touch by subscribing to the Spanish Pronunciation 101 RSS feed!
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
Like what you read? Keep in touch by subscribing to the Spanish Pronunciation 101 RSS feed!
27 March 2008
The real deal about Spanish vowel sounds
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.
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