Spanish "d" in puedo pronounced as English "th"???
  • Warthog March 28
    The pronunciation guide in the book which came with the CD"s Spanish Platinum says that Latin American Spanish pronounce "d" as "th"  in American words this, that, there. 

    But when I listen to pronunciation puedo on CD's,  the Latin American Spanish Platinum, I hear the "d " which comes between two vowels as in puedo, I hear the "d" pronounced like the American "d"! Am I not hearing it correctly?

    And when if ever do Latin American Spanish say "th"? .
    Thanks,
  • Christopher March 29
    It's definitely more of a th than a d, but it's more of a 'flap' than a full th as in there or this. (Comparing pronunciation across languages is always difficult; you can usually just offer approximations.)

    If you find an example, could you post it here so we can give it a listen?

    Thanks!
  • Warthog March 29
    Thanks for your comment Christopher. Now that you mention Spansh -d can be a flap with  -th,  I think you mean it can be part -d and -part -th. or varying degrees. 

     I think I now hear the -th in -d.  In the language lab when I listen to words "puede ayudarme?'  in spanish lessen one, vocabulary 2, 

    How do you post audio here? 

  • Christopher March 30
    I'm glad that helps! By 'flap,' I mean a sort of semi-consonant, or a consonant that's only partially produced by a quick flap of the tongue against either the ridge behind the teeth (in the case of /d/) or against the teeth (in the case of /th/.)

    We have this in English with /d/. If you compare the d sound in dog to the d-flap in latter or ladder, you'll see the difference that I mean.

    The sound in puedo is a flap like this, but the tongue is lower than for a regular d; it's against the teeth, like for the /th/ sound.

    I don't think you can post audio in this forum, but your description was enough for me to hear it. You're right that it's not a very strong /th/ sound. There's probably some speaker-to-speaker variation on this, even. I listened to a few other cards, and the male speaker seems to do the /th/ sound more strongly that the female speaker. You can hear this in the same section in:

    -card 5, encantado/encantada
    -card 7, bienvenido/bienvenida

    I hope that helps!
  • Warthog March 31
    ¡Vaya tarea! A Spanish idiom for; Wow what homework.! You did your home work. Your rally Good at this language stuff. Are you a teacher at Living Language?

    The comparison between -d in dog and -t in latter made it possible for me to focus my imaginary ear on variations in Spanish pronunciation of -d which blends with the -th sound.

    Comparing sounds I already know, English -d, -t, and -th, for me, was a better learning tool then actually hearing the Spanish variations. So thank you. You did your homework. And I will give a listen to suggested cards 5 and 7.
  • Christopher April 1
    Great! I'm not a Living Language teacher, but I do work for Living Language. I'm also a linguist and an eternal language student, so I can't help myself sometimes but ramble on when asked linguistics questions. At least the ones I can answer!

    I'm happy that my ramble helped!
  • Mahima April 8
    Hey !
    This was quite enlightening.
    "Th"anks ;)
  • Hunter1234 April 22

    In Spain they say "d,c,s," like an english "th" Spaniards when they speak spanish almost sound like they have a lisp. My spanish teacher told me that the story goes that they had king with a lisp so it stuck around. My aunt is from spain and you can hear it when we talk in spanish. I think on Livinglanguage it gives you a variety of all the dialects of spanish.

     

  • Christopher April 23
    The d (between vowels) is like th in this, also called 'voiced'; that's what this thread has been about. But you're right that there's also a voiceless th as in think in Castilian Spanish. It's pronounced in c before e or i or z:

    cero (zero) like 'thero' 
    zapatos (shoes) like 'thapatos' 

    I'm not sure about the s; Anna, do you know of s being pronounced like th in Spain?

    I think the story about the lisping king is a bit of a legend, though! I heard the same thing when I was in high school, but that's just a story that's stuck around. There's a good Wiki article on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Spanish_coronal_fricatives

  • Hunter1234 April 23
    O muchas gracias, i didnt know what to think of that story. And when you say the d (between vowels) what do you mean by that?
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