The 'gr' sound
When I was in the North of Spain, I noticed they said gracias differently to how I would. It almost came from the back of the throat, its really hard to explain.
I was wondering if this only happens in the North and how I could try and imitate it.
2 Answers
There are many parts of Spain that speak with a more guttural sound (or back of the throat as you stated).
It's hard for me to explain how to imitate the Spain accent, even though I have it down pretty well.
Some tips I would give though would be the following:
1. Pronounce "z" (always) and "c" (before i and e) as you would the English "th" in the word "thick"
2. Pronounce the "j" (always) and the "g" (only when before i or e) as the "ch" in Bach or loch (if you're familiar with those pronunciations, it sounds kind of like you're hocking a loogie)
3. You can even go as far as to pronouncing the "d" at the end of word's as you would the English "th" in the word "thick"
4. I would go as far as to say that it is necessary to separate the "b" and "v" sounds, but not drastically. This one can be tricky.
5. One thing that I do is I pronounce my "ll" as you would the "s" in the word "pleasure" and I keep my "y" as we would pronounce it in the word "yesterday". (this is often referred to as "lleísmo") I've heard that this is done in parts of Spain, though and it is not as dominant as the "c" and "zeta" change.
One thing I found very interesting when we were in the north of Spain (Barcelona and Cádaques, to be specific) was the French influence on the language. In those areas, part of Catalonia, the primary language is Catalan. It is in many respects a combination, or maybe more of a melding, of French and Spanish. It would not surprise me at all then if some of the pronunciations are more like French. The French "R," for example, is a guttural sound.
