Pronunciation speed improved with proper pronunciation
This is my experience.I figured out after reading from an English-Spanish dictionary how native speakers seem to speak so quickly. I don't have it with me at the moment so this is what I remember.
It explained with examples how to pronounce the "whispery" sounds of B and V in Spanish that this site's reference left me clueless. hablado habia
It explained with examples how to pronounce the "whispery" sounds of D in Spanish whereas this site's reference explanation just confused me. abad cuidad
It explained with examples how to pronounce the "whispery" sounds of G in Spanish after I didn't get the reference's explanation. agua agotar
The dictionary failed to explain when the h is not silent in Spanish.
It pinned down the differences between pronouncing ll and y and if they're pronounced the same.
I forgot what it said about m otherwise it's similar to the English m.
"n: This sound is the same as the English one."
The dictionary said n has 4 sounds including 2 that are simular to English but n sometimes sounds like m to pronounce more quickly?! en vez de ...
I figured out when my tongue would slip pronouncing a non-trilled r. marcha
"s: This sound is quite similar to the English one." I figured out I pronounced the sssss sounds of c, s, and z a little too strong. The sounds are briefer than in English. The site's reference doesn't mention when s is slightly voice like the English z. desde
The dictionary description of X is as helpful as this site's reference.
Now I'm reading Santa Biblia out loud and my pronunciaton seems to be improving but I doubt ,my accent wouldn't improve without reading those extra details on the consonants.
1 Answer
Many of your examples have to do with the difference between "careful" speech and "colloquial connected" speech. For the former, Lazarus' article link text (especially the second portion) is a very good introduction.
However, in "connected speech" there is phenomenon (in most languages) that might be called "phonetic conditioning". That is to say, the sound of a letter may be subtly altered because of the phonetic context in which it occurs. Often these subtleties do not get mentioned in "general" discussions of pronunciation (the explainer is trying to keep things "fairly" simple and not overwhelm you with details (some of which may only apply to certain dialects).
Your observation about "desde" is quite correct. When an "s" occurs before a voiced consonant, it, too, becomes, voiced (e.g. "mismo", "cisne", etc.) Some consonants show small variations when intervocalic (as opposed to beginning a word or occurring before a consonant).
At any rate, for more authoritative answers about the subtleties of pronunciation, you should direct your questions to Lazarus and make clear that you are interested in the "fine points" of pronunciation.
