Pronunciation - Spanish Vowels, etc. - Audio and Articles

Question

Hi, I've added this resource to the thread on "Dual Language Books and Audio Resources - Spanish/English", too. But so many of us norteamericanos have trouble with pronunciation, I felt the subject deserved it's own title.

Personally, I am thrilled to have found both the articles and the audio. Finally my i's in Spanish are starting to sound closer to what I've been wanting.

Sounds of the Spanish Alphabet - audio
http://www.brighthub.com/education/languages/articles/8388.aspx
Article on how to pronounce the vowels in Spanish
http://www.brighthub.com/education/languages/articles/6263.aspx
Article on how to pronounce Spanish B and V, soft and hard
http://www.brighthub.com/education/languages/articles/6269.aspx

PS The articles have fairly long-winded introductions, but once I got past those to the paragraph or two of the how-to pronounce stuff, they were very helpful.

PPS Here are a couple more helpful audio links from previous posts, just to have them together here.
[url=http://tts.loquendo.com/ttsdemo/default.asp'page=id&voice=Esperanza]http://tts.loquendo.com/ttsdemo/default.asp'page=id&voice=Esper...[/url]
http://www.studyspanish.com/pronunciation/diphthongs.htm

Answer 1

A good page to learn about Spanish sounds is this:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

If anyone is interested in learning the International Phonetic Alphabet, this is an ideal introduction, with pictures, sounds and videos. If you just want to know how each letter sounds, but don't want to know all the technical jargon, just click on the sounds, hear them, practice them, and ignore all the rest. It also has a section on American English pronunciation, just in case you want to compare.

Answer 2

Thank you SO much everyone who is helping us out with pronunciation. Lazarus, I've spent a few hours today playing with the link you gave, it's awesome.

Answer 3

La Podenquera said:

I have no idea. I have only given this link a quick glance since I'm on my way to work. But i think it was phonetic and not the letter. Can you see the letters too? The words are: jota, gente, ajo and caja.

The version with the "italic (script) X" and pronounced by a woman is also labeled Castillan" while the Roman X (pronounced by a man) is not labeled (no particular dialect). The former is the pronunciation most common in Spain (at least north of Andalucia) and the latter is prevalent in Latin America. However, as Lazarus pointed out there are variations among people, among some words and according to the emphasis/emotion of the moment.

Answer 4

All four words have the same sound /x/, although the one in "caja" is slightly softer, but this is normal, as no speaker reproduces perfectly identical sounds all the time, like a robot. Also, the first two, at an initial position tend to be slightly harder... if the speaker insists in trying to produce a "clear" sound, like the woman of the video. In practice, in most countries that sound tends to be softer, but don't get too obsessed with this minor differences, because they are not that significant, and they are never going to interfere with the natural process of communication. In Andalusia, if you are interested, the /x/ is much softer, unless you want to use an insulting word, or people feel that they need to sound cleared (e.g. being interviewed on TV).

Answer 5

Are you referring to the /x/ sound (which is like a Spanish J or a German ch), or the letter x (which is represented as /ks/)? What words are they'