Spanish Analysis
Could someone analyze this Spanish. What are the features of the accent? What dialect or version of Spanish is this? What country or region is the speaker from?
Audio file:
http://spqr.byethost4.com/2759293/83917.wav
The Text:
"El colegio de María y Enrique es muy grande. Hay muchos profesores y muchos alumnos. La escuela es de ladrillo rojo y tiene tres pisos, tiene muchas salas de clase y una oficina"
Translation:
"María and Enrique's school is very big. There are many teachers and students. The school is made of red bricks and it has three floors, it has many classrooms and an office".
But don't click the link directly. Instead copy and paste it into the location bar manually, or sometimes it doesn't go to the right place. I can't figure out why it does that.
The address is: spqr.byethost4.com/2759293/83917.wav
I detect a strong American English accent trying to sound Castellano. The vowels aren't solidly Spanish enough. I might be wrong though, and what a fool I would make of myself if that were the case.
I'm not sure about the American English accent, but the speaker is almost certainly not a native speaker of Spanish. A few of the things that give him away:
The vowels are, as Presley said, not "Spanish" enough. For instance, /o/ is too close in words like "rojo" (almost ["ruxu]) or "oficina".
The speaker pronounces "Colegio" as [ko"leo] instead of [ko"lexjo] or [ko"lehjo].
Native speakers usually have an approximate consonant at the beginning of "grande", the speaker has a plosive (his L1 could very well be English).
In addition I don't think there are many native speakers who have both [Z] in "ladrillo" and [T] in "oficina". The combinations [j]/[T] (most of Spain), [j]/[s] (most of Latin America), and [Z]/[s] (rioplatense) are much more likely to occur.
Native speakers tend to make three vowels out of "la escuela" and not the seemingly overenunciated four vowels we get from this speaker.
Audio file:
http://spqr.byethost4.com/2759293/83917.wav
The Text:
"El colegio de María y Enrique es muy grande. Hay muchos profesores y muchos alumnos. La escuela es de ladrillo rojo y tiene tres pisos, tiene muchas salas de clase y una oficina"
Translation:
"María and Enrique's school is very big. There are many teachers and students. The school is made of red bricks and it has three floors, it has many classrooms and an office".
---->>>>
This sounds a lot like a Latin speaker (of today) trying to pronounced Spanish in the Latin way, with little sprinkles of rio de plantese and castilian in her / his pronunciation.
;)
This is certainly NOT any Spanish dialect. It sounds like an American speaker but with a strong mix of other languages, maybe Asian. Otherwise would have been able to produce a solid "o" and a better "g" in "colegio".
This is what i call "gringo" Spanish.
"Gringo" Spanish is a new accent of Spanish and is gaining popularity.
I am not the right person to have a definite opinion on this, as I am not a Spanish speaker, however I noticed that (a) the R and L sounds were very AmE-like, and (b) there was a tendency to mispronounce some vowels in a way that made me wonder if he was actually thinking he was reading Portuguese instead of Spanish. All in all, it felt like an native speaker of AmE, who has not studied any Spanish (no ease at all when reading the text - sounds like he was making an effort), but who might have studied some Portuguese, thus the tendency to the U sounds.
Disclaimer: I have never studied Portuguese. The tendency to have more Us than Os is entirely based on my impression when I hear it spoken; I might be full of BS on that, and I hope I didn't offend anyone.
It sounds Russian to me. Specially when he pronounces "ladrillo" and "rojo".
Calm, French language will be spoken...in France.
<< So how come you're posting this message in blatant violation of
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t7993.htm when nobody gives a @#!!*? >>
Just to be clear, that was in response to a message that was deleted.