At 10:38 PM 4/12/01 -500, Pablo wrote: >I've spoken spanish all my life (Born and bred in Ecuador and lived there till two years ago) and I can tell you there are NO more than 5 vowels in spanish. The "o" in Historia and Seņor sound *exactly* alike and must be pronounced that way. "Hay" is an exception, when the Y (greek i, as we call it)is AFTER a vowel, then there is a diphtong, so basically HAY is "a" + "y"
Okay---I'll take your word for it. However, just to be clear, I was trying to distinguish the "o" in "no" from the "o" in Senor (Sorry--my computer won't make the "enya") or the "o" in "no" from the "o" in "historia"; where the "o" in both "Senor" and "historia" are, indeed, the same to my ear. The "hay" example (pronounced like "i" in "like", "mike", "bike", etc), even though a dipthong and not a vowel per se, still requires a vowel-sound similar to that required in English as noted in the above 3 examples. Isn't the English vowel "i" also pronounced [a] + [i]?
But I'll concede, as I am not a native speaker. I did start learning Spanish at age 9, however, and all of my teachers were either from Mexico or were of Mexican ancestry [except for a longlongago girlfriend's mom who was from Spain].
GWendel, dT
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