5 ms·

Just curious, what are some examples of difficult/weird vowel or consonant sounds that you think English has? And why do you think Spanish is easy in terms of s

by s4vi0r 10y ago

Just curious, what are some examples of difficult/weird vowel or consonant sounds that you think English has? And why do you think Spanish is easy in terms of sounds? IMO Mandarin is pretty difficult since it has both tones and weird vowels/consonants - I feel like in English most people struggling tend to only have significant trouble with articles and the "th" sound.

cjslep 10y ago
In English in The South in the USA, often "can" and "can't" are pronounced the same ("can") with a minor difference in the way the "a" and "n" are held.
- jdmichal 10y ago
  This is not really true. You're probably hinting at the <t> being unreleased. However, it is definitely still there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_audible_release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_audible_release
- robocat 10y ago
  And just as badly, "can't" and "cunt" just vary the vowel length without changing the vowel or consonant sounds (in some English accents). Many languages don't use vowel length to signify changes in meaning, and it is obviously hard to teach.
  - c23gooey 10y ago
    This reminds me of Gough Whitlam, former Australian Prime Minister ~1975: ...Gough also took aim at Sir Winton Turbull when the rural MP shouted: 'I am a Country member'. Whitlam quickly responded with 'I remember', which earned an applause from both sides of the house.
smallnamespace 10y ago
In American English, a lot of vowels are gliding dipthongs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American#Gliding_vowels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American#Gliding_vowel... For example, the 'i' in 'bright' is a dipthong that sort of glides from 'uh - aye' very quickly. Many languages have very few dipthongs -- e.g. Japanese and Spanish come to mind, and Mandarin has some, but they're mostly different from English. If you go from a language that has 5 pure vowel sounds like Spanish to something like 15-20 in English (depending on the dialect), it's hard to keep track of them all and pronounce them correctly [1], especially since English orthography hinders rather than helps you, whereas dipthongs in Spanish are pronounced exactly as they're rendered (e.g. cauda is like ca-u-da spoken fast). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology#Vowels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology#Vowels
- jdmichal 10y ago
  Maybe theoretically Spanish has no diphthongs. But rapid speech definitely sees diphthongs develop as sounds merge together -- a very much Spanish thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthong#Spanish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthong#Spanish Your example would be /kau̯.da/, with the a and u merging into a single syllable diphthong.
  - smallnamespace 10y ago
    Sure, but here Spanish orthography is actually representative of the sound, whereas English orthography is a mess (plus English has more than 5 base vowel sounds to begin with). No matter how you cut it, English's vowel phonology is much more complicated than Spanish or Japanese. One misconception that native English speakers have is they think their language is simple to pronounce, when it really isn't.

by s4vi0r 10y ago

cjslep 10y ago

In English in The South in the USA, often "can" and "can't" are pronounced the same ("can") with a minor difference in the way the "a" and "n" are held.

jdmichal 10y ago
This is not really true. You're probably hinting at the <t> being unreleased. However, it is definitely still there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_audible_release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_audible_release
robocat 10y ago
And just as badly, "can't" and "cunt" just vary the vowel length without changing the vowel or consonant sounds (in some English accents). Many languages don't use vowel length to signify changes in meaning, and it is obviously hard to teach.
- c23gooey 10y ago
  This reminds me of Gough Whitlam, former Australian Prime Minister ~1975: ...Gough also took aim at Sir Winton Turbull when the rural MP shouted: 'I am a Country member'. Whitlam quickly responded with 'I remember', which earned an applause from both sides of the house.

smallnamespace 10y ago

In American English, a lot of vowels are gliding dipthongs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American#Gliding_vowels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American#Gliding_vowel... For example, the 'i' in 'bright' is a dipthong that sort of glides from 'uh - aye' very quickly. Many languages have very few dipthongs -- e.g. Japanese and Spanish come to mind, and Mandarin has some, but they're mostly different from English. If you go from a language that has 5 pure vowel sounds like Spanish to something like 15-20 in English (depending on the dialect), it's hard to keep track of them all and pronounce them correctly [1], especially since English orthography hinders rather than helps you, whereas dipthongs in Spanish are pronounced exactly as they're rendered (e.g. cauda is like ca-u-da spoken fast). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology#Vowels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology#Vowels

jdmichal 10y ago
Maybe theoretically Spanish has no diphthongs. But rapid speech definitely sees diphthongs develop as sounds merge together -- a very much Spanish thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthong#Spanish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthong#Spanish Your example would be /kau̯.da/, with the a and u merging into a single syllable diphthong.
- smallnamespace 10y ago
  Sure, but here Spanish orthography is actually representative of the sound, whereas English orthography is a mess (plus English has more than 5 base vowel sounds to begin with). No matter how you cut it, English's vowel phonology is much more complicated than Spanish or Japanese. One misconception that native English speakers have is they think their language is simple to pronounce, when it really isn't.