Why "V" is "B" in Spanish ?

guest   Fri Jun 20, 2008 5:07 pm GMT
<<I wonder how a native English speaker deals with [B]. Does (s)he map it onto /b/ or /v/ (or perhaps /w/)? >>

I pronounce the SPanish 'v' like an English 'b', but I mouth it as a 'v'. In other words, I do not purse my lips, but keep my incisors atop my bottom lip like 'v'
Guest   Fri Jun 20, 2008 5:32 pm GMT
Again since Spanish has pretty simple phonemes (that anyone can learn), the sounds for B and V are too damn similar for Spanish speakers to make a difference.

Another example is that Spanish speakers learning English wouldn't make a difference between Yellow and Jello.
Guest   Fri Jun 20, 2008 7:41 pm GMT
-I wonder how a native English speaker deals with [B]. Does (s)he map it onto /b/ or /v/ (or perhaps /w/)?-

It sounds like [w] in with
I like V   Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:21 pm GMT
since julio iglesias the most famous spanish singer always sung using "V" I asume "V" is more fashionable.
Guest   Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:47 pm GMT
Sophisticated and cultured Spanish speakers pronouce V like V and B like B, that is, differently. To pronounce both letters the same way is quite vulgar.
Guest   Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:28 am GMT
Most foreigners, especially English speakers, seem unable to do the most common sound for the v/b letters, which is a bilabial approximant that in relaxed speech can becames a labiodental aproximant, so guys just go along with your different v's and b's, it's terribly fashion.

Spanish v (and Spanish b by the way) is pronounced close to an English b only after a nasal consonat, that's to say, in words such as anverso and ambiente, and maybe also in very clear speech at the begining of a sentence.

Here you can hear Julio Iglesias talking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7zFmwCv7IA

It's not at all surprising that he doesn't make any difference between b and v, wow, just like every single Spanish speaker in the world.
Guest   Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:49 am GMT
"Very tricky question. From my experience educated Spaniards always distinguish between "v" and "b" in all areas of Spain."

Your experience is just rubbish, mate. Have you got any link to youtube showing that? In the meantime just watch this, although perhaps he's not educated enough for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DB8qYAoU-g
SSSSSSSSSSSS   Sat Jun 21, 2008 12:23 pm GMT
its amazing how spanish sounds like a language full of "S" you hear the "S" at every end of the word "plural" jesus , so many SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Skippy   Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:37 pm GMT
English speakers trying to say /B/ tend to end up either favoring /v/ or /b/. It's only further along with a study of the language (or being a nerdy Linguistics major like me) that English speakers end up actually pronouncing the /B/.
Guest   Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:02 pm GMT
"its amazing how spanish sounds like a language full of "S" you hear the "S" at every end of the word "plural" jesus , so many SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS "

Spanish come in many different flavours mate, here you've got two Spanish ladies talking without any, not a single one, of those -s's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnOTXs80X_w

Maybe Castilian and Andalusian Spanish sound ugly to you, which is comprehensible, but if Colombian does too, then you just need a new pair of ears. Her s's are different from the ones in Spain by the way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riG1vHWueYY&amp;feature=related
Guest   Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:31 pm GMT
"Your experience is just rubbish, mate. Have you got any link to youtube showing that? In the meantime just watch this, although perhaps he's not educated enough for you:".
Ignorant stupid teenagers with a childish attitude should not be allowed to spread garbage in this forum.

Educated Spaniards distinguish between "b" and "v". Of course ignorant people can't since they even don't know when to use a "v" or a "b".
Guest   Sat Jun 21, 2008 4:20 pm GMT
When I was younger and didn't know a word of English, the Beatles's song "Let it be" sounded to me like "lery p", wich my mind, always looking for sense, translated as "Mary P.", where P were supposed to be a surname or something.

So, it's funny when I hear English speakers saying we make v like an English b. An English b is a p you dicks, how the hell are we gonna say paso instead of vaso?

It's true that the Spanish system is simpler than the English from a phomemic point of view, but it's also a fact that you don't have the sound we use for both v and b. That's why you keep asking this again and again.

The only diference between an English speaker learning Spanish and the other way round is that it's easier for the English to make themselves understand, but no one is ever gonna get a better accent than the other. Spanish has only 5 vowels, but you seem to always do wrongly half of them.
Guest   Sat Jun 21, 2008 4:25 pm GMT
"Ignorant stupid teenagers with a childish attitude should not be allowed to spread garbage in this forum.

Educated Spaniards distinguish between "b" and "v". Of course ignorant people can't since they even don't know when to use a "v" or a "b"."

Plonk.
Guest   Sat Jun 21, 2008 4:51 pm GMT
Educated speakers distinguish LL and Y, B and V , C and Z. Of course don't expect to find many of these in Mexico or South A.
Guest   Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:27 pm GMT
The last educated speaker was seen arround the Toledo area in 1620. Fortunately, thanks to modern techniques in History reseach and computer simulation he has been recreated. Here's the result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAcrIr84OdQ

Sadly, modern Spaniards are so crazy abouts accents that everybody complained about Viggo Mortensen's accent, unanimous opinion outside the cinemas. Fucking idiots, the amazing Viggo's acting was the only thing that made sense in that otherwise nonsensical and stupid movie!