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The ¡Hola Amigos! Newsletter Or The Gringos Unidos Newsletter Or News from Sherri’s Southern School of Spanish Published Monthly Volume I Number X October 2007 ¡Hola! y ¿Cómo estás? Hola Newsletter Pronunciation & Stress II and Day of the Dead Now, I just know that some o’ y’all are looking at this title goin’ “Am I really gonna' DIE from the “stress” of speakin’ Spanish?” The answer is “No, no, NO!” It’s all good… because we’re not talking about that kinda stress. This newsletter is a continuation of last month’s so I can give y’all a few more tips to help you say the words correctly. And as far as Day of the Dead, better known as Día de los Muertos is concerned, it’s coming up on our calendars, so I thought I’d include it in this month’s news. It is not synonymous with Halloween, but occurs right after it, November 1st and 2nd, AND it’s related. It’s really fascinating, but rather than bore you with secondhand prattle I’m including this link: http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/feature/daydeadindex.html so you can see it for yourself. If you thought only Harry Potter had sweets like “Sugar Skulls” check it out! Now. Ahora. To business. Al asunto. El pronunciación de diptongos. Or pronouncing double vowels: As I’ve said in class one of the nice things about Spanish is that it’s predictable since vowels are always pronounced the same way. It’s much easier than English! a = ah e = eh i = ee o = oh u = oo and sometimes y = ee (Y can be used as a vowel or a consonant, just like in English. As a consonant it is pronounced “yeh”.) When two vowels are together, you pronounce both of them, but sometimes they blend. Here are the blended vowel pronunciations. a + i is ah + ee = eye This is the English pronunciation. Say ah + ee real fast and you’ll get it. a + y is the same ah + ee = eye a + u is ah +oo = ow ( Like ow, that hurt!) Again, if you say the two vowels fast, you’ll see how you get from ah + oo to ow. e + i is eh + ee = ā (the long vowel sound of a in English) i + a is ee+ah = yah i + e is ee + eh = yeh i + o is ee + oh = yoh u + a is oo + ah = wah u + e is oo + eh = weh Look for these vowel combinations in common words like: Buenos días BWEH nos DEE ahs (Here the accent marks separates the i and the a, so there’s no blending of sounds.) Just a couple more details… Cc in Spanish, like it’s English counterpart, sounds like “ks”: Acción Ak see ON means action. And last but not least qu in Spanish sounds like a single “K” in English. Que Keh Quiero kee EHR oh This will give y’all something to chew on until my next missive. Don’t forget to look at the archived copies at www.brownkatz.com .
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The ¡Hola Amigos! Newsletter Or The Gringos Unidos Newsletter Or News from Sherri’s Southern School of Spanish Sherri Brownkatz Certified Teacher (863) 533-9161 (home) (813) 763-6333 (cell)
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