Vowels and Phonetics
The same 5
vowels that are in the English Alphabet are the vocals used in the Spanish
alphabet as well. It is very important
to start practicing the pronunciation of Spanish vocals, because they are the
root of each syllable in this language.
It will also facilitate comprehension when talking to someone because
they will be more likely to understand you!
·
A
a (pronounced , like the “o” in
“mom”)
·
E
e (pronounced like , with a slight
“y” sound at the terminus, like the “a” in “cake”)
·
I
i (pronounced , like the “ee”
in “bee” or “keep”)
·
O
o (pronounced
, but without closing your lips.
English equivalent doesn’t really exist.)
·
U
u (pronounced
, like the “oo” in
“kangaroo”)
Some of the
sounds will take some time to master, as they aren’t compatible sound-wise to
that of their English counterparts.
Spanish is a
far more phonetically accurate language than English. What that means is that each letter has its
own consistent sound. There are only a
handful of exceptions in the Spanish language, whereas English has
thousands. For example, the “gh” in
English can either sound like “g” in “ghost”,
like “w” in “slough” or “dough”, or like “f” in “laugh”.
Consonants
The
consonants in the Spanish alphabet are roughly the same pronunciation as the
English alphabet, with only a handful of exceptions. The “g” is pronounced with a throaty,
guttural “h” sound, as if clearing the throat, ONLY if it is found before
“e”:
el gerente ()
la gente ()
The “h” is
always silent in Spanish:
la hache ()
el hermano ()
The “j” is
pronounced like a throaty “h” sound, as if clearing the throat.
la caja ()
la pareja ()
“V” is
pronounced like the “b” in “bee”, as in the following words:
la voz ()
la cerveza ()
bonita Cuernavaca ()
The “x” is
usually pronounced like the “j”. Hence,
“México” is pronounced , and in fact, is even written sometimes as “Méjico”!
If a word
begins with “x” (which is rare), it sounds out like an English “z”:
la ciudad de Xochimilco
“Z” is
pronounced like an “s”, as in the following:
el alcatraz ()
el ajedrez ()
A key thing
to remember about Spanish consonants is that they need to be pronounced very
sharply, and not as slurred out as English consonants tend to do. Therefore, “r” in English doesn’t sound the
same way in Spanish; it is more abrupt in Spanish and, along with “t”, can
sound like a “d” to an English speaker!
The Real Academia de la Lengua Española (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language),
which has governing authority over the alphabet as well as the language itself,
has eliminated a couple of consonants.
In this way, Spanish differs from English in that the standard for the
Spanish language is subject to a governing body in order to preserve it in
perpetuity. For English, our language
standard is found in sources like the Webster’s Dictionary or Roget’s
Thesaurus, but there really is no centralized regulation on the language and as
such, English is subject to far more change and metamorphosis than
Spanish. The following letters have been
removed in recent years from the Spanish alphabet. They are, however, still used in practice
when spelling words:
·
CH
ch (Pronounced: ) - Formerly
the 4th letter of the alphabet.
Pronounced like the English equivalent.
(“cheese”, “chess”)
·
LL
ll (Pronounced: ) – Formerly
the 14th letter of the alphabet.
Pronounced with a “y” sound, i.g. “llamo”
is pronounced
·
RR
rr (Pronounced: ) – Formerly
the 22nd letter of the alphabet.
Pronounced with a trilled lingual-fricative sound. No English equivalent.
Diphthongs
A diphthong
is the combination of two weak vocals (like “i” and “u”) or a combination of a
strong vocal (“a”, “e”, or “o”) with one of the weak vowels.
A diphthong
actually makes up one syllable and is sounded out accordingly. A major pitfall of English speakers learning
Spanish is that we regularly break up vowel sounds in English; however, this
would sound odd in Spanish if we do that, and you’d sound like the
quintessential “gringo”!
Here are
some common diphthongs and their Spanish pronunciations:
·
“ie”
= pronounced
·
“ua”
= pronounced
·
“ia”
= pronounced
·
“io”
= pronounced
·
“ue”
= pronounced
·
“ui”
= pronounced
·
“ei”
= pronounced
·
“au”
= pronounced
Try saying
the following words:
1. el siete
2. el cuaderno
3. el juego
4. la radio
5. la jaula
6. el estudiante
7. la agua
8. el juicio
9. el secretario
10. el seis
Accents and other Special Characters
As you have
probably noticed, Spanish implements diacritical marks (accents) from time to
time. The accents ALWAYS fall on a vocal
(vowel). The stress of the pronunciation
of the word falls where the accent lies.
Accents are
occasionally located over vowels that are part of a diphthong. If this occurs, then the diphthong
pronunciation is broken up and each vocal is sounded out. Note the following:
·
el río (pronounced
·
el baúl (pronounced
Another
character that appears regularly in Spanish is the tilde, on the letter ñ.
This letter, pronounced , is found in words such as la mañana
(, and el año ().
You’ll also
(very rarely) encounter the umlaut, which is used to sound out
the “ü” when it appears after a “q”
or “g”. Without the umlaut, the “u” is
silent. Some words you’ll find with an
umlaut are libro bilingüe (pronounced and la sangüesa (pronounced .
In
exclamation sentences, you’ll find the upside down exclamation point at the
beginning of the sentence:
¡Hace buen tiempo!
What great weather!
With interrogative
sentences, you’ll find the upside down question mark:
¿Qué quieres?
What do you want?
In the
Spanish language, quotation marks are symbolized by brackets instead: “«” and
“»”. In practice a quotation in a
Spanish sentence would look like this:
«Tengo una pregunta.» -
dijo el alumno.
Here is a
chart that shows you the ALT codes so you can create them on your computer:
Symbol
|
ALT Code
|
Á
|
0193
|
É
|
0201
|
Í
|
0205
|
Ó
|
0211
|
Ú
|
0218
|
Ñ
|
0209
|
Ü
|
0220
|
á
|
0225
|
é
|
0233
|
í
|
0237
|
ó
|
0243
|
ú
|
0250
|
ñ
|
0241
|
ü
|
0252
|
¿
|
0191
|
¡
|
0161
|
«
|
0171
|
»
|
0187
|
€
|
0128
|
Non-Accented Words and the Penultimate
Syllable
The
penultimate syllable or the second-to-last syllable on a non-accented word
usually gets the stress of the pronunciation.
la basura
la computadora
la mochila
el/la estudiante
An exception
occurs when the word ends in a hard consonant like d, j, r, t,
or z. In these cases, the stress falls on the last
syllable. Note the following:
el reloj *The “j” makes a very throaty guttural
sound.
el caminar
la actitud
el avestruz
el estado de Nayarit
Comments
Post a Comment