pronounciation

Question

Please could someone tell me if the b in "Arriba" pronounced "v" or "b"?

Answer 1

The "v" sound of the English does not exist in Spanish. That "b" should be softer than the English "b" (the lips should not touch).

By the way, the verb is "to pronOUnce", but the noun is "pronUnciation". Typical English spelling logic.

That's because you wouldn't it would sound good with the with the ou. - BellaMargarita, Aug 23, 2009

I'm guessing, Lazarus, that in addition to answering here, you are making the point & perhaps offering encouragement: - the difficulties we have with b/v are immeasurably fewer than for someone looking to English pronunciation from its spelling? (cont.) - Janice, Aug 23, 2009

..and this is true, my niña (of native fluency), who learned English second, if not as a second language, cannot spell well to this day. However - pronounce to pronunciation...is this particular example not as predictable as certain Spanish stem changes? - Janice, Aug 23, 2009

By the way, that is a real question...I can not even guess the answer having no linguistics background. - Janice, Aug 23, 2009

Answer 2

in real everyday conversation, it comes out different depending who you are talking to and where they are from.

If this statement were true, how would one explain the fact that the (less well educated Spanish speakers) frequently confuse the two letters when trying to write something? The RAE (and all of the similar organizations in other countries) have stated, quite clearly, that there is (in Spanish) no distinction in pronunciation) between these letters. If one were in a position to mandate a reform of Spanish orthography, one of the first steps could well be to replace all v's by b's (or vice versa) or replace both letters by a single new letter.

In my whole life I have met only one Spanish speaker (in Mexico) who pronounced the letters differently and (when I asked him about it) he said that he knew it was "unusual" but that was his "personal" custom.

The preservation of both letters is a holdover from a time (long ago) when they were, indeed, pronounced differently but the distinction in spoken Spanish disappeared quite some time ago.

Answer 3

in real everyday conversation, it comes out different depending who you are talking to and where they are from. For real, you prolly wouldn't even notice the difference in everyday speech. example: has visto me mobile? si, esta ahi arriba. you wouldn't even notice whether the person used a "v" sound or a "b"...you are looking for your phone and not whether the person used a "v" or a "b". no te precupe en esto.

But I think our questioner may not know that it makes no difference whether arriba is written with b or v but does need to know which of two possible b/v sounds are to be uttered between those two vowels. Or? Too bad we have no audio response function. - Janice, Aug 23, 2009

Answer 4

Ikpuede

Lazarus has answered the question that the member has asked. You are carrying on with your anti grammatical argument by making statements that it doesn't matter how it sounds. Well it obviously matters to the poster which is why they asked. Unless you have something grammatically correct to add please do not try to incite another argument.

Answer 5

example: has visto mi mobile?

Wrong vowel again. The word, by the way, is "móvil".

Sí, está ahí arriba. you wouldn't even notice whether the person used a "v" sound or a "b"...you are looking for your phone and not whether the person used a "v" or a "b". No te preocupes de esto.

I think you should learn Spanish before trying to teach others.