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Spanish Pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| fredomirek Tetraglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6907 days ago 265 posts - 264 votes  Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 1 of 15 15 February 2006 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been wondering about the choice as far as Spanish pronunciation is concerned. I've been learning to pronunce Spanish in the manner the people from Spain do, especially from Madrid, with "ceceo" (the wet way of pronuncing "ce","ci" and "z") etc. However, I've seen a vast number of people using rather the American "version" with pronuncing "ce" the same as "se" and so on. Maybe it's caused partially by the fact that on this site Pimsleur is rather a popular learning tool and it uses American pronunciation. What is your opinion? Which "dialect"... (sorry but I have no idea how to call these diferences) would you prefere and why?
Piotrek 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| rafaelrbp Pentaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 7014 days ago 181 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Spanish, English, French, Italian Studies: German | Message 2 of 15 15 February 2006 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, the "American" (or Mexican) pronunciation is a good start. I'd prefer to learn it, because it's easier to learn the others later.
For example, in Argentina (I've been in Buenos Aires), they cut the final 's' in some words (aspiration), and also say the 'll' as 'ch' (as in english 'cache'). I wasn't concerned with this change in the pronounciation, but to the way they talk (not clear enough sometimes). You will be understood anyway, but it's your option what accent to learn. As you live in Europe, maybe this can count also. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7105 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 3 of 15 15 February 2006 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It just depends on with whom you will be speaking. Except for vocabulary, the pronunciation differences in Spanish seem to be much easier to remember than say American and British English. I prefer the European pronunciation of English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, however I don't speak with Spanish people so I use the American pronunciation.
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 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6895 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 15 15 February 2006 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Could be a sensitive issue this, I'm afraid.
The basic advice is to learn the variant closest to the natives you are likely to come into contact with in the future - if this is applicable to your situation. I disagree that it would be easier to learn to distinguish between the two sounds later if you learned not to from the beginning. Going the other way is much easier. On the other hand, not bothering with the difference can perhaps save you some effort initially. Btw. I don't perceive the z-sound as "wet" compared to s, though I understand what you mean. (Does the th in "thing" feel _wet_ compared to s in "sing" ? they are approximately the same sounds). Keeping s and z separate will enable you to distinguish between some words which cannot be told apart in SA-Spanish (and parts of Spain for that matter). But those cases are so rare that it is not really anything to be concerned about. Call it snobbery if you like, but personally I take pleasure in being able to make the distinction, quite apart from any practical considerations. To me, if you are in Europe it makes sense to learn European Spanish, unless you specifically plan to travel somewhere else. As I understand it (though I could be wrong) a Castilian accent is generally well regarded and considered educated and correct by Spanish speakers anywhere in the world. And that is something that doesn't necessarily work both ways. Then of course, if you want the best of both worlds you'd have to learn both. Or learn one, and then learn to fake the other :o). EDIT: I actually used to be able to do a rather credible Argentine accent singing "Adios Muchachos", though I haven't tried it for many years now. And my singing is still so terrible it can make it rain in the Sahara but that's a different story. Edited by Hencke on 15 February 2006 at 4:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 15 15 February 2006 at 4:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
I would suggest that this depends on the country/region since, as I understand it, it can also be considered rather "posh" and aloof.
Indeed! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7104 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 15 16 February 2006 at 2:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Personally speaking I think people worry about this far too much. The advice that you should concentrate on learning "the variant closest to the natives you are likely to come into contact with in the future" has some validity but equally it depends on what learning resources you are using.
I started learning Spanish with Linguaphone which taught the so-called Castilian "lisp". That was, therefore, the pronunciation that I first learned. However, many of the subsequent learning materials I've used were focused on Latin-American (Mexican-bias) pronunciation, so I switched to seseo. This has, fortunately, also been reflected in the Spanish-speaking places I have visited but had I turned up on la Isla de Margarita with a Linguaphone accent, I don't believe it would have been much of a problem. Having said that, currently I'm doing a lot of Assimil Spanish - Castilian "lisp" again - but I am ignoring the taught pronunciation entirely and I have to admit I don't even notice it anymore. Andy. Edited by Andy E on 16 February 2006 at 2:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fredomirek Tetraglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6907 days ago 265 posts - 264 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 7 of 15 16 February 2006 at 4:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for your views, I'm conscious that there are many more significant aspects during the learning of Spanish, however, this point interests me.
I called it a "wet sound" as I have heard somewhere such a name. I have to disagree with you because I can see a significant difference between the sounds in "thing" and "sing" I can't imagine mixing them. Perhaps that's because in my native language (Polish) there does exist the sound "s" though we don't have the sound "th"(Castilian "z" or "ce") and it's foreign and somehow different for me.
I agree and I'm inclined to believe that it's the same with British English that it's considered "better" and more correct than American English, the same goes to Castellano and Spanish used in Mexico etc. I do prefer British English and Iberic Spanish, though I can't (and I don't want to!) say that these are better or more correct, it's just my personal preference. Moreover, I suppose every inhabitant of a Spanish-speaking country will defend their "dialect" of a language and therefore Mexicans will say that Spanish used in Mexico is the best and Spanish from Valladolid will stick to their Castilian. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6895 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 15 16 February 2006 at 5:25am | IP Logged | |||||
I should have been clearer on that.I meant that the Spanish z-sound is very close to th in "thing", and the Spainsh s-sound is very close to s in "sing". (I say "very close" to avoid unnecessary hairsplittery, but afaic I might as well say "identical".) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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