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in reply to a message by Lumia
Lumia, I'm just curious, could you clarify the difference between the Spanish and English /s/? I wasn't aware there was a significant difference there.
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The Spanish (and Catalan and Basque) S is an apicoalveolar fricative (with the end of the tongue on the alveols); the English S (and Basque Z) is a laminodental fricative (the sound is produce with the blade of the tongue).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_alveolar_fricative
It is one of the erroneous pronunciations that identify most of Spanish speakers when speaking English and viceversa (the other one is the Spanish T and D versus the English T and D).
Because of the influence of some languages in American Spanish, in some of the Spanish dialects in America the S can be pronounced as the English S, but that is not the standard (and original) pronunciation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_alveolar_fricative
It is one of the erroneous pronunciations that identify most of Spanish speakers when speaking English and viceversa (the other one is the Spanish T and D versus the English T and D).
Because of the influence of some languages in American Spanish, in some of the Spanish dialects in America the S can be pronounced as the English S, but that is not the standard (and original) pronunciation.
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Thanks, that's very helpful. I was aware of the difference in articulation of the Spanish vs. English /t/ and /d/, but not the /s/. And most interesting that in Basque the difference between the two is phonemic. Thanks a lot!
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