Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!oitnews.harvard.edu!news.sesqui.net!imci2!news.internetMCI.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!newshub.csu.net!usc!news.cerf.net!mvb.saic.com!eskimo!rickw
From: rickw@eskimo.com (Richard Wojcik)
Subject: Re: Allophones in Spanish
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: eskimo.com
Message-ID: <DqxuI5.HDo@eskimo.com>
Sender: news@eskimo.com (News User Id)
Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever
References: <4m388k$3rf@news01.aud.alcatel.com> <318A78CA.33EA@netvision.net.il>
Date: Sun, 5 May 1996 15:18:05 GMT
Lines: 62

In article <318A78CA.33EA@netvision.net.il>,
Avi Jacobson  <avi_jaco@netvision.net.il> wrote:
>Stephen H. Houchen wrote:
>> 
>> When taking Spanish in High School, Americans are frequently taught that
>> the Spanish vowel system is a very simple one consisting of only five vowels
>> that are always pronounced the same way.  Well, I am now trying to eliminate
>> my American-sounding accent when I speak Spanish, and was wondering if
>> anyone had any input on the different allophones for vowels in [Mexican]
>> Spanish.
>> 
>> a  seems pretty invariable (like the "a" in "father")
>> i  always seems to sound like a long "i" without the off-glide (y)
>> u  always seems to sound like "oo" without the off-glide (w)
>> 
>> However...  I hear two distinct e's and two distinct o's.  Can anybody tell
>> me the environment that conditions which allophone is actually pronounced?

The difference you hear is a phonemic difference in English, not Spanish.
So you hear separate vowels where Spanish speakers hear variants of the
same vowels.  One generalization you can make is that the "eh" vowel occurs
in closed syllables.  Thus, "despues" is pronounced "d-eh-spu-eh-s" because
the /s/ closes off both syllables.  It is interesting that many speakers
have what is called "s-aspiration" (replacing /s/ with [h] or even deleting
it altogether).  This destroys the predictive phonetic environment, thus
setting up a situation where /e/ and /E/ become separate phonemes for some
speakers.  

[snip]

>How does the English speaker speaking Spanish with English phonology
>know when to use "eh" and when to use "ay"?  How does he know when
>to use "aw" and when to use "oh"?  There are a number of reasons for any
>particulart choice. (I once did a paper at University on the reasons
>speakers of a foreign language choose a particular phoneme of their
>native language upon which to map one from the foreign language, when
>they have a choice): "long" diphthong "o" in English rarely comes before
>"r" (which is why "hora" becomes English "aura", but "hola" becomes
>English "O-Lah).  "Short" "eh" in English cannot come at the end of a
>word.  And so on.
>
>Listen _very_ careful to a native Spanish speaker pronouncing these
>words.  Have him or her break the word "hora" into syllables and
>pronounce them separately, then the whole word slowly, then the whole
>word at regular speed.  Have him or her say "hora" and "hola".  Have him
>or her say "entre" v-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-r-y-y-y-y-y slowly, or sing it on slow
>half-notes.  Then tell us if you have abandoned your theory.

My favorite experience with Spanish occurred once when I had a Cuban
teacher.  One characteristic of the Cuban dialect is that syllable-final
/n/ can be either dental or velar (i.e. "ng").  Speakers of the dialect
have trouble perceiving the difference between English "been" and "bing",
and they often pronounce them the same.  We spent about 15 minutes of
class time once when several of the students tried to pin the teacher down
on whether "orange" was pronounced "naranja" or "narangja".  Naturally, she
answered "yes" to each pronunciation and thought the students were being
difficult.  My attempts to explain the problem were met with glassy eyes
from both sides.  8^)  Well, I've always believed that Linguistics 101
should be a required course for language learners.
-- 
Rick Wojcik  rickw@eskimo.com     Seattle (for locals: Bellevue), WA
             http://www.eskimo.com/~rickw/
