redbeard
August 02, 2007, 06:40 PM
Hola a todos:
¿Me pueden decir como se pronuncian estas palabras, por favor?
un águila (Sé que se pronuncia "ui" como "we" pero ¿en este caso se forma un diptongo? O se pronuncia como "ag-i-la"
siguiente ¿Se pronuncia como "si-gi-en-te"?
Apologies for answering in English, but I'm tired!
The reason for the <u> in <águila> is to preserve the hard sound of the <g> before the <i>. By "hard sound" I mean the sound that <g> has in other words before <a> and <o>, or to put that another way, it's roughly the same sound as English <g> in <goat>. Without the <u> it would be pronounced like the <g> in <gítano> or the <j> in <jefe>.
The same principle is also true with words having an <e>.
When the word has a [w] sound then a dieresis (two dots) is needed over it. Thus: <nicaragüense> has a hard <g> followed by a [w] and then an [e] sound.
So the various spellings and their pronunciations are:
<ga> is pronounced [ga], e.g. in <García>
<gua> is pronounced [gua], e.g. in <Guatemala>
<ge> is pronounced [he], e.g. in <general>
<gue> is pronounced [ge], e.g. in <guerra>
<güe> is pronounced [gwe], e.g. in <nicaragüense>
<gi> is pronounced [hi], e.g. in <gítano>
<gui> is pronounced [gi], e.g. in <guitarra>
<güi> is pronounced [gwi], e.g. in <argüir>
<go> is pronounced [go], e.g. in <golfo>
<guo> is pronounced [gwo] (can't think of an example!)
<gu> is pronounced [gu], e.g. in <Guzmán>
<guu> would be pronounced [gwu] if it occurs in any word
If you want to write the sound [h] followed by one of the back vowels (a, o, u) then you have to use the letter <j>, thus:
[ha] is written <ja>, e.g. in <jabón>
[hwa] is written <jua>, e.g. in <Juárez>
[ho] is written <jo>, e.g. in <joven>
[hwo] is written <juo> (can't think of an example!)
[hu] is written <ju>, e.g. in <juventud>
[hwu] would be written <juu> if it occurs in any word
So in summary, <gu> before <a>, <o>, or <u> is always pronounced [gw], and so is <gü> before <e> or <i>, while <gu> (without the dieresis) before <e> or <i> is always pronounced as just [g].
Hope this made sense and was helpful! :)