Pronunciation of Ñ

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TreeLover

#317 Sat, 24 Sep 05 05:36 PM

How do you pronounce the letter Ñ?

Is it only used in special situations?

TreeLover

Joined on 24-09-2005

In a forest somewhere

Usuario Principiante (28)

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

pronouncing, Letter Ñ

Woodward Chile

#321 Sat, 24 Sep 05 05:56 PM

The letter ñ is considered another letter. It's not just an N with a squiggly line over it, it's a whole new letter.

You can pronounce it like the NI part of ONION. It sounds like an N and a Y (like in the word yellow) pronounced together. That is about the closest similar sound we have in the English language.

It is not used in any special situation, just words that contain that letter.

Woodward Chile

Joined on 16-09-2005

Santiago - Chile

Miembro Pleno (563)

Woodward Chile www.spanish.cl

Letter Ñ

Anonymous

#328 Sat, 24 Sep 05 06:19 PM

so español is pronounced espaniol? (in english letters?)

Anonymous

LanguageLover

#359 Sat, 24 Sep 05 10:59 PM

Exactamente! (exactly)

LanguageLover

Joined on 24-09-2005

Primer Mensaje (01)

Sanz

#360 Sat, 24 Sep 05 11:26 PM

Anonymous

so español is pronounced espaniol? (in english letters?)

It's very close but not exact, the best in this case it's listening the sound, I'll try to record and attach a voice file with some words containing Ñ.

Sanz

Joined on 18-09-2005

Mexico City

Miembro Avanzado (2,397)

Si no tienes lo que quieres, quiere lo que tienes.

TreeLover

#368 Sun, 25 Sep 05 03:42 AM

That would be great. Thanks for the help.

TreeLover

Escuela-virtual.net

#578 Thu, 29 Sep 05 05:30 PM

TreeLover, efectivamente es casi imposible explicar un sonido en un foro. Cada idioma tiene ciertas particularidades que son únicas. En todo caso, la principal diferencia entre la "m", la "n" y la "ñ" es que la "m" es "labial" (son los labios -the lips- los que ofrecen un obstáculo al aire), la "n" es dental (es el contacto entre la parte superior de los dientes y la lengua lo que marca el sonido) y en la "ñ" es "palatal": la parte posterior (=la parte de atrás) de la lengua debe hacer contacto con el paladar (I think you call it "palate"). Sólo haciendo el esfuerzo de que sea la parte de atrás de la lengua -y no ninguna otra parte- la que realiza el contacto ya es suficiente para que el sonido se parezca a la "ñ" española.
Try it and let me know...

Escuela-virtual.net

Joined on 29-09-2005

Usuario Principiante (15)

Encantame

#667 Sat, 01 Oct 05 06:26 PM

TreeLover

How do you pronounce the letter Ñ?

Is it only used in special situations?

I'm thinking most people have probably gotten to hear the word 'señor/señorita' (senyor/senyorita) just from a movie or something. Maybe they didn't know how it was spelled though, and may not make the connection when they start studying. Another word that we have that has the same sound is 'canyon' It's a ny sound, maybe that taunting sound that kids used to make when they were being brats: nya nya nya nya nya nya nya!

The only thing about pronouncing it is that it really isn't 2 sounds, it's one. So:

incorrect: sen yor

correct: se nyor (the syllables divide before the next consonant, unlike in English, where it's usually after the upcoming consonant.)