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I believe it is one of those regional differences. I think that this one is more Latin American than Spain. I have a professor who is from Spain and she does not use the english J sound for words that begin with y or ll.

You are very lucky. I wrote a big long answer but it flew off into syber space. Here is my condensed version. I listen to a lot of latin american music but still have a lot of trouble understanding the words. I believe the Yo and Jo are used the same as in english lyrics. I feel they are slightly corrupted to make them fit the rhym and the tempo of the music. Sort of a poetic license if you will.

I found this on;

answers.yahoo.com

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It's simply dialect. "Yo" in Spanish means "I" in every Spanish language country, some just pronouce it differently depending on the country they are from or descended from. For instance because I speak Spanish in the Mexican dialect I say "Jo", pronouncing the Y with more of a "J" sound. In Argentina they say "Sho" pronouncing the Y with more of a "Sh" sound. For those that don't speak Spanish as their first language or are not familiar with dialects, they can say "Yo" and it's perfectly fine.

Source(s): Native speaker. 2 years ago

Several regions of Latin America pronounce the Y and LL like the S in English "Treasure." The most popular country for doing this is Argentina, but I have heard it from a lot more people than Argentinians.

Argentines have a very peculiar way of pronouncing the y's all the rest sound the same to me. A trick to soften the y sound if you are having trouble is to say it as io.

No creo que hay una regla para la pronunciación de la palabra 'yo'. Mi pastor es de Columbia y él siempre dices como la palabra ingles 'joe'. Sin embargo, mis amigos de México nunca dicen 'joe', pero lo pronuncian sin el 'j' sonido.

The great Gypsy Kings also use "joe." Consistently.

I always thought that that pronunciation originated in the Castile region of Spain. (I'm now guessing I'm definitely mistaken.)

Also, I don't recall ever having heard "joe" used in Mexico during my more than 15,000 miles traveling there.

Thanks for the link, robertico. The site is great, but it didn´t help answer my question.

I often hear 'jo' from Mexican speakers / singers - I am pretty sure it is a regional thing.

He dado cuenta mientras esuchando a música en español que a veces el artista se pronuncia "yo" comienza con una suave Inglés "j" el sonido de manera que suena casi como el nombre del Inglés "Joe" y otras veces se pronuncia sin el "j" sonido. ¿Hay una regla para esto? O es indicativa de una región donde se habla español?

Escuchando música en Español me he dado cuenta que a veces cuando el artista pronuncia el vocablo "yo", articula el sonido con una suave "j" Inglesa. De manera que casi suena como el nombre "Joe" en Inglés, mientras que otras veces lo pronuncia sin el sonido de la letra "j". ¿Existe una regla para esto, o es esto un ejemplo de una región determinada donde se habla el Español?

Well this is becoming clear as mud! jajajaja

In every language that I know, the Y has a soft sound. e.g. Yo = io Yuca = iuca Some languages like Chinese the Y's are even softer e.g. YinYan = in ian

The J sounds more forceful almost like the word Cheap in English. Ch in English has a very strong sound whereas Sh is softer. Compare Cheap with Sheep. Compare Joe with You.

In Chinese the J has a very similar sound to the Argentine Y but a little more forceful. e.g. Jiu in Chinese sounds like Ztchiu whereas Argentines would pronounce Yo as Yshio.

It's softer because the ZT sound is not present as in Chinese.

You would have to study Chinese pinyin to understand some of these sounds better.

To conclude I would say that Yo never sounds like Joe. It is just a rough comparison.

When Shakira says it, it"s "joe," Good enough for me!

hmmm....ever notice in English that following certain words we sometimes say "you" with a "ch" sound? (In a venacular I call lazy english) For example: "that´s what you think" sometimes sounds like "that's whachoo think" I am now wondering if this is what I hear with the yo/jo issue.