1
Lisa Schick
Linguistic Analysis
3/3/12
The language I researched is Spanish. Spanish originated out of Iberia, Spain. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. It is spoken largely in South America and
North America. Some of the countries that have Spanish speakers include Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Costa Rico, Cuba, Educador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras,
Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, United States and
Venezuela. There are up to 400-500 million Spanish speakers in the world. The closest/most similar language to Spanish is Italian and Portuguese.
Alphabet
Spanish has a Latin alphabet. It reads left to right, and the letters/characters of this alphabet are of the Indo-European language family. Spanish depends primarily on tone and pitch. It is a syllable timed language. Also, Spanish has a strong sound/symbol correspondence.
Phonetics and phonology
There are 5 vowels in this language, and they have five vowel sounds (a, e, i, o and u). In
English there is a difference between long and short sounding vowels, but Spanish has one sound for each vowel.
Which Spanish vowels sound the same as English vowel sounds?
Comments i e
Vowel
(letter)
Approximate pronunciation
Similar to English ee , see , keeping your lips spread throughout the vowel. pipí
Similar to English eh , bed , but with the tongue slightly higher in the mouth.
Pepe a o
Similar to English
(British pronunciation). papa
Similar to English o as in hot , but with the lips well rounded; similar to typical
Southern British ah or car
 Try to aim to hold your mouth and tongue as still as possible while pronouncing Spanish vowels
(in practice, they actually have to move to "go from one sound to the next").
 Try to give vowels more or less the same
"quality" whether or not they are stressed : try to avoid the neutral uh sound (often called a schwa) that often occurs with non-stressed vowels in English. For example, about is generally pronounced uh-bout ; but in the Spanish word agua , each a has the quality of an "a" sound (but the first stressed vowel has a higher pitch). The quality of vowels in Spanish does vary a little depending on stress position, but there is no central vowel as a target as in English.

2 u pronunciation, but with the back of the tongue slightly higher in the mouth. poco
Similar to English boo oo as in
, keeping your lips rounded throughout the vowel.
Lulu



Some varieties of English give the vowel an " r colouring" in words like car (or in simple terms, the " r is pronounced"). This doesn't happen in
Spanish. Try to give the a vowel a similar quality to the vowel of ah!
or car , but without giving it the "r colouring" .
With the o and u sounds, try and keep the lips well rounded and the tongue held towards the back of the mouth .
Note that in the sequence gu , the u doesn't actually represent a sound in this case: it just signals the "value" of the g (see below).
 ( A is pronounced similarly to the "a" in "father" or the "o" in "loft." Examples: madre , ambos , mapa . There are some speakers who sometime pronounce the a something halfway between the "a" in "father" and the "a" in "mat," but in most areas the first sound given is standard.
 I is pronounced similarly to the "ee" in "feet" and the "e" in "me," although usually a little briefer. Examples: finca , timbre , mi .
 O is pronounced like the "oa" in "boat" or the "o" in "bone," although usually a little briefer.
Example: teléfono
, amo , foco .
Now, the two vowels whose sound can change:
E is generally pronounced like the "e" in "met" when it is at the beginning or within a word. It is pronounced similarly to the Canadian "eh," kind of a shortened version of the "é" in the English
"café," when it is at the end of the word. Sometimes it can be somewhere between those two sounds. It's not quite the sound of the English letter "A," which if pronounced slowly often has an "ee" sound at the end, but closer to the "e" of "met." Keep in mind that even when it's at the end of the word, in a sentence it may sound more like the "e" of met. For example, in a phrase such as de vez en cuando , each e has approximately the same sound. Examples: café , compadre , embarcar , enero .
U is generally pronounced like the "oo" in "boot" or the "u" in "tune." Do not pronounce it like the "u" in "uniform." Examples: universo , reunión , unidos . In the combinations gui and gue , as well as after q , the u is silent. Examples: guía
, guerra, quizás
. If the u should be pronounced between a g and i or e , an umlaut (also called a dieresis) is placed over it. Examples: vergüenza
, lingüista
.
Which vowel sounds do not exist in English?
The vowel E and I exist in Spanish and English, but they are pronounced differently. E is generally pronounced like the "e" in "met" when it is at the beginning or within a word. It is

3 pronounced similarly to the Canadian "eh,” or a kind of a shortened version of the "é" in the
English "café," when it is at the end of the word. Sometimes it can be somewhere between those two sounds. It's not quite the sound of the English letter "A," which if pronounced slowly often has an "ee" sound at the end, but closer to the "e" of "met." Keep in mind that even when it is at the end of the word, in a sentence it may sound more like the "e" of met. For example, in a phrase such as de vez en cuando , each e has approximately the same sound. Examples: café , compadre , embarcar , enero . I is pronounced similarly to the "ee" in "feet" and the "e" in "me," although usually a little briefer. Examples: finca , timbre , mi .
Like the t in English stop . c before a,
o, u k qu
Like the c/k in English scoot , skip . b , v Like the b in English humble .
Note that in Spanish, the letter k is essentially only used in loanwords, such as kilo , or in SMS messaging as a shorter replacement to qu (e.g. kiero = quiero ; ke
= que / qué
).
 Like the Spanish t , the d is pronounced with the very tip of the tongue touching the back of

d g before a,
o, u
Like the sanding dado
.
Like the finger . d g
in English
in English
 the upper teeth . The tongue also makes contact with the alveolar ridge , the ridge just behind the upper teeth.
Unlike English, Spanish speakers generally pronounce b , d and g so that the vocal cords vibrate all the way through these sounds .
Unless you've been trained in phonetics, you may find it difficult to control this voicing at first. A technique that may work is to imagine saying a word like humble , but then imagine
"chopping off" the first syllable hum.
 In various positions, these stops are frequently approximated : that is, the speech organs involved do not quite come into contact enough to completely stop the sound (or even cause much friction). ch m n
ñ f z c , sc
(before e or i)
Like English
Like English ch m .
.
Note that in words such as chofer , chef (where English would generally have a "sh" sound at the beginning of the word), Spanish speakers tend to still pronounce these words with a ch
— similar to the ch in English church .
If m occurs at the end of a word (which is rare in
Spanish), some speakers pronounce it as n .
Like English n . For many
British speakers, like the n in tenth .
Spanish speakers generally pronounce n with the very tip of the tongue, touching the back of the upper teeth
(as with t and d ). As with t and d , the tongue also makes contact with the alveolar ridge. However, note that, as in English, the n is very susceptible to changing how it is pronounced depending on the surrounding sounds. So in tengo , the n is pronounced with the tongue in the position for a g , as would usually happen in the English word tango or in the phrase ten girls .
A bit like English canyon . ny in
For details of how this sound actually differs from
English ny , and from the ni in a Spanish word such as genio , see the separate page on pronunciation of
Spanish n tilde .
Like English f .
In most dialects of Spain: similar to US English th in think .
In most other dialects
(notably in Latin


This means that pairs such as generally pronounced identically in Latin
America, but are pronounced differently in
Spain. ves / vez are
Spaniards generally appear to pronounce z with
4

s
America): pronounced as s .
Essentially like English ss , with dialectal variation. the tongue between the teeth . This is generally similar to how US speakers pronounce the
English th sound, but different to most British speakers (who pronounce it with the tongue behind the teeth).
 In the sequence sce, sci (as in escena , piscina ), Latin American speakers generally pronounce sc as a simple s . In Spain, the pronunciation varies: sc is pronounced either as a written z , or sometimes as a written sz .
 In Spanish, the s generally keeps its "hissing" sound even at the ends of words. One must be careful not to pronounce it like a z at the end of plurals, for example.
 The s sound is pronounced so that part of the front of the tongue makes a narrow constriction around the ridge at the front of the mouth. In

Spain, that constriction is usually with the very tip of the tongue, whereas in English (and in certain varieties of Latin American Spanish, notably in Mexico), it is often with the part of the tongue just behind the tip.
The pronunciation of s in Spanish is actually quite a complex issue. Depending on the region, and depending on where s occurs in the word/syllable, various pronunciations are possible. j g (before e and i or at the end of a word)
Before or after a "front" vowel ( i , e ), often similar to the h sound in hue , or the fricative k sound that
There is some variation in how this sound is pronounced. The "common factor" is generally that the back of the tongue comes into contact with the roof or back of the mouth and causes friction, and that it is you can get in English kick it when said very rapidly. voiceless (speakers aim to stop their vocal cords vibrating during this sound). gira lejos
Scottish/Welsh ch sound
(as in loch ), or German
Aachen .
Some speakers essentially have a pronunciation similar to English kick it said rapidly (i.e. the friction occurs
In the presence of other around the tongue position for k ), whatever the following vowel. For others, it tends to always be vowels, often similar to the towards the back of the mouth, similar to Scottish loch
(or a voiceless French r sound). And in other dialects, it can be similar to a h sound.
5

x jabón joven
In Spanish words: like the
English x of boxer . taxi
In Mexican loanwords: either like ks , j or English sh (see comments).



See the comments above about the pronunciation of Spanish s . The pronunciation of x is generally similar to k plus s .
In the word
México
and related words
( mexicano , mexicanismo etc), the x is pronounced as though written j .
The letter x has various pronunciations in
Mexican place names and other loan words from indigenous languages spoken in the country. Depending on the word, x may be pronounced as a written j ( Oaxaca ), like the
English sh ( Xola ) or as s ( Tlaxcala ).
6 ll h Not pronounced as such.
Normally, the letter h does not represent a sound in
Spanish. When deciding how to pronounce a word, you can usually disregard it. (In some cases, it is simply written to distinguish words that would look similar in certain typefaces: when a word begins with ue, it is usually written hue to distinguish it from ve.)
A notable exception are words beginning with hi,

7 r rr
If between two vowels inside a word or if not at the beginning of a syllable, a tap , similar to US
English "flapped butter ). verano
If at the beginning of a syllable (and not after a vowel inside a word), a trill with the tongue otherwise in a similar position. enrollo t " ( better
(In practice, this usually means at the beginning of a word, or after n, s or l)
,
As a trill, similar to r at the beginning of a syllable. perro where hi is essentially an alternative to y-
( yierba / hierba ), and where the initial y/ hi may be fricated (see previous comment).
 Spanish has two " r sounds": a tap and a trill .
 In the tap , the tip of the tongue briefly touches the ridge behind the teeth, under "full control" of the muscles that control the tongue.
 In the trill , the tongue is held so that it
"naturally" vibrates (usually twice or three times) against the ridge; the muscles don't
 control each individual vibration.
Between two vowels inside a word , which r sound you use can distinguish between two words (e.g. pero means "but" , but perro means
"dog" .)
 In other cases , speakers tend to use one or other r sound depending on context, but they do not distinguish different words. In general, the trill occurs at the beginning of a syllable
(unless it comes after a vowel inside a word, in which case it just depends on the word, as mentioned). So in Enrique , the r is trilled because it is at the start of a new syllable ( Enri-que ). Similarly, the r is trilled in Is-ra-el , or generally at the start of a word ( la ro-ja ).
 Sometimes for emphasis, r can be rolled before a pause . In such cases, it is often devoiced (i.e. the vocal cords stop vibrating before the end of the r ). w Like English w or v .
This letter only occurs in occasional loanwords such as wáter
, and its pronunciation varies.
Which consonant sounds do NOT exist in English?
• ll is a consonant digraph
• ñ is pronounced like ny in canyon
What sounds do speakers of this language have difficulty pronouncing?
•
Spanish does not have short vowel sounds for a, i, o, and u, as English does, although there are five vowel sounds in Spanish with corresponding sounds in English: a as in father, e as in step, i as in machine, o as in over , and u as in ooze .

8
•
Spanish consonant sounds v, b, d, t, g, h, j, l, r, w, v , and z are not the same in Spanish as in English, and students must be taught the point of articulation to produce these sounds in order to become aware of the differences.
•
Spanish words never begin with the following consonant clusters: speak, stay, scare, school, street, spring, scratch, sphere, slow, small, svelte.
• Spanish speakers will add an initial vowel when pronouncing such words: estreet, espeak.
•
Spanish speakers often have problems with the 371 consonant cluster endings used in
English’s letter s.
•
Spanish speakers are often confused by the use of English s endings to indicate a plural noun but a singular verb.
•
There is a strong carryover from the Spanish /ch/ to the English /sh/, and the student may say “share” for “chair” and “shoes” for “choose.”
• The /b/ and /v/ sounds in Spanish are exactly alike phonetically in that each has two sounds.
• Speakers tend to merge /ð/ and /d/, pronouncing both in a voiced dental plosive unless they occur in intervocalic position, in which case they are pronounced [ð].
•
Spanish speakers often have difficulty with words ending in /m/, /p/, /k/, /c/, /b/, /d/, /f/,
/g/, /l/, /y/, /v/, and /x/, (when voices as /z/).
•
Speakers may omit word-final consonants other than these, or alter them (for example, by turning /m/ to /n/).
Are there any sound placements that are different between English and this language?
Yes.
What are they?
•
English readily allows clusters in the coda (e.g. film , meetings ; possibly even [kst] in mixed ); in Spanish, only a very limited range of single consonants tend to occur in the coda ( d , s , n , r and the fricative z
1
in Castillian Spanish), although other codas are possible in loanwords.
•
Some varieties of Spanish allow tl in the onset (essentially Latin America and Western
Spain), e.g., in the Mexican words tlacoyo, tlayuda etc. In such varieties, a word such as atlas would be syllabified a.tlas
, as opposed to at.las
in other varieties (principally
Central and Eastern Spain).
• Both languages allow diphthongs and triphthongs; e.g., vowels that are glides between two or three targets (cf English height where the vowel glides between an [a] and an [i] sound). But the inventory of diphthongs and thripthongs allowed in the two languages differs, as do the circumstances when they occur. In Spanish, diphthongs and triphthongs tend to occur as more of an automatic process when certain vowels occur in sequence, rather than being simply dictated by specific words.
•
Spanish uses quite a flat tone with many strong syllables. The use of rising tones is very common in Spanish, whereas in English we would use a falling or fall-rising tone.
Do any double letter combinations exist in this language? Yes.
What are they and what do they correspond to in English?
Spanish:/ll/ = English /y/
Spanish: /tt/ = English /t/
Spanish: /rr/ = English /r/

Spanish: /cc/ = English /x/
Spanish: /nn/ = English /nn/
In South American Spanish speaking countries, the sound of ll sounds like a combination of the sound of sh and the letter j in English.
Syntax and Grammar
How many tenses exist in this language? What are they?
There are 14 Spanish verb tenses; 7 simple tenses (1 verb); and 7 compound tenses (a verb preceded by a helping verb). The modern Spanish verb system has 14 distinct complete paradigms (i.e. sets of forms for each combination of tense and mood), plus one incomplete paradigm (the imperative), as well as 3 non-temporal forms (infinitive, gerund, and past participle).
9
Spanish verbs undergo inflection according to the following categories:


Tense: past, present, future.


Number: singular or plural.
 Person: first, second or third.
Mood: indicative, subjunctive, or imperative.
Aspect: Perfective aspect or imperfective aspect (distinguished only in the past tense as preterite or imperfect).
 Voice: active or passive.
Spanish verb conjugation is divided into four categories known as moods: indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and the traditionally so-called infinitive mood (newer grammars in
Spanish call it formas no personales , "non-personal forms"). This fourth category contains the three non-finite forms that every verb has: an infinitive, a gerund, and a past participle (more exactly a passive perfect participle). The past participle can agree for number and gender just as an adjective, giving it four possible forms.
There is also a form traditionally known as the present participle (e.g. cantante , durmiente ), but this is generally considered a separate word derived from the verb rather than an inherent inflection of the verb, because (1) not every verb has this form, and (2) the way in which the meaning of the form is related to that of the verb stem is not predictable. Some present participles function mainly as nouns (typically, but not always, denoting a doer of the action, such as amante , cantante , estudiante ), while others have a mainly adjectival function
( abundante , dominante , sonriente ), and still others can be used as either a noun or an adjective
( corriente , dependiente ). Unlike the gerund, the present participle takes the -s ending for agreement in the plural.
Examples:
Preterit - Past tense when something is done once and is over with ex: Yo compré una camisa para ti (I bought a tee-shirt for you)
Imperfect - Past when something is done more than once ex:

10
él hablaba en ingles (he spoke in english)
Present - Present tense
Yo necesito ir a la escuela (I need to go to school)
Condicional - When something would have happened
Maria no lo haría asi (Maria wouldn't do it that way)
Future - When something will happen
Ella comerá helado (She will eat ice cream)
Present Perfect - When something has happened
Yo he comido (I have eaten)
Subjunctive - To express feelings of wish or desire
Espero que tengas un buen día (I hope you have a good day)
The word order of this language is normally SVO (subject - verb - object):
Juan comió una manzana
(Juan ate an apple)
The word order in Spanish is not as rigid as it is in English. However, it is possible to change the word order to emphasize the verb or the object:
Comió Juan una manzana
(VSO)
Una manzana comió Juan
(OVS)
Note: To say "An apple ate Juan," that is, Juan was eaten by an apple, insert the word "a" like this:
Una manzana comió a Juan.
(SVO)
The subject is frequently omitted because the verb ending already gives information about the person:
Yo comí una manzana
(I ate an apple)
Comí una manzana
(I ate an apple)
In the second sentence we know that I ate the apple because the verb ending would be different for all other persons.
If you want to say "Juan ate it," the word order will have to be changed to accommodate the direct object pronoun:

11
Juan la comió
(SOV)
This is always the word order when using a direct or indirect object pronoun.
In general, Spanish is very flexible language because the core grammatical structure gives you the liberty of changing the order of words. A Spanish sentence can be constructed in a photographic manner so that you put words in the sentence in the same order you tend to think that you're observing them. Spanish tries to make possible the compatibility between the formal logic and the descriptive quality of the message.
The main departure from English grammar is that instead of an adjective-noun form, it's nounadjective. So, in English we would say blue car, while in Spanish you would say "car blue"
(coche azul). There are, as in many other languages, exceptions to this rule, particularly when the adjective has a double meaning. For example, "a poor man" could be expressed as "an unfortunate man" (pobre hombre), or a "wealth-less man" (hombre pobre). As a rule of thumb, the more permanent meaning dictates that the adjective go before the noun, but when in doubt, place the adjective after the noun.
More examples:
Type Order Example
Statement Subject, verb Roberto estudia.
(Robert is studying.)
Statement Subject, verb, object
Roberto compró el libro.
(Robert bought the book.)
Comment
This word order is extremely common and can be considered the norm.
This word order is extremely common and can be considered the norm.
Statement Subject, object pronoun , verb
Roberto lo compró.
(Roberto bought it.)
This word order is extremely common and can be considered the norm. Object pronouns precede conjugated verbs; they can be attached at the end of infinitives and present participles .
Question Question word , verb, subject
¿Dónde está el libro?
(Where is the book?)
Exclamation
Statement
Exclamatory word, adjective, verb, subject
¡Qué linda es
Roberta!
(How beautiful
Roberta is!)
This word order is extremely common and can be considered the norm.
This word order is extremely common and can be considered the norm. Many exclamations omit one or more of these sentence parts.
Verb, noun Sufren los niños.
Placing the verb ahead of the noun can have

12
Statement Object, verb, noun
(The children are suffering.)
El libro lo escribió Juan.
(John wrote the book.) the effect of placing more emphasis on the verb. In the sample sentence, the emphasis is more on the suffering than who is suffering.
Placing the object at the beginning of the sentence can have the effect of placing more emphasis on the object. In the sample sentence, the emphasis is on what was written, not who wrote it. The pronoun lo , although redundant, is customary in this sentence construction.
Statement Adverb, verb, noun
Siempre hablan los niños.
(The children are always talking.)
In general, Spanish adverbs are kept close to the verbs they modify. If an adverb starts a sentence, the verb frequently follows.
Phrase Noun, adjective la casa azul y cara (the expensive blue house)
Descriptive adjectives, especially ones that describe something objectively, usually are placed after the nouns they modify.
Phrase Adjective, noun Otras casas
(other houses); mi querida amiga (my dear friend)
Adjectives of number and other nondescriptive adjectives usually precede the noun. Often, so do adjectives being used to describe something subjectively, such as to impart an emotional quality to it.
Phrase Preposition , noun en la caja (in the box)
Command Verb, subject pronoun
Estudia tú.
(Study.)
Note that Spanish sentences can never end in a preposition, as is commonly done in
English.
Pronouns are often unnecessary in commands; when used, they nearly always immediately follow the verb.
What are the punctuation forms used in this language? List using English comparisons.
, — coma
— comma
: - dos puntos — colon
; — punto y coma — semicolon
— — raya — dash

13
- — guión
— hyphen
« » — comillas
— quotation marks
" — comillas — quotation marks
' — comillas simples — single quotation marks
¿ ? — principio y fin de interrogación
— question marks
¡ ! — principio y fin de exclamación o admiración — exclamation points
( ) — paréntesis
— parenthesis
[ ] — corchetes, parénteses cuadrados — brackets
{ } — corchetes — braces, curly brackets
* — asterisco — asterisk
... — puntos suspensivos — ellipses
How does this language mark gender?
The nouns in Spanish form a two-gender system (masculine and feminine) and are marked for number. Determiners and adjectives derive their gender from the name they modify. Pronouns can be inflected for person, number, gender (including residual neuter) and case.
Spanish nouns differ according to animacy; nouns referring to animate objects can have both masculine and feminism forms. Nouns with inanimate referents can have only one of the forms and usually have to be remembered. Three indicators allow speakers to establish gender of a noun: syntactic information revealed by gender agreement, extra linguistic information and morpho-phonolical information coming from the suffix of the word.
Morphology
What are some shared cognates between English and this language? irrigation - irrigacion access - accesso binkini – biquini bureau – buro kahki – caqui
What are some FALSE cognates between English and this language?
Bizarre – person who is strange, bizarre – brave
Complexion – skin quality, complexion – physically built
Carpet – material that covers the floor, carpeta – table cover

14
Football – game with pigskin, futbol – soccer
Red – color red, red – net
Through your research what have you found are the biggest difficulties of speakers of this language learning English?
Pronunciation in English is the hardest aspect for Spanish speakers to produce accurately.
Spanish is a phonetically written language, so Spanish speakers say exactly what they see. In
English, this causes pronunciation errors because English is not phonetically written it has a different structure in speech. The hardest aspects are the 19 vowel sounds (Spanish has 5), certain consonant sounds that do not exist in Spanish, and the use and placement of the schwa sound. Other problems include the intonation, which has a wider pitch range in English, and the way English words are joined. Certain written elements such as <ed> and <s> endings also cause many problems, as do the silent letters <r> and <h>.
If you have an early production ELL whose language is their L1, what would be the most important thing you will teach them in regards to the difference between their language and English?
The most important thing that you should teach an early production ELL is the sounds or phonemes. I would let them know there are many sounds that transfer, but many that do not. I would start with the sounds that have a positive transfer, such as consonants and short vowels, and then the phonemes that have different sounds. English has all the same letters with the exception of two less than Spanish, and five vowels but more ways to pronounce them. Next, I would explain that cognates are words that look alike and have the same or similar meaning, and that false cognates look similar but have different meanings. Then, I would start teaching the cognates because there are numerous cognates and false cognates in English and Spanish.