This post summarises the spelling and pronunciation of Spanish. I discuss below mainly standard Spanish of Spain (Castilian), but point out a few of the differences for Spanish regions and Latin America. Spanish Alphabet The Spanish alphabet includes: 26 letters also used in the English alphabet (though <k> and <w> are rare, used mainly in…… Continue reading Sounds and spelling of Spanish
Tag: Sibilant
English and German sibilants at the start of words
At the start of a word, both English and German have one sibilant that can appear in some positions where no other consonant can appear. That sibilant is /s/ in English but /ʃ/ in German (pronounced roughly like <sh-> in English she). The position where only English /s/ or German /ʃ/ can appear is at…… Continue reading English and German sibilants at the start of words
Why did two Spanish sibilants end up as /θ/ and /x/?
I’ve often wondered why standard European Spanish (Castilian) pronounces the letters written<c> and <j> as /θ/ and /x/. Penny (2002) and Alkire and Rosen (2010) explain that this comes from the history of sibilants in Spanish. Old Spanish sibilants In the 15th century, Old Spanish had 7 sibilants (table 1). Table 1. Old Spanish sibilants…… Continue reading Why did two Spanish sibilants end up as /θ/ and /x/?
Notes on English inflection
In this post I discuss some features of English inflection: English identifies 6 combinations of person (eg 1st person singular, 3rd person plural) but mostly distinguishes only 2 categories: (a) 3rd person singular versus (b) all others. the most prominent inflectional ending in English is -s, which serves as both:- the 3rd person singular ending…… Continue reading Notes on English inflection
Some things I like about Hungarian
Hungarian differs from most European languages in several ways, partly because it is not a member of the Indo-European family of languages. Hungarian is a member of the Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. https://languagemiscellany.com/2024/01/the-uralic-languages/ This post covers some fascinating features of Hungarian: vowel harmony front and back vowels in deictic words possessive word…… Continue reading Some things I like about Hungarian
Sounds of Vietnamese
Vietnamese (tiếng Việt) is in the Vietic subgroup of the Austroasiatic language family. Vietnamese is spoken as a first language by around 85 million people, mainly in Vietnam, where it is the official language. It has several times as many native speakers as all other Austroasiatic languages combined. This post covers: syllable structure word structure consonants vowels reduplication…… Continue reading Sounds of Vietnamese
Two sounds merging in Lëtzebuergesch
Lëtzebuergesch has (or used to have) 2 similar but distinct sibilants post-alveolar /ʃ/ and palatal /ç/, but those sounds are now well on the way to merging into a single alveolopalatal sound /ɕ/. A recent paper examined the nature and spread of this change (Conrad, 2023). The paper concludes that: this change is almost complete among…… Continue reading Two sounds merging in Lëtzebuergesch
Hard and soft consonants in Russian
Most Russian consonants come in pairs, of one ‘soft’ consonant and one ‘hard’ consonant. A soft consonant is one that is palatalised—pronounced with the centre of the tongue raised towards the roof of the mouth (palate). A hard consonant is a consonant that is not soft. One example of a distinction in English between a…… Continue reading Hard and soft consonants in Russian
Saxon Genitive
English has two common ways of expressing possession: the ‘Saxon genitive’ form adds -’s to the end of the last word in a noun phrase referring to the possessor:the king’s wifethe King of England’s wifethe man over there’s wifeFor more on the Saxon Genitive, please see Does English really have case? – Language Miscellany the…… Continue reading Saxon Genitive
Japan to change official romanisation?
Recent press reports suggest that the Japanese government is thinking of changing the officially recommended system for romanising Japanese. Romanisation is writing Japanese in roman characters (known in Japanese as rōmaji). There are 2 main romanisation systems for Japanese: Hepburn, devised by an American Missionary James Curtis Hepburn (1815-1911). Kunrei, issued by the Japanese government…… Continue reading Japan to change official romanisation?