pronunciation differences -mejilla

Question

Why do you have such completely different pronunciations for some words, eg for mejilla.

The girl gets it right. The guy says something like mechitta??????

Answer 1

I am probably not the right person to be answering this question, but I will put my answer anyway for others to work off of.

I assume you mean the sound files attached to the dictionary entry.

The pure single word audiophiles is recognizable to me as the male based computer generated voice that I think is programmed to hit something fairly neutral among the variation in Spanish accents. The ll can vary from something pure y to having a some j in it. I still hear him as mejilla- but hear some of the j in his ll where I don't in hers. The j can vary in the amount of back of the throat almost clearing of the throat to the h sound. The machine guy has more of that I think than the girl.

I do not know where accent of the girl is from, but she is human, and I believe lives in the US wherever the origin of the Spanish.

I am not good enough with differentiating sounds or accents to really know for sure. But I do know there is a variation among Spanish speakers on how they pronounce certain sounds, and I am almost certain that the "male" voice on the audiofile is machine generated.

Maybe some native speakers or other learners more familiar with specific accents will listen to the files and add some input.

http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/mejilla

The first icon after mejilla is the audio file, the second is the video with the woman.

Thank you, Bosque. I had no Idea as to what the OP was referring to. - Daniela2041, May 21, 2016

I, of course, have used resources that you would have no need of. :) - bosquederoble, May 21, 2016

Answer 2

It's a regional thing.

Most Spaniards say "me-jil -ya"

Most Latin Americans say either "me-ji-ya" or "me-j-lJa" (English "j" sound.

The Argentinians use the "zh" sound like French "j" Me-ji-zha.

In your second sentence you make reference to a girl and a guy. Is there supposed to be a link here to what you're talking about?

See my answer, I put in the link I think he is talking about. :) - bosquederoble, May 21, 2016

Answer 3

Thanks daniela for the explnation. With 'guy' I refer to the male voice following the audio-only icon. with 'girl' I refer to the woman doing the audio-visual version.

I had no idea what you were referring to until Bosquederoble gave the link. - Daniela2041, May 21, 2016