Pronounciation of double "L" words...
A couple of days ago, I received this comment (actually it was more like a criticism 
) on my speaking exercise. It came from one of my friends on Live Mocha whose native is Spanish. He said, contrary to what I have learnt from several courses -one of which is SpanishDict- the pronounciation of "Ella" --> [ -LL- ] should be something like Ega or Eja, not Eia or Eya. Frankly speaking, I am not perfectly sure how to pronounce words with double "L" in general; such as silla, pollo or amarillo. It is a little hard to explain just by typing; yet if there are those who know what I mean, I am hereby calling out for you.
Your help will be highly appreciated.
Gracias in advance!
Oya
13 Answers
Please, look at here. I made this exercise a couple of months ago.
My first Spanish teacher was a native and pronounced her "ll" sound with that soft "j" or "sh" as some people describe it. Both pronunciations are correct...it just depends on what country you are from.
Welcome to the forum!
There's also the "elye" pronunciation, though that's not very common, and apparently incorrect, according to the rae: 3. Debe evitarse la pronunciación de ll como /li/ (Marca de incorrección.[kabálio] por caballo), con la que algunos hablantes yeístas —aquellos que espontáneamente pronuncian la ll como si fuera una y— tratan de diferenciar, artificialmente, la pronunciación de ambas letras.
In Argentina, and in other 3 or 4 countries (I don't exactly know which), the "ll" has a sound similar (not exactly) to the "SH" in English.
Out of those, it is pronounced as you already knew. What country is your friend from?
Unsurprisingly, Carlos' pronunciation is legitimate (check out his recorded samples). The difficult thing about the "ll" is not how to make the sound but which variant to use. My impression is that there are more legitimate variants of "ll" than of any other letter in the Spanish alphabet (at least three [but I think, more commonly pegged at four] and maybe five if you consider the "yeismo").
Most Spanish speakers (unless they never travel and live somewhere that is never visited by foreign Spanish speakers) have no trouble understanding the other variants. In the interests of consistency, it's probably best to choose (insofar as it's possible) a single "flavor" of Spanish and stick with that (both for standards of pronunciation and vocabulary). Think of yourself as a CIA spy building your "cover identity" (you're trying to pass yourself off as a person from X [wherever that may be]).
As an extreme example, Carlos' pronunciation of "ll" would sound quite odd if it were combined with the c/z pronunciation of Castilla or with the really strong pronunciation of "j" (la jota).
I think the accent you are thinking of, April-Sarah, is originated from Argentina (and still remains only there I think) where they pronounce their "ll"s with "sh" sounds in stead. Was a while ago when my teacher explained the same thing, but I'm pretty sure that's it.
I'm not sure exactly... good question!!! Sometimes, in the lessons on this website, things like llevar get pronounced something like a mix of shay and jay- var.
From what I've heard (note, this is solely what I've heard), people in/from Spain pronounce with the "J" sound. Por ejemplo:
pollo ---> pojo
silla ---> seeja
However, everyone else would pronounce it with the "Y" sound. Por ejemplo:
pollo ---> poyo
silla ---> seeya
So, I think it's like the vosotros from of verbs, it's only used in Spain.
However, this is just what I've heard and have always thought...
My Spanish teacher says it like "Juh" but it varies with country/region.
Just one of those aspects which distinguish each country's Spanish from one another.
I've wondered this before, too. I noticed that at the end of some Spanish commercials when they're asking you to call them right away (llame ahora mismo), instead of sounding like (yah-meh) it sounds like (jah-meh).
There are other instances of this, as well, but I hear it more clearly with the verb llamar. I'm close to the Mexican border. If possible, I'd love to get some feedback from a native speaker from that region!
Thanks! 
I always thought it was pronounced more like a "y", as in "pollo" which is pronounced as "poyo". Sorry to confuse you, but I hope this helps and please correct me if I'm wrong 
I also learned on livemocha and I noticed that people from different countries in South America pronounce it different, but I think that your pronunciation is correct.
The "elle" is pronounced differently depending on which country or even which region you are in.
Of course in Argentina they do the best pronunciation of "elle", where they pronounce it like a softer 'sh' sound. 
