Tenerife forum

[Dave and Alli]

Hola - could you help us with the pronunciation of the Spanish Z.
We know that it often sounds like 'th' - as in Zaragoza (tharagotha) - but is this exclusively the case?

If the Z is at the end of the word, as in Paz - is it still 'th' or a harder Z sound?
Does the sound change depending on whether the Z is before or after a vowel or consenant as in Zarzuela - (is this pronounced tharthuela or zarthuela or zarzuela with two hard Zs???)

Are there any rules?

Gracias

A Tongue tied Allie and Dave
_________________
Alli and Dave

Life is what happens whilst you're busy making plans. John Lennon

[mannhoole]

As far as I understand it is always the 'th' sound in Castilian. However if you live in certain parts of Spain i.e. Tenerife it is pronounced like the English Z.

I think always best to learn Castilian as you should be understood by everyone then.

As a disclaimer though, I am no expert and there are much more skilled linguists on here than me.

Good luck.

_________________
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? Depressed Yet?

[Dave and Alli]

Thanks for the reply Mannhoole - makes sense that different parts of the country will have a different dialect - just like anywhere else.
Best if we get it right in Castillian first and then alter to the local dialect if required.

Alli and Dave
_________________
Alli and Dave

Life is what happens whilst you're busy making plans. John Lennon

[jenny]

Mannhoole is correct, "z" is pronounced like a "th" in castellano and an "s" in tinerfeño.

[Estate_girl]

This is interesting:

Within Spain, one can more or less tell the difference between Andalusian (southern Spain) dialects and the Castilian dialects further north. The main differences are that some Andalusian dialects use seseo (pronouncing 'z', 'ce' and 'ci' with an 's' sound), while Castilian Spanish does not. Also, it is much more common in Andalusian dialects to not pronounce 's' before consonants ('casta' = 'cahta' where the 'h' represents either a slightly elongated 'a' or an aspirated 'h'), nor final 's' ('los niños' = 'loh niño').

This is important because most of first settlers in the Americas were Andalusian and by taking these dialects with them, the differences in pronunciation between peninsular Spanish (Spain) and the Americas evolved. Seseo is typical of Latin American Spanish and parts of Andalusia while ceceo (pronouncing 'z', 'ce' and 'ci' with a 'th' sound as pronounced in the English word 'thin') is the only variety found in Central and Northern Spain. This means that some words like 'casa' (house) and 'caza' (hunting), or 'coser' (sew) and 'cocer' (boil) are pronounced the same in Latin American Spanish

Another important difference is the pronunciation of the letter 's'. In Northern and Central Spain - and some parts of Colombia - the 's' sound is almost like the English 'sh' of the word 'short'. In the rest of the Spanish-speaking world it is an 's' sound which is formed with the tongue on the palate just behind the teeth or on the backside of the teeth themselves.


A a /a/ J jota /'hota/ R ere /'ere/
B be /be/ K ca /ka/ S ese /'ese/
C ce /se/ L ele /'ele/ T te /
D de / M eme /'eme/ U u /u/
E e /e/ N ene /'ene/ V ve /be/ or uve
F efe /'efe/ Ñ eñe /'eɲe/ W doble ve / or uve doble or doble u /
G ge /he/ or /xe/ O o /o/ X equis /'ekis/
H ache /'atʃe/ P pe /pe/ Y ye /ʝe/ or i griega /
I i /i/ Q cu /ku/ Z ceta /'theta/

[Dave and Alli]

Thanks EG this is really interesting stuff - are there words in Spanish that have a silent letter in them such as psychology or knock etc., have in English??

Alli and Dave
_________________
Alli and Dave

Life is what happens whilst you're busy making plans. John Lennon

[Estate_girl]

The letter h may be the easiest of all the Spanish letters to pronounce: It is always silent.
But that doesn't mean the pronunciation of h doesn't sometimes trip up beginning Spanish students. Those who speak English as a first language often want to pronounce the letter when it is in a cognate, that is, a Spanish word that is more or less the same as English. For example, the h should not be pronounced in words such as vehículo (vehicle), Habana (Havana), Honduras and prohibir (prohibit), as tempting as it may be.

If the h is silent, why does it exist? For reasons of etymology (word history) only. Just as the "k" in the English "know" and the "b" in "lamb" used to be audible, the Spanish h used to be pronounced ages ago.

Almost all Spanish consonants have become softer over the years; the h became so soft as to become inaudible.
The Spanish h also used to be used to separate two vowels that weren't pronounced as one, that is as a diphthong. For example, the word for "owl" used to be spelled as buho to indicate that it was pronounced as two syllables rather than rhyming with the first syllable of cuota or "quota." Nowadays, though, an accent is used over a stressed vowel to indicate the lack of a diphthong, so the word is written as búho. In this case, then, the accent isn't used to indicate stress as it usually does, but as a guide to proper pronunciation of the vowels.

Also, these days it is quite common for the h between vowels to be ignored in pronunciation; that is, the vowels sometimes run together despite the h between them, depending on how they are stressed. For example, prohibir is pronounced more or less the same as proibir would be. Note, though, that when the stress is on the second syllable in forms of this word, it is accented and pronounced clearly. Thus conjugated forms of the verb include prohíbes, prohíbe and prohíben.

[Dave and Alli]

Gulp! such a lot to remember - what a fantastically detailed reply though - thanks EG.

Alli and Dave
_________________
Alli and Dave

Life is what happens whilst you're busy making plans. John Lennon