Just for additional information, there’s a middle ground between hiatuses and diphthongs with high semivowels which I use natively in the case of /e/. (For the record, I’m from northern Mexico.) For me, the /ea/ in “línea” is pronounced as [e̯a], a rising diphthong that consistently starts with a non-high glide even in my most fluid and spontaneous speech. It may phonetically lie anywhere within the area of [e̯ ~ ɛ̯ ~ ə̯], but it’s distinct from the [ja] in “colonia”. A word like “peleé” ends with an extremely narrow diphthong I’d transcribe systematically as [e̯e], even though it’s probably closer to [e̯ɛ]; this is distinct from both [je] as in “afilié” and [e] as in “escalé”. In “caeré”, there’s the potential falling diphthong [ae̯] but this isn’t as consistently distinct for me; I tend to merge it in rapid speech with either the diphthong /ai̯/ or the monophthong /a/. Still, the possibility of it being merged into /a/ isn’t there for an underlying /ai̯/. There are some morphophonological reasons to believe that [e̯] is phonemic in my dialect and occurs in the underlying representation of the word “línea” at least. One is that, as a nonstandard and purely lexical exception, the verbs “alinear” and “delinear” in the singular and 3pl forms of the present indicative can be stressed on /li/, patterning with “cambiar” rather than “enviar”. They’re still stressed on the penultimate syllable; it’s just that the final syllable contains a rising diphthong with a non-high semivowel: [ˈjo ðeˈline̯o], [ˈt̪u aˈline̯as]. Similarly, the least marked diminutive of “línea” for me is “lineecita”, patterning with “noviecita” despite the semivowels being measurably different.
As a speaker from spain, I very very rarely hear "almohada" pronounced with the hiatus, even in formal contexts. It's so normalized as a diphthong that it makes me doubt whether the correct spelling for attic is buhardilla (the real one) or bohardilla, due to influence from almohada. Also, there's the quite common /u.i/ hiatus found in verbs such as huir and construir, and their conjugations. They are almost always pronounced as hiatuses even if orthographically they're considered diphthongs.
Thanks a ton for this! I think these, when done across word boundaries, are exactly the points in spoken Spanish where I always lose comprehension. This should help a lot :-)
In my humble opinion, the bottom line idea of this video intended for the learners of Spanish as a second language is that "never turn a diphtong to a hiatus or vice versa".
Hey I appreciate the work that you do within the Spanish learning community. I am currently working to improve my accent and was wondering if you could create an updated video for the "tr" and "str" for words such as "tres" , "treinta" and "nosotros". I really struggle with pronouncing these words and I think an updated video would be beneficial to the community. If you are unable to I am also willing to pay to to schedule a zoom lesson with you to discuss it. Thank you and have a great day!
One of my favorite "most embarrassing " moments in Spanish was with the word albahaca. I asked the young gal in the store "¿dónde está la albahaca ?" but pronounce it like al baa ca. Like a sheep. She just stared at me. Lol! So I guess the aha combination is not a dipthong but the a after the h is also silient?
Not silent, exactly. Two identical vowels side by side merge into a single vowel sound. Since the h is silent, the two [a] sounds are side-by-side. See my video on linking.
A Spanish speaker speaking fast would most likely pronounce it like "albaca" and more slowly like "alba-aca" but also you gotta consider that not everyone knows this word in the Spanish speaking world. Names for ingredients and regional herbs can vary dramatically. I work with a couple Guatemalan women in a pizzeria and was asking about the albahaca and they had no idea what I was talking about the first time I said that word to them lol same thing when I asked about the aceitunas for the first time 🤣 they just call them olivos. So could be that too.
Just for additional information, there’s a middle ground between hiatuses and diphthongs with high semivowels which I use natively in the case of /e/. (For the record, I’m from northern Mexico.)
For me, the /ea/ in “línea” is pronounced as [e̯a], a rising diphthong that consistently starts with a non-high glide even in my most fluid and spontaneous speech. It may phonetically lie anywhere within the area of [e̯ ~ ɛ̯ ~ ə̯], but it’s distinct from the [ja] in “colonia”. A word like “peleé” ends with an extremely narrow diphthong I’d transcribe systematically as [e̯e], even though it’s probably closer to [e̯ɛ]; this is distinct from both [je] as in “afilié” and [e] as in “escalé”. In “caeré”, there’s the potential falling diphthong [ae̯] but this isn’t as consistently distinct for me; I tend to merge it in rapid speech with either the diphthong /ai̯/ or the monophthong /a/. Still, the possibility of it being merged into /a/ isn’t there for an underlying /ai̯/.
There are some morphophonological reasons to believe that [e̯] is phonemic in my dialect and occurs in the underlying representation of the word “línea” at least. One is that, as a nonstandard and purely lexical exception, the verbs “alinear” and “delinear” in the singular and 3pl forms of the present indicative can be stressed on /li/, patterning with “cambiar” rather than “enviar”. They’re still stressed on the penultimate syllable; it’s just that the final syllable contains a rising diphthong with a non-high semivowel: [ˈjo ðeˈline̯o], [ˈt̪u aˈline̯as]. Similarly, the least marked diminutive of “línea” for me is “lineecita”, patterning with “noviecita” despite the semivowels being measurably different.
As a speaker from spain, I very very rarely hear "almohada" pronounced with the hiatus, even in formal contexts. It's so normalized as a diphthong that it makes me doubt whether the correct spelling for attic is buhardilla (the real one) or bohardilla, due to influence from almohada.
Also, there's the quite common /u.i/ hiatus found in verbs such as huir and construir, and their conjugations. They are almost always pronounced as hiatuses even if orthographically they're considered diphthongs.
You are a wonderful teacher.
Thanks a ton for this! I think these, when done across word boundaries, are exactly the points in spoken Spanish where I always lose comprehension. This should help a lot :-)
I'm happy to hear you got something from the video.
In my humble opinion, the bottom line idea of this video intended for the learners of Spanish as a second language is that "never turn a diphtong to a hiatus or vice versa".
Hey I appreciate the work that you do within the Spanish learning community. I am currently working to improve my accent and was wondering if you could create an updated video for the "tr" and "str" for words such as "tres" , "treinta" and "nosotros". I really struggle with pronouncing these words and I think an updated video would be beneficial to the community. If you are unable to I am also willing to pay to to schedule a zoom lesson with you to discuss it. Thank you and have a great day!
Thank you for your kind words. I'm planning an updated version of that video sometime in the next year. Not sure when it will come out.
One of my favorite "most embarrassing " moments in Spanish was with the word albahaca. I asked the young gal in the store "¿dónde está la albahaca ?" but pronounce it like al baa ca. Like a sheep. She just stared at me. Lol! So I guess the aha combination is not a dipthong but the a after the h is also silient?
Not silent, exactly. Two identical vowels side by side merge into a single vowel sound. Since the h is silent, the two [a] sounds are side-by-side. See my video on linking.
A Spanish speaker speaking fast would most likely pronounce it like "albaca" and more slowly like "alba-aca" but also you gotta consider that not everyone knows this word in the Spanish speaking world. Names for ingredients and regional herbs can vary dramatically. I work with a couple Guatemalan women in a pizzeria and was asking about the albahaca and they had no idea what I was talking about the first time I said that word to them lol same thing when I asked about the aceitunas for the first time 🤣 they just call them olivos. So could be that too.
@@tac135246 Very good point.
Wait, so should we resolve them between boundaries?
No. And I don't recommend that second language learners reduce them at all.
@@tenminutespanish Alright danke
@@cyka6blat989 Bitte.