Each interview was approximately two minutes in length and each person decided to repeat each sentence before they translated them, conducted in public settings both in San Francisco on Monday, September 26, 2012. My two speakers were “A”, a male, native Spanish speaker in college, from Mexico and “B”, a female, native Spanish speaker also in college from Guatemala. “A’s” parents moved to the United States and she was born here and raised in a bilingual household. “B” was also raised Spanish-English bilingual by parents who emigrated from Mexico. Both speakers use Spanish daily in their personal and professional lives. I generated the sentences and both “A” and “B” had to translate all twelve sentences. Data analysis was made using phonetic …show more content…
Even though the majority of Spanish speakers in California are of Mexican origin there are also many more races that also speak Spanish. Spanish speakers vary from their origins but there is a great majority of them in California which helped me find another native Spanish speaker from another region with ease. I am fluent in Spanish which helped me translate the phrases and help my volunteers whenever they had different phrasing from one another and with translation of words they might not be familiar with. I first encountered subject A when I moved into my new apartment and found out he was my roommate. My other subject, I first encountered her when another of my housemates brought her to the house and we both ended up speaking in Spanish. Even though I consider myself fluent in Spanish I found that different regions have different pronunciations of words. The major difference I noticed was with subject B. Even though her Spanish was very similar to mine because she was raised in America which formed her Spanish into a very similar dialect I am used to I could barely notice very subtle differences in her speech. In this project I will explore some subtle differences in phonetics between the two dialects and attempt to offer …show more content…
One thing that really stuck out during my research was that subject B vocalizes her vowels stronger than anything else. I feel that there are not that many differences because they were both raised in a similar environment as subject A. They were both raised in southern California and which makes their phonemic differences quite similar. I see this little difference in various sentences. For example in sentence 11 the word [tjendɑ] from subject B is different from [tjenda] from subject A. The vowel “a” is an open central vowel in speaker A while in speaker B it is an open back vowel. Another subtle difference I encountered was with the letter “s”. Subject B tended to use the syllable “s” as an “h” or not noticeable at all. The syllable-final “s” is usually replaced by “h” in most of Guatemala . From what I have seen is that sometimes Guatemalans tend to exclude some syllables with “h” or do not pronounce the syllable they’re excluding at all. For example some Guatemalans in the word trabajo (work) pronounce it as [traβaho] / [traβao] . My subject did use the replacement of some syllables but did not use it in this form. For many Guatemalans the replacements of syllables is normal but it all depends on what region they are from and how you were brought up. My subject was raised in California which might be why both of my subjects sound so
In an experiment, around 350 Chicagoans, were recorded reading the following paragraph, titled “Too Hot for Hockey”, this script was written specifically to force readers to vocalize vowels “that reveal how closely key sounds resemble the accent's dominant traits” (Wbez). The paragraph is as follows:
Throughout Richards early childhood development he quickly understood that in order to succeed in America he would have to learn to confidently speak in English. Richard is Hispanic American and although he was born in America, Spanish was the only language that he was exposed to as a young child. He grew up in a home where Spanish flowed freely, but he soon realized outside of his home the language that he primarily knew was foreign. His parents spoke fluent Spanish along with all of his relatives. The brief encounters he experienced of his parents speaking English were only in public places and the proficiency was very poor. Rodriguez’s home was as a safety net for him and his Spanish speaking family with they are his only real connections to the outside world. It wasn’t until Richards encounter with his teachers that he and his family was heavily impressed on the importance of developing a public language. After the encouragement of the visit home from a teacher as a family
Often, the language spoken by Northern Spaniards sounds identical to the language spoken by Southern Spaniards. However, the northerners speak with the “the emission of the consonants ‘d’ and ‘r’, the aspiration of the consonant ‘s’ at the end of words, and the dropping of final consonants”, whereas southerners do not. (Khodorkovsky, 2008) Again, both types a Spaniards are conveying a message when speaking. Likewise, Americans have differing dialect. The way someone from the West coast speaks contrasts the way someone from the East coast speaks. But yet again, both people are conveying a message when speaking. Although their verbal communication may sound different, Hispanic and American culture’s are still accomplishing the same goal. There are also many similarities and differences in each culture’s nonverbal communication
Another struggle for identity with Latinos is their struggle with the Spanish and English languages. While some Latinos may speak Spanish in their homes, the language may not be conversationally used in their schools. Some Lat...
Hispanic America language has some strengths and weaknesses as observed in the article and this makes it one of the influential groups in the United States. It is also important noting that those who belong to this group originated from various parts of the world. The strengths in the pattern of communication make this language one of the most adorable languages in the world as many people feel respected whenever they talk to someone from this particular group. The weaknesses that can be identified only show how people tend to believe they are shy, but it is as a result of respect for
My parents decided to immigrate to the United States when I was six years of age. As we established ourselves in the United States, my first language was only Spanish. Spanish was the language that I was taught at home, and it was the only language to be spoken at home. Rodriguez describes when he first entered his classroom where he was introduced to a formal English-speaking context, writing that, ?I remember to start with that day in Sacramento-a California now nearly thirty years past-when I first entered a classroom, able to understa...
The first item is the language. Not very Hispanic speaks English. This is due to their parents not teaching or wanting them to talk Spanish. Some people prefer to communicate in a native language around family members while some speak Spanish accurately and other don’t! Some parents may communicate with their children in Spanish or English. It’s best to tell someone what language you speak that way they won’t mistake someone
The interviewee identified as a Salvadorian-American heterosexual woman. She is bilingual and speaks English and Spanish. However, she explained that she is not fluent in Spanish because of the environments she was exposed to as a child growing up in America. She does not receive pressure to speak Spanish from her mother but rather from her church. Thus, church leads her family to practice the language more in the home. On the contrary, I identify as an Armenian-American heterosexual woman. Similar to my interviewee, I am also bilingual. However, I speak English and Armenian, but unlike my interviewee, I am fluent in both languages. Here I
A large number of people in the Hispanic community whether Hispanics are not able to get the English literacy skills that they need not because they want to keep born in Latin America or the United States, speak Spanish primarily. This is basically because in present day time, Hispanics are more likely to pass Spanish to their kids now than they have done in the past. (Ortiz, P.149) This is seen as a social problem, especially because of the fact that there is an increasing demand that English should only be taught in public school and it should also be spoken within the Spanish community. Even though Hispanics do speak a lot of Spanish most of the time, they still do learn English also, especially the young. But, because of the large flow of immigrants, the use of Spanish is used more often because they are constantly encountering immigrants who speak no English. (Ortiz, P. 150) Before hand there has been said to have been lower achievements when Hispanics make frequent use of the Spanish la...
“Se habla Espanol” wrote by Tanya Maria Barrientos. She is growing up in Texas, but she was born in Guatemala. That causes she cannot speak Spanish like Latina. In the article, she talked about what the feeling as a Lantana without the ability to speak Spanish so well. Her parents give her a few of knowledge about speaking Spanish. Because, she grew up in a special era, which Mexican Americans were considered dangerous radical. Nowadays, this theory is politically incorrect. The author wants to find some people that like her, does not fit in Spanish culture and help them, giving them a big mental supporting. I’m from China, growing and living in different places, which have different language and culture habit.
In addition, both essays reflect how the language they spoke intertwines with their identity and how it sometimes has an impact on the way they interact with society. The effect of the language on their identity is demonstrated through what the authors may call their “different languages.” Although Tan uses more of a personal narrative style than Anzaldua, Anzaldua uses definitions and quotes to demonstrate how her identity was influenced as well. Anzaldua mentions the examples of the different languages by describing “Home tongues”, “Chicano Spanish”, “Chicano Texas Spanish”, “Pachuco” and many others. She uses personal narrative to describe the “Home Tongue” by stating it was the language she spoke with her sisters and brothers.
While reading this article one of the most shocking sections were when the students were talking to Monzó and sharing their outlook on their place and their language’s place in society. These students even at this early age are feeling how devalued their first language has been. They feel like they have to speak the right* English, only use English in public places, never their first language, and that they must assimilate to the American culture as much as possible. This reminded me of a chapter in Lippi-Green (2012)’s text. Within this chapter Lippi-Green (2012) discusses how in the United States Spanish speakers are not only expected to learn English but they are expected to learn and utilize the right* English determined by the majority and assimilate entirely to American culture. Throughout Monzó and Rueda (2009)’s text the children in conversations expressed their observation of the social order in relation to language and race. This was surprising to me since they are only in 5th grade. During a conversation with one of the children Monzó and Rueda (2009) recorded an alarming statement, “He said that his mother could not be considered American because she did not...
Being bilingual always made my life differ as if I lived two lives, speaking Spanish at home and English everywhere outside of home. On the daily basis at my house, my family speaks Spanish. When we communicate we speak very fast, at times we can not even understand one another. After this occurs we all burst out in laughter super loud, no boundaries are enforced in our lexicon. The enforcement changes when entering a different discourse community.
Analyzing dialects can be difficult due to the fact that is it hard to transcribe the pronunciation of an individual dialect because English is not spelled the same way it is pronounced. Furthermore, one person’s interpretation of spelling a dialect might not match up with another’s, so the reader might not “hear” the dialect properly. Regardless, written versions of dialects are essential to discussing dialectical differences.
Hence, the overall goal of this study is to investigate the Hasawi plosive phonemes and how they shape different allophones. This paper is divided into five main sections: the first section is an introduction of the topic including an overview of the dialect; the second section is a review of the literature which includes brief previous related studies; the methodology used for this study is described in the third section; the fourth section demonstrates the findings of this study; and finally the conclusion.