Talk:Spanish/Pronunciation

Audio Recording
Speaking from personal experience from learning foreign languages, it is really useful to have an AUDIO recording of the pronunciation of the various sounds in a language.

Having approximations like "'A' as in 'father'" etc. is all very well, but it really is no substitute for hearing a native make the sound and then replicating it. Written words are subject to the variances of dialect and accent- for example while "Pen" might be pronounced "Pehn" in the UK and USA, in New Zealand it is pronounced "Piin". Reliance on written approximations of a sound is thus quite dangerous and restrictive for a self-learner of a language.

If you think about it, the reason books used these approximations back in the day, was that it was a BOOK BACK IN THE DAY. It's 2009 for freaks sake- on the internet!! The ability to integrate audio into the learning of a language is a marvellous opportunity that we should capitalise on! The old book format of self-learning was subject to the technological limitations of yesteryear. We should be availing of the ease of audio integration that is at our disposal to provide a dynamic language learning experience.

I therefore request that a native record each sound: perhaps saying the sound alone, then in a word, repeated, and then as a sound alone again. This could easily be inserted as an mp3 beside each individual sound. It will only really take about an hour's work or so and would REALLY contribute to learning that the wikibook seeks to provide!

All the best, Jack

Yes LOVECYNthia Powers (discuss • contribs) 22:49, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

Ch, Ll, Ñ
While Ch and Ll have now been added to "c" and "l" in the Real Academia Española dictionaries and other dictionaries, keep in mind that in ALL the Spanish-Spanish dictionaries, Ñ/ñ is a letter by its own, and hasn't (nor has a reason to) been eliminated from the order of M, N, Ñ, O in the dictionaries.

Common pronunciation of Ll
Is the 'proper' pronunciation of ll as 'gl' like in Italian actually exist in the Spanish-speaking world? It seems it exists solely academically.

More to the point, while the 'll' is often pronounced like the 'y' in English, in many areas it is actually closer to the 'zh' sound and, notably in many parts of Argentina, quite nearly the English 'sh' sound. Anecdotally, I have used both the 'y' and the 'zh' versions and have never had it questioned, even by academics. I believe the fair student can stick with either of these and avoid the unusual sounding 'gl'. Just an opinion.

156.56.73.196 18:00, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I removed the whole "properly" nonsense. There are numerous proper ways to say the letter ll. Castilian Spanish is not any more "proper".

Hablan
it says that hablan is pronounced HA- BLAN not A- BLAN like it should be 144.138.190.1 07:33, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
 * huh? Hablan is pronounced AH-blahn, with emphasis on the first syllable. This is the rule of stress for words ending in the letter N but that do not have an accent to signify stress.

alignment on page 5
The left and right columns have their "middle" aligned. This is confusing. They should have their TOP aligned.Š

d, touching teeth
"Between vowels, the tongue should be lowered so as to not touch the teeth (somewhat similar to the th in the)."

But the tongue does touch the teeth in the, in English - could this please be clarified? --Chriswaterguy (talk) 17:55, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

N
"Like n in no. Before p, b, f and v (and in some regions m) sounds as m in important..." never write n before a B or a P, always, mp and mb Bold text

What is "over-cultism"?
The section on the letter 'v' states that pronouncing 'v' like 'v' instead of 'b' is an 'over-cultism'. An internet search sheds absolutely no light on the meaning of this phrase. Curious students who doubt the veracity of this wiki page (because anyone can edit it) will wonder if the phrase 'over-cultism' might mean something along the lines of being a widely held belief thoroughly known to be wrong to those in the know. No one can be sure though. Is it a neologism? If 'over-cultism' is synonymous with 'common misconception', that might be a better word choice.

For me, a beginner, it seems possible that v is a sort of cross between an English v and b, with at least a different mouth shape from a Spanish 'b'. Does it vary region to region, or is it really so absolute?

76.176.35.14 (discuss) 19:43, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

About Spanish "Q"
On this page it says that "qu" can substitute "cu" before "a" or "o". Is this true, and how common is it?

Reading/Literature
i love the spanish book! Learning all about speaking spanish? What a great book! it is the best book of my life! do you have a japanese one or a chinese one? please send a message soon! 47.6.22.25 (discuss) 13:25, 25 September 2022 (UTC)