Difficulties of ‘sounding right’ when learning English or Spanish as a second language

Posted On March 19, 2013By TranspanishIn English Language, Languages, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

When learners of any non-native language reach a level of intermediate-to-advanced comprehension, new preoccupations emerge.  In English, we might describe one of these as “speaking so it sounds right”, but of course the crux of this—“sounds”—is not so simple as the statement suggests.

languages sounds

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One obvious sort of “sound” is pronunciation, the predictable ways of saying vowels and consonants.  For native English speakers learning Spanish, this is above all an effort of repetition, as the pronunciation of all vowels and (most) consonants is fixed.  Once you learn the patterns, you’ve just got to practice.  There are several variations, though; for example, the pronunciation of ll and y.

For native Spanish speakers learning English, however, the process is not so simple.  Although Spanish, like English, varies from region to region, these varieties are, once learned, predictable.  Pronunciation variance only truly exists for Spanish speakers who are exposed to multiple Spanish-speaking regions.  This is not the case for English, whose pronunciation system is fundamentally varied.  An easy example is the pronunciation of the a in cat versus that in cape.  The “rules” are complex and imperfect and, to an extent, mastering pronunciation is a process of trial-and-error.

Another sort of “sound” is the rhythm or isochrony of a language, and with this both English and Spanish learners struggle.  For native English speakers learning Spanish, the language can seem faster than their mother tongue, whereas for native Spanish speakers learning English, the latter can seem slower or unpredictable.  Again, a fundamental difference emerges here: Spanish is “syllable-timed”, and English is “stress-timed”.

Basically, in Spanish, all of the syllables should take the same amount of time to say.   Because the frequency varies from speaker to speaker (and from time period to time period), it is not accurate to generalize Spanish as a “faster” language.  In English, syllables last different amounts of time, but without any sort of diacritical indicators.  This is an understandably complicated system for many native Spanish speakers.   Ostensibly, one could perfectly understand written English without having the slightest idea of how to correctly read it aloud.

However, it’s also worth noting that these categorizations are imperfect—most notably with respect to the syllable breakdown in Spanish.  In poetry especially, but in everyday speech as well, Spanish often exhibits elision, or the limiting or even complete omission of syllables.  This most commonly occurs in the present perfect form; for example, when saying he elegido (I have chosen), likely the first two syllables would be nearly synthesized to one.  This is understandably difficult for non-native Spanish speakers to recognize in speech, let alone authentically reproduce.

Keeping these aspects of sound in mind, both English and Spanish learners will be able to not only speak more correctly, but improve their listening comprehension skills.  Furthermore, reading in the second language will achieve new texture, for the voices—be they of particular characters or the narrator—will begin to resonate on more than a visual level.

When learners of any non-native language reach a level of intermediate-to-advanced comprehension, new preoccupations emerge.  In English, we might describe one of these as “speaking so it sounds right”, but of course the crux of this—“sounds”—is not so simple as the statement suggests.

One obvious sort of “sound” is pronunciation, the predictable ways of saying vowels and consonants.  For native English speakers learning Spanish, this is above all an effort of repetition, as the pronunciation of all vowels and (most) consonants is fixed.  Once you learn the patterns, you’ve just got to practice.  There are several variations, though; for example, the pronunciation of ll and y. 

For native Spanish speakers learning English, however, the process is not so simple.  Although Spanish, like English, varies from region to region, these varieties are, once learned, predictable.  Pronunciation variance only truly exists for Spanish speakers who are exposed to multiple Spanish-speaking regions.  This is not the case for English, whose pronunciation system is fundamentally varied.  An easy example is the pronunciation of the a in cat versus that in cape.  The “rules” are complex and imperfect and, to an extent, mastering pronunciation is a process of trial-and-error. 

Another sort of “sound” is the rhythm or isochrony of a language, and with this both English and Spanish learners struggle.  For native English speakers learning Spanish, the language can seem faster than their mother tongue, whereas for native Spanish speakers learning English, the latter can seem slower or unpredictable.  Again, a fundamental difference emerges here: Spanish is “syllable-timed”, and English is “stress-timed”. 

Basically, in Spanish, all of the syllables should take the same amount of time to say.   Because the frequency varies from speaker to speaker (and from time period to time period), it is not accurate to generalize Spanish as a “faster” language.  In English, syllables last different amounts of time, but without any sort of diacritical indicators (i.e. link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic).  This is an understandably complicated system for many native Spanish speakers.   Ostensibly, one could perfectly understand written English without having the slightest idea of how to correctly read it aloud. 

However, it’s also worth noting that these categorizations are imperfect—most notably with respect to the syllable breakdown in Spanish.  In poetry especially, but in everyday speech as well, Spanish often exhibits elision, or the limiting or even complete omission of syllables.  This most commonly occurs in the present perfect form; for example, when saying he elegido (I have chosen), likely the first two syllables would be nearly synthesized to one.  This is understandably difficult for non-native Spanish speakers to recognize in speech, let alone authentically reproduce. 

Keeping these aspects of sound in mind, both English and Spanish learners will be able to not only speak more correctly, but improve their listening comprehension skills.  Furthermore, reading in the second language will achieve new texture, for the voices—be they of particular characters or the narrator—will begin to resonate on more than a visual level. 

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History of the letter eñe

Posted On February 20, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language, The origin of.../  No Comments

Most people associate the letter eñe with the Spanish language. Yet it is actually present in no less than nine different alphabets spanning the globe, including the modern Latin alphabet, Galician alphabet, Asturian alphabet, Filipino alphabet and Guarani alphabet, among others. Additionally, it is currently used to represent the [ŋ] in the Tartar and Crimean languages, along with the Chamorro, Mandinka, Mapudungun and Tocharian languages. Considering the usage of eñe, it quickly becomes clear that the letter is present in a variety of geographical locations, and is used in languages stemming from different language families.

The tilde that sits atop the n to form what is now a separate letter in its own right, originally began as shorthand. It represented a double letter, in this case nn, which was used more frequently in Old Spanish. The word año, for example, was formerly anno and derived from the Latin word annvs. While this usage spread to many languages at the time, most of them eventually dropped the tilde. Meanwhile, Spanish retained its usage as shorthand for a double letter.

As far back as Medieval Latin usage, that tilde came to represent a nasal sound following a vowel (then also used on the letter m). The presence of eñe in Spanish has since expanded to all instances in which the palatal nasal sound is present, even when it does not represent a former double letter, such as with señor.

More recently, there has been cross-linguistic usage in native languages located in or near predominantly Spanish-speaking areas. These languages include Aymara, Quechua, Basque, Leonese, Yavapai, and Tetum. The orthographies of these native languages and others with cross-linguistic usage of eñe all have some basis in Spanish. It is also present in English words borrowed from Spanish, such as jalapeño, piñata, and piña colada.

 

Spanish Keyboard Layout – Latin America. The letter eñe is on the right of the L.

Tip!
Alt key code for the letter eñe: ALT + 0241.

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Cocoliche and the origins of a regional dialect

Posted On January 30, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Lunfardo, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 No Comments

Regional differences in the way Spanish is spoken can usually be attributed to either the influence of native languages that exist in a particular area or the languages brought by immigrants that blend with Spanish to create a unique regional dialect. The Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires, as we have discussed in our series on Lunfardo words, is no exception.

Another example of a language influence is Cocoliche, which takes its name from Antonio Cuculicchio, a theater worker in the Podestá theater company established in Argentina and Uruguay towards the end of the nineteenth century. An Italian immigrant, Cuculicchio’s accent was apparently often mocked by others, giving rise to the comical caricature of a figure called “Cocolicchio”, representing a southern Italian.

Cocoliche is a hybrid language that arose from the meeting of Spanish in Argentina and Italian brought to that country by immigrants around the turn of the twentieth century. The result was a pidgin — an oral form of communication that blended elements of two languages to foster communication between diverse groups of people, in some cases simplifying the grammar and lexicon of each language.

Over time, as the Italian immigrants in Argentina spread out geographically and blended more into their new culture, Cocoliche began to disappear. Yet as it became more and more rare to hear the language spoken, per se, its remnants were left — and still remain — in the form of surviving words and turns of accent. Indeed, Cocoliche is the origin of some characteristics commonly associated with the Argentinian accent of Italian immigrants, such as the “ch” sound in “diche” (dice).

Italian family arriving in Buenos Aires

Some cocoliche words:

 

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A Call to “Erase” Racism from Spanish

Posted On January 28, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Uruguayan Musician Rubén Rada supports the campaign

A new campaign is picking up steam to eradicate instances of racism in the Spanish language. The contentious phrase, “trabajar como un negro” (“to work like a black person”), is unifying musicians, famous athletes, and officials in a call to Spain’s Real Academia Española (RAE) to eliminate the phrase for being discriminatory and outdated.

The RAE is a royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language including its lexicon, grammar, orthography and other linguistic aspects. The institution received an open letter signed by several figures which was then published and disseminated around the Spanish-speaking world by various media outlets.

The phrase has roots in the history of African slavery on the continent, and is sometimes compared to the expression “to slave away” in English. Proponents for its eradication from common speech argue that it recalls a time of discrimination, inequality and subjugation which Uruguay — and the Spanish-speaking world as a whole — would best leave in the past. They also argue that removing it from the Spanish language would help break the cycle of using pejorative language in reference to certain ethnic groups.

The petition can be viewed at http://www.borremoselracismodellenguaje.com/s.php. Those who would like to add their name to its list of supporters can also sign the petition at the same web address.

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The Meaning of the Lunfardo Word ‘Gamba’

Posted On January 22, 2013By TranspanishIn Lunfardo, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Argentine Spanish is strewn with words and colorful phrases from Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary born on the streets of Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. Now considered a fixture of the Spanish language in Argentina (especially in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay, linguists cite the use of Lunfardo as a defining characteristic of the Rioplatense dialect. Add a dash of Argentine flavor to your Spanish vocabulary with the Transpanish blog’s ongoing feature highlighting some of the most frequently used terms in Lunfardo.

 

What does gamba mean?

As with many Lunfardo words, the origin of ‘gamba’ is dubious at best. However, it does have a documented history which elucidates its presence in modern Argentinian parlance.

We can begin with it’s equivalent in Italian, also ‘gamba’, meaning leg. The Italian term fits with its usage in Argentinian Spanish in the common phrase “haceme la gamba” — referring to someone who is helping or has good intentions. Similarly, it’s verb form in Italian, ‘gambettare’, is along the lines of to avoid a conflict — as one who helps a situation may do. This usage often comes up in the context of football (American soccer). That is, a player who handles the ball in such a way that a member of the opposite team cannot steal it.

However, the word takes on an opposite meaning in its usage in the Spanish expression “meter la gamba”, similar to the expression “meter la pata”. Both of these expressions of course mean to screw something up, more or less — the polar opposite of helping a situation, and sometimes at odds with having good intentions. This last meaning perhaps stems from the latin usage of the term ‘camba’, as in leg, referring to that of cavalry.

Another, unrelated usage of the Lunfardo term is in reference to money: 100 pesos or other currency in use, to be exact. ‘Tres gambas’, for example, might be 300 pesos.

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Language Barrier Linked To Worse Diabetes Control

Posted On January 20, 2013By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

The ability to receive effective health care and follow recommendations is contingent on open communication between doctor and patient. Barriers to communication not only hurt the doctor’s ability to understand what is ailing their patient, but they prevent patients from understanding treatment options and, often, how to implement them. Indeed, health-related problems are some of the most costly effects — both in terms of costs to society and personal costs — that come from language difficulties.

People involved with the healthcare industry have long been able to identify the problem. But what has been less clear are the scope of the problem and it’s immediate consequences. A recent study has shed some light on these questions, conducted by researchers at UCSF and the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. Their study analyzed the ability of Latinos with limited English skills to adequately manage and control their diabetes. The findings were surprising.

Among Latino patients with limited English abilities, those who saw doctors for their diabetes which did not speak Spanish were twice as likely to have little or no control over their blood sugar levels than those whose doctors spoke Spanish. In addition to highlighting the huge discrepancy in how these patients were able to handle their disease, the study was also able to draw a clear and direct connection between doctor-patient communication and the ability of patients — in this case, diabetes patients — to receive effective health care.

As the largest minority in the U.S., the Latino population has one of the highest rates of diabetes of any ethnic group. In addition, roughly 14 million adults in this group speak English less than “very well”. It should also be noted that as far as ailments go, diabetes is a very complex and relatively difficult-to-manage disease to begin with. Among these patients in particular, access to Spanish-speaking doctors and information translated to Spanish could have a tremendous effect on patient outcomes.

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Spanish Is Second Most Used Language On Twitter

Posted On January 18, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

According to Spain’s Cervantes Institute, Spanish has officially become the world’s second most used language on Twitter after English. With the most speakers of any language globally, Chinese is in third place. And while China does have its own version of Twitter, Weibo, it is undeniable that Spanish is currently seeing a growing presence on the internet in general.

Transpanish

With more than 500 million Spanish speakers worldwide, and counting, the language currently occupies the place of third most used language online. And even with that, it is estimated that roughly 60% of Latin Americans still have not joined the web. In the non-digital world, the Cervantes Institute reports that the number of people learning Spanish globally is witnessing an 8% increase year on year.

Much of that growth is taking place in the U.S., which is estimated to have the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world within three or four generations, but it’s also happening in Asia. Indeed, the demand to learn Spanish in China currently far exceeds teacher availability — resulting in many applications to learn it being rejected. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole is seeing an increase in Spanish language instruction spurred by economic growth and close ties to another region making strong economic gains — Latin America.

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Meaning of “la migra”

Posted On January 8, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  2 Comments

Following the last post on US Border Patrols, we’re taking a look at a term widely used in immigration contexts – La Migra. The term is more often heard in states along the border with Mexico than any other region of the U.S., although it can be heard just about anywhere that Spanish slang is used.

Image source: http://www.zazzle.com

A derivative of the Spanish term migración (migration) or related to migraciones – the offices dealing with immigration issues in Spanish-speaking countries – the term has become shorthand for both agencies and individuals that deal with immigrants and immigration. Both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agencies can be referred to as La Migra, as well as the personnel who work for them, including immigration officers and agents who perform inspections of cars crossing the border or in search of illegal immigrants in places of business.

While the term is not only used by immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, if you hear La Migra come up in conversation, chances are someone is complaining about an encounter with immigration officials – much the same way a person might complain about having to deal with the law.

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The meaning of ‘Cana’

Posted On December 6, 2012By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Lunfardo, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Argentine Spanish is strewn with words and colorful phrases from Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary born on the streets of Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. Now considered a fixture of the Spanish language in Argentina (especially in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay, linguists cite the use of Lunfardo as a defining characteristic of the Rioplatense dialect. Add a dash of Argentine flavor to your Spanish vocabulary with the Transpanish blog’s ongoing feature highlighting some of the most frequently used terms in Lunfardo.

Of all the slang terms that languages use, it seems every language has plenty of words for police. One of these within the Spanish language is the Lunfardo word “cana”. Although it is decidedly a Lunfardo word that made its way into Argentinian Spanish, its etymology is still disputed.

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It has a long history, to be sure. The word “cana” actually appeared in the work of Cervantes to mean a police informer. But if it was not originally from the Spanish language, it may well have made its way to Spain from France, as some believe. The word has a striking resemblance to the French word “canne”, which means a reed or cane. This etymology would make sense in the context of its current usage, since police officers historically have carried batons which are very cane-like.

Of course the explanation may be more simple—the word could just be an abbreviation of the Spanish word for canary, “canario”, which has been used in Spain since the sixteenth century. Staying with that region as the word’s source, another option is Spain’s neighbor Portugal. Similar to the Portuguese word “encanado”, literally meaning prisoner in a cage made of reeds, the word could have made it’s way over to Latin America via Brazil.

There’s a more humorous usage relating to being a prisoner, with a possible etymological history in reference to someone who has had a setback of some kind, and who may consequently find himself languishing in jail. Or it could have been a reference to re-hired police officers who had already retired, whom thieves used to call “canosos” for their grey hair.

But however the word made its way into Argentinian Spanish, it has managed to become entrenched in the culture. With frequent appearances in the lyrics of tango songs, and common usage in the general population, the Lunfardo word cana is a well-understood synonym for policia.

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Social Media, Latinos, and the New Marketing Environment

Posted On November 13, 2012By TranspanishIn Latinos, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Tips for Translators/  No Comments

As the marketing atmosphere changes and evolves faster than ever with new technological developments and new ways for companies to connect with their customers, we are seeing more companies reach out to their Spanish-language audiences. One way that they are doing this is by translating their web pages into Spanish. But they’re also going further than simply providing information to the Latin American and Caribbean markets in the Spanish language.

Marketers tend to follow media use among groups very closely in order to know where they need to be marketing their products, and how they need to be marketing them. So it’s natural that they have taken note recently of a marked increase in social media use among Latino populations in the U.S. as well as throughout Latin America itself. While some social media sites that are obscure in the U.S. have a wider audience in the Latin American region, like High 5, the most popular site globally—Facebook—has become far more popular among Spanish speakers just in the past year or so.

Even a disappointing IPO earlier this year has not detained the growth that Facebook is currently experiencing in the Latino market, nor has it watered down the interest that companies have in reaching its user base. The social media analytics company, Socialbakers, published a new infographic a few months ago which shows that this user base has increased by 47% over the past year, reaching 168 million active monthly users in the region. In a word, it’s transforming the way products are marketed to Latinos.

 

Source: Socialbakers

And as this population becomes more and more the focus of companies with an international or regional reach, various kinds of information will increasingly be available in the Spanish language. Now, it is not only that Google and Facebook are available in Spanish, but the content which they disperse is, too—in the form of advertisements, web pages, videos and more. As a result, the companies that will most successfully manage this new environment and use it to their benefit, will be the ones that can seamlessly go from an English-speaking audience to a Spanish-speaking one, and back.

As with so many other professions, localization professionals and Spanish translators may very well find their new home in marketing and social media in the months and years ahead.

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