After listening to my recording (and also from what I know about my Spanish pronunciation weaknesses), there are several consonant issues that stand out:
- the dental fricative /θ/ - this is mainly a matter of remembering to do it, as I am used to pronouncing /s/ from Argentinian Spanish
- the alveolar trill /r/ - I am able to produce it but with much effort and that's why I usually don't produce it in speech. It needs training to become effortless and automatic.
- the voiceless velar fricative /x/ - this one is a challenge, I can't really make it, I usually just do the English or Romanian /h/
- the approximant /j/ - this sound is giving me trouble too. I'm used to the Argentinian postalveolar /ʒ/ or /ʃ/
Another sound that sounds a bit different is the /s/. I did a bit of research on it but it seems that phonologists are not very sure in what way it is different. The usual notation is [s̺] and Wikipedia says it is "an apical alveolar retracted fricative (or "apico-alveolar" fricative), sounding to some ears a bit like English /ʃ/". According to Obaid,
"There is a Castilian s, which is a voiceless, concave, apicoalveolar fricative: the tip of the tongue turned upward forms a narrow opening against the alveoli of the upper incisors. It resembles a faint /ʃ/ and is found throughout much of the northern half of Spain." What?? Since I have no idea how to produce it, I'm not going to focus on this sound.
References:
Obaid, Antonio H. (1973), "The Vagaries of the Spanish 'S'", Hispania (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) 56 (1): 60–67
- the dental fricative /θ/ - this is mainly a matter of remembering to do it, as I am used to pronouncing /s/ from Argentinian Spanish
- the alveolar trill /r/ - I am able to produce it but with much effort and that's why I usually don't produce it in speech. It needs training to become effortless and automatic.
- the voiceless velar fricative /x/ - this one is a challenge, I can't really make it, I usually just do the English or Romanian /h/
- the approximant /j/ - this sound is giving me trouble too. I'm used to the Argentinian postalveolar /ʒ/ or /ʃ/
Another sound that sounds a bit different is the /s/. I did a bit of research on it but it seems that phonologists are not very sure in what way it is different. The usual notation is [s̺] and Wikipedia says it is "an apical alveolar retracted fricative (or "apico-alveolar" fricative), sounding to some ears a bit like English /ʃ/". According to Obaid,
"There is a Castilian s, which is a voiceless, concave, apicoalveolar fricative: the tip of the tongue turned upward forms a narrow opening against the alveoli of the upper incisors. It resembles a faint /ʃ/ and is found throughout much of the northern half of Spain." What?? Since I have no idea how to produce it, I'm not going to focus on this sound.
References:
Obaid, Antonio H. (1973), "The Vagaries of the Spanish 'S'", Hispania (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) 56 (1): 60–67
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