How to pronounce the LL letter.

Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:40 am GMT
No, the vowel I and the consonant LL are different sounds. LI is an aproximation to LL , and also I but not very good.
K. T.   Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:42 am GMT
Guest,

It sounds completely right to me.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:42 am GMT
Are you saying the King doesn't speak Spanish correctly?

Of course you can't write it exactly in English as it sounds in Spanish but I don't know what guest is expecting...
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:48 am GMT
LL is the most difficult sound in Spanish. Not all people are able to pronounce it even if they are know how it should be pronounced. Even more the Bourbons carry a genetic speech impediment, so it would be very difficult for he to pronounce LL and instead, he uses LI or I . But I think that better than using that fake LL it should be more straightforward to simply pronounce LL as a Y like most of his subjects do.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:54 am GMT
I expected a sound like LI but somewhat different. The King simply pronounced LL like the vowel I, or at least this is my impression.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:05 am GMT
The King pronouced it perfectly. Spanish doesn't care what you *want* it to sound like.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:11 am GMT
No, it may not be correct. He pronounced CALLES like CAIES. By the way, are you a native Spanish speaker, even if you are so, native speakers pronouncing the LL sound are rare, so it is difficult that you heard proper LL. I met some of them and the King does not seem to pronouce LL like them.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:15 am GMT
Just because it doesn't sound as it traditionally should does not mean it's wrong! Languages change. In English technically "whith" is something like "fhith", but it's old fashioned and only old people talk so. It is senseless to pronounce it so, especially for a learner, you will be laughed at. Just pronounce it as native speakers do.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:19 am GMT
LL sound is rare enough to suffer furter evolutions. The evolution of the LL letter is to pronounce it like Y, but this is different. It sounds like an immitation of the traditional LL sound . I think that this King has a speech impediment.
Spanyol   Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:49 am GMT
Pronouncing the Spanish LL like Portuguese LH makes you sound like a grandpa/grandma.
No young native speakers today pronounce it that way in their everyday natural speech.
K. T.   Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:06 am GMT
"English technically "whith" is something like "fhith", but it's old fashioned and only old people talk so." Guest

Uh, what do you mean? Even with my grandparents I never heard anything like "fhith"...
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:38 am GMT
I don't know correctly how to describe it, but many old people pronounce "wh" with an "f" like blowing sound.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:17 pm GMT
Spanyol, proper Spanish never dies out. People working in Spaniard mass media pronounce a crystal-clear LL so I want to pronounce it the same way.
Spanyol   Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:26 pm GMT
<< Spanyol, proper Spanish never dies out. People working in Spaniard mass media pronounce a crystal-clear LL so I want to pronounce it the same way. >>

There are lots of possibilities to watch Spanish TV on the internet.
You'll notice that nowadays pronouncing LL like Portuguese LH is quite rare, including in the Spanish media.

Even the Valencian speakers don't pronounce LL like Valencian LL when they are speaking Spanish.
Guest   Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:29 pm GMT
Even the Valencian speakers don't pronounce LL like Valencian LL ---> not true at all, I met many Valencians which keep LL when speaking Spanish. Probably they didn't speak Valencian.
In Spain, TVE and Radio Nacional use RAE Spanish and pronouncing LL is a must.