I dreamt in Spanish the other night, for the first time since I've been here, which I was rather chuffed about as it means I'm getting to grips with the language again, even if it was one of those disturbing dreams where I'm on the stage with no idea whatsoever of my lines. This time my co-actor, a young girl for whom I was supposed to be playing the part of governess, had to whisper the lines into my ear - in Spanish - and I had to do a quick translation into English before pronouncing them to an unseen audience. It all proceeded well, and next time I'm having one of those 'oh shit, I'm on the stage and have know idea what I'm supposed to say' dreams, I may try and introduce my little Spanish helper into the equation again.
Anyway, despite my grasp of Spanish, there's one word, or rather sound, that I have incredible trouble with, which lets it be known to all that, despite my rather good accent, I am indeed a foreigner here. And that sound is 'eu', most particularly when I have to say euros, which, as you can imagine, happens rather often. Having asked my boss tens of times to say the word for me so I could practice, I finally wrote down an approximation of the pronunciation which I will now share with all of you so you can practise for you Spanish hols:
'a (pronounced as you'd say the letter in the alphabet) - you- rose', with the accent on the a.
So, altogether now....."a-you-rose". Now run it all together: "euros".
Hmm, it takes a bit of practice, I've not got it quite right yet myself and walk around the house or the academia mumbling it to myself. Still, better than my attempts with the double r, which must be rolled. This is almost impossible for me as I apparently have a lazy tongue, (although it sometimes happens when I'm not worrying about it and I surprise myself) which was diagnosed at an early age and for which I was sent to sometimes excruciatingly awkward - when I couldn't say a word properly - elecution lessons while still a nipper. Anyway, the upshot of this is that I say words like 'dog' - perro - as 'but' - pero. Fortunately, as regular readers will know, I am a cat lover so don't have to worry about telling people 'I have three buts'.
Anyway, despite my grasp of Spanish, there's one word, or rather sound, that I have incredible trouble with, which lets it be known to all that, despite my rather good accent, I am indeed a foreigner here. And that sound is 'eu', most particularly when I have to say euros, which, as you can imagine, happens rather often. Having asked my boss tens of times to say the word for me so I could practice, I finally wrote down an approximation of the pronunciation which I will now share with all of you so you can practise for you Spanish hols:
'a (pronounced as you'd say the letter in the alphabet) - you- rose', with the accent on the a.
So, altogether now....."a-you-rose". Now run it all together: "euros".
Hmm, it takes a bit of practice, I've not got it quite right yet myself and walk around the house or the academia mumbling it to myself. Still, better than my attempts with the double r, which must be rolled. This is almost impossible for me as I apparently have a lazy tongue, (although it sometimes happens when I'm not worrying about it and I surprise myself) which was diagnosed at an early age and for which I was sent to sometimes excruciatingly awkward - when I couldn't say a word properly - elecution lessons while still a nipper. Anyway, the upshot of this is that I say words like 'dog' - perro - as 'but' - pero. Fortunately, as regular readers will know, I am a cat lover so don't have to worry about telling people 'I have three buts'.
4 comments:
Is that 'a' as in 'ay' or 'a' as in 'ah' or even 'a' as in 'a' if spoken by a northerner: Castle or Carsle?
Lorenzo.
It´s ´a´ as in ´a,b,c´. I think everyone says that the same don´t they? I´ve noticed that my students have a northern vowel pronunciation and say bath instead of baaath, for example.
My son Toby is learning Spanish at Schools!
"Bonjour swine Von bella bella"
Is it hot there?
Maalie was on telly last night! Gave me a shock to see him so was forced to write a new posting today. Phew, two in two days. A record.
Lorenzo.
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