Los estudiantes de Espanol

Ian   Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:21 pm GMT
Hi Guest 224!

<< I know how the Z is pronounced in Spain, but my question is: How do Spanish learners learners in Asia or Africa pronounce it? >>

In Southeast Asia people are mostly taught to pronounce Z like an S.

I don't know about Africa, but AFAIK, the Africans who speak Spanish generally pronounce Z like English TH.

Saludos,


Ian
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:24 pm GMT
The Africans pronounce Spanish Z like S, I wonder why 99% of Spanish studentsre unable to pronounce it like in English TH. It is an easy sound. Even the English speakers pronounce Z like S.
Ian   Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:12 pm GMT
<< I wonder why 99% of Spanish studentsre unable to pronounce it like in English TH. >>

99% is an exaggeration, but you're right, even here in Germany where TH pronunciation is taught, most people still rather use S when speaking.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:27 pm GMT
If I hear English Th and European Spanish C/z They sound quite different to me.....What do you think about that
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:35 pm GMT
I don't find any differences appart from the fact that the English TH is always at the end of the words, while a word begins with "th" it is pronounced more like a Spanish D, for example:

"Then" , this Th is not like the Spanish Z but more like a D

"Fifth", in this case it is like the Spanish Z

Spanish Z on the other hand is more frequent and can be at any position of a word.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:55 pm GMT
You are right Josh, but I think that words like ether are not very common in English, are they? Then I wonder why the English speakers pronounce the Spanish Z like a S if their language uses the same sound too.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:57 pm GMT
English has two phonemes, /T/ and /D/, to Spanish's one, /T/.

That's not true Spanish has that sound Cantado ado = they
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:00 pm GMT
I guess that Josh really wanted to say that they have two sounds for TH, /T/ and /D/. But since I don't know how to represent the sounds I call /T/ the "Th" sunds, despite it may sound also like /D/ depending on the word. But definitely, Josh is right, it has nothing to do with the position of th in a given word.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:07 pm GMT
"This is an allophone of the phoneme /d/: <donda> [donda], <cantado> [kantaDo]. It is also often realized as an approximant, which the English /D/ never is: <cantado> [kantaD_oo] "

I'm sorry but most linguists don't agree with you
Gabriel   Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:24 pm GMT
<<I'm sorry but most linguists don't agree with you >>

What are you referring to? The fact that [D] and [d] do not contrast in any form of Spanish or the possible realization of /d/ as [D_o]?
I myself tend to use [D] (or possibly [D_o]) except after /n/, but they are certainly allophones of the same phoneme.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:21 pm GMT
Hola, Gabriel, podrías explicar lo que dices a los profanos en términos técnicos lingüisticos?
Gabriel   Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:37 pm GMT
<<Hola, Gabriel, podrías explicar lo que dices a los profanos en términos técnicos lingüisticos?>>

Con gusto. Mi comentario fue a propósito de la diferencia entre la d dental, que se simboliza [D] en X-SAMPA, y la d alveolar, que se simboliza [d] en ese sistema. En algunas lenguas, como la inglesa, dos palabras se pueden diferenciar únicamente por estos dos sonidos. Por ejemplo, la palabra inglesa "they" se pronuncia [DeI] y la palabra inglesa "day" se pronuncia [deI] (independientemente de las variaciones en el diptongo). En español no existen pares que se diferencien únicamente en estos sonidos. Sin embargo, usamos esos sonidos como variantes del fonema /d/ en diferentes posiciones. Por ejemplo, yo uso una d dental en la palabra "cada" [kaDa] y una d alveolar en la palabra "ando" [ando].

A su vez, Josh puntualizó que muchas veces la d dental se pronuncia como un sonido aproximante (en vez de un sonido fricativo). Los sonidos fricativos (como [D]) generan turbulencia apreciable en el flujo del aire. Los aproximantes tienen mucho menor grado de obstrucción entre los órganos articulatorios, se generan por mera aproximación de los mismos y son intermedios entre consonantes y vocales (como [D_o]).

¡Espero que la explicación haya servido!
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:44 pm GMT
Nunca había reparado en que la D tiene dos sonidos diferentes, pero es cierto que la D de "cada" y "ando" son ligeramente diferentes. Entendido, muchas gracias.
Guest   Fri Nov 16, 2007 8:30 am GMT
Si la d de ando y la de cada no son fonemas distintos, como es que muchos manuales de linguistica emplean dos simbolos diferentes para indicar sus sonidos y ademàs el sonido de la d de cada es igual al simbolo fonetico de la th de la palabra inglesa they??
Koreasparkling   Fri Nov 16, 2007 8:42 am GMT
How do you say "I don't speak Spanish." in Spanish?

"No hablos Español."
Is this correct?