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Seseo, ceceo and yeísmo (or, some major variations in Spanish pronunciation)

March 21st, 2008 | 19 Comments | Posted by Graham A Stephen

As with any language, Spanish is subject to variations across geographic areas and social strata. These variations include differences in accent, vocabulary and grammatical structures. In this article we will have a look at some of the major differences in its pronunciation. A number of audio clips of native speakers from around the Spanish-speaking world all reading the same piece of text are included for comparison.

Vocal apparatus

The diagram below illustrates the major components of the human vocal apparatus. This will be useful to refer to when the production of various sounds is described below.

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Vocabulary: document preparation / Vocabulario: preparación de documentos

January 19th, 2008 | 5 Comments | Posted by Graham A Stephen
Presented below is a selection of terms related to document preparation together with their Spanish equivalents.

The words are given in thematic sections.

A continuación presentamos una selección de términos relacionados a la preparación de documentos junto con sus equivalentes ingleses.

Los vocablos se agrupan en bloques temáticos.

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Punctuation marks / Signos de puntuación

November 2nd, 2007 | 1 Comment | Posted by Graham A Stephen
We probably all take it for granted: when we write not only do we employ letters to form words and figures to stand for numbers, but we also take advantage of a range of other little marks, which —when used well— can make our intended meaning clear. Used badly, on the other hand, they can lead to ambiguity and can even totally change the intended meaning. We are of course talking about punctuation marks.

The names of these symbols are something that is very often not covered in vocabulary exercises when learning a second language. This article therefore presents a cross-reference table giving the names in both English and Spanish of punctuation marks together with some other commonly used typographic symbols.

Incidentally, the topic of the art of punctuation in Spanish is covered in a highly readable way in the book Perdón, imposible1. Another useful guide to the correct use of punctuation marks in Spanish can be found in the Signos ortográficos2 section of the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas.

continued…

 Probablemente no le prestamos mucha atención: al escribir no sólo empleamos letras para formar palabras y cifras para representar números, sino también nos aprovechamos de una serie de otros pequeños signos, que —al utilizarse bien— pueden hacer claro lo que queremos expresar. Mal usados, en cambio, pueden conducir a la ambigüedad e incluso cambiar por completo el sentido deseado. Estamos hablando, por supuesto, de los signos de puntuación.

Los nombres de estos signos son algo que muy a menudo no figura en los ejercicios de vocabulario al aprender otro idioma. Por lo tanto en este artículo presentamos una tabla de referencia que cuenta con los nombres tanto en inglés como en español de los signos de puntuación junto a algunos otros símbolos tipográficos comunes.

Por cierto el tema del arte de la puntuación en inglés lo trata de una manera muy asequible el libro Eats, Shoots & Leaves3.

continúa…
Copyright © Graham A Stephen, 2007
  1. 1. José Antonio Millán, Perdón, imposible, RBA Libros (Barcelona), 2005.
    http://perdonimposible.com/↩
  2. 2. “Signos ortográficos”, Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, Real Academia Española, 2005.
    http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/SrvltConsulta?lema=puntuacion↩
  3. 3. Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Profile Books (London), 2003.
    http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/esl.html↩

El hecho de que… indicative or subjunctive?

July 21st, 2007 | 2 Comments | Posted by Graham A Stephen

The general guidance given to learners of Spanish with regards to choosing between the indicative and subjunctive moods usually centres on the notion of the speaker’s model of reality: when dealing with certainties (from the speaker’s point of view), the indicative is used; whereas the subjunctive is normally used in situations involving factors such as uncertainty, denial, emotional reaction, desire, and influence.

This article looks at one particular example that appears to run counter to the above: namely the use of the subjunctive following el hecho de que where the phrase is used to state an objective fact and where no emotional reaction is involved.

Let’s start by taking a closer look at some typical descriptions of the general rules involved in the use of the subjunctive mood. We will then go on to take a look at so-called factive clauses and follow this up by examining the choice of mood in such clauses. This mentions previous investigation in this area and presents some observations based on a statistical analysis undertaken for this article.

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Copyright © Graham A Stephen, 2007

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