Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com! Today, we have another edition of our Phonetics Series. Have you have though to yourself, “man, it seems like Spanish is spoken so much faster than my native language!”? Or, perhaps you’ve asked yourself “was that one long Spanish word or a few of them strung together?”. This lesson focuses on some ways in which Spanish words blend together when they’re pronounced. This is one of the most important phonetics topics for students who are new to the language. Be sure to pick up the PDF for this lesson, so that you can compare our pronunciation exercise with the written text in order to see exactly how this fusion takes place. ¡Suelta la lengua con SpanishPod101.com!
This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Phonetics Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
5 Responses to “Phonetics Lesson #8 - The Fusion of Words in Spoken Spanish - Part 1”
February 7th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
So, who can think of some more examples in which a synalepha is seen? Here’s one “el amigo de~Enrique”…
February 19th, 2008 at 8:38 am
I seem to be having problems downloading this and Phonetics Lesson 5 with Itunes. All the rest having downloaded ok.
Thanks
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
is there a general rule what happens when 2 (or more) of the vowels (a,e,o) are linked together?
what i am interested in is, to what extent one (or more) of the vowels are ‘lost’ in
very RAPID / RELAXED speech.
a few examples (taken from an rgentinian podcast) and how _i_ hear it:
- lo que está entre paréntesis = [lo kestantreparentesis]
- no es nada comparado a mi … = [nosnada komparadami]
- la gente de hoy = [la gente doi)
- el primer viaje que hago = [… kago]
- No entiendo si quiso hacer un chiste o se equivocó
= [nontiendo si kisacer un chistosekivoko]
- la (línea) 86 = [lochentaseis]
- pero no se hace aburrido = [… sasaburido]
maybe my transcriptions are wrong, however, it would good if a native speaker
can comment on that.
stress certainly matters whether a vowel ‘looses (length, quality), but i don t
see yet a general rule.
ootsuki
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:21 am
Ootsuki,
I wouldn’t say that they’re “lost” per se, but definitely “fused” or “blended”. When two vowels are phonetically joined, they form a diphthong; when three vowels are combined, a triphthong.
Here’s how I would show the “synalephe” or the fusion of vowels in the first two examples you provided:
lo que está entre paréntesis = lo que~está~entre paréntesis
[the “u” is silent, so in the first case, the “e” sound is prolonged; in the second case, the “á” fuses to the “e” to form the diphthong “áe”]
no es nada comparado a mi … = no~es nada comparado~a mi
[in the first case, the “o” and “e” form the diphthong “oe”; in the second case, the “o” and “a” form the diphthong “oa”]
I think you’re right though. Much of this blending depends on where the stress is placed. There are rules for this, but I’m led to believe that the rules are probably bent quite a bit as regional speech makes its presence known.
In any case, if you listen to the Phonetics Lessons on Accentuation, you see that the prosodic accent is different for words with different numbers of syllables. Have you checked those two out yet? Did they help? Let me know. This is an interesting and important topic, and I hope to help you understand it better!
Saludos,
Joseph
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
thanks for your comments, Joseph!
this type of vowel modifications are a difficult (and equally important) aspect in language learning, excellent idea to bring it up. i also liked the accentuation
podcast, but since rules are rather strict, i don t have problems with that
aspect of pronunciation.
however, the next step would be sth about intonation (which word in a phrase
receives stress?), maybe there is the chance in the future address it.
coming back to the topic here a few examples of vowel ELIMINATION in rapid
speech (can t recall the reference)
- creeré [krere]
- la abrieron [labrieron]
- cree [kre] (your podcast example ‘poseer’ would become [poser] ??)
- alcohol [alkol]
i think this is rather obvious, maybe more interesting are the following examples
where unstressed a,e,o are eliminated or even change to some kind of semi vowel:
- la hijita [lixita]
- la esposa [lesposa] or?? [lajsposa] with j semivowel ‘based on i’
- la oficina [lofisina] or?? [lawfisina] with w semivowel ‘based on u’
- me imagino [mimaxino]
- lo humillaron [lumillaron] or?? [lowmillaron]
i checked other references and they don t go further than ‘linking’ or ‘fusion’.
this type of elimination certainly exists but don t know how widespread it is.
ootsuki
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Category: Phonetics Lessons |
Grammar: synalepha | Function: fusing vowels in Spanish | Topic: fusion of words in speech | Politeness Level: didactic
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