For native Spanish-speaking children learning to spell in English, this transition from a shallow to a deep orthography could potentially cause difficulties. We examined whether the spelling of English vowel sounds was particularly difficult for native Spanish-speaking children, and whether the errors ...
In an extension of a study by Greenberg and Jenkins (1966), 40 English-speaking and 40 Spanish-speaking adults rated nine audiotaped vowel sounds on 23 dimensions. The front-back distinction was again found for both groups. In addition, ratings for all nine vowels were similar for the two ...
Unlike English, each Spanish vowel has one pronunciation (short and crisp), regardless of its position in a word. Compare the vowel sounds in the following Spanish/English pairs: [banana/banana] and [monopolio/monopoly]. The following Spanish consonants require special attention [g, h, j, s...
Nasal vowel soundsWhile not as pronounced as in some Portuguese or French dialects, Mexican Spanish can exhibit a subtle nasal quality in vowel sounds, particularly when vowels are followed by nasal consonants like “m” or “n.” For example, the “a” in mano (mah-no) might carry a ...
While the J (and G before E or I) sound in most Spanish varieties is a strong, guttural sound similar to the English H in “Hello,” Puerto Rican Spanish softens it to the point of almost vanishing it or turning it into a soft, breathy sound. This makes the J and G sounds in wo...
There are sounds in both languages that can be very difficult for English speakers: French has the infamous "R"pronunciation,nasal vowels, and the subtle (to untrained ears) differences betweentu/tousandparlai/parlais. In Spanish, the rolled "R", the "J" (similar tothe French R), and th...
If you were to follow the standard rules ofpronunciation, the vowel sounds ofaunandaúnwould be distinctly different, the former being something like "oun" (rhyming with "town" and "gown") using adiphthong, the latter something like "ah-OON" (rhyming with "tune" and "moon"). ...
You’ll be hard pressed to correctly spell or read Spanish words if you don’t know the basic vowel sounds. The great thing about Spanish is that the vowels, in my opinion, are easier to understand than in English. You don’t have rules like “when two vowels go a walking” or “i...
Allí sounds longer, with a definite “y” sound separating the two vowel sounds. Over There: Allí and Allá Allí and allá are the Spanish words for there, both indicating that the person or thing we’re referring to is quite far from the speaker. It’s a good idea to think of ...
The CSPL does not address the 14 English vowel sounds, or the many French vowel sounds, or the additional Spanish consonants like the “LL” or the “CH.” Likewise, The CSPL is not about the syllabic accenting that occurs in all words in any given language, such as in the word “...