Pronunciation

[Sir_Carnifex]

Ah jan tis. American English our j's use a hard pronunciation. It would appear to be that the Latin based languages pronounce a j like a y.

I thought only Spanish did that, correct me?

I know Spanish does. I believe the others like Italian, Romanian and Portuguese are the same? I am sure I'll be corrected if I am wrong.

In Spanish, the "J" has the sound of an "H", as in Horse. Hence, Jalapeno (Ha-lah- pe-nyo). I don't know how many times I've heard it pronounced Jolla-pea-noh.

 

To get the "Y" sound, you put two "L's" together. Pollo (Poy-yoh).

[Gabrielle]

Oh that's right.

 

Chicken.

[-JW-]

Hello, I'm Spanish.

 

I couldn't say for sure what kind of sound does the "H" from "Horse" have, but if it's something like the "H" from "Hello", our "J" is definitely not like that

 

I'd tend to agree with Miloch, in that it is a hard "H", kind of like the german "ch" in "Loch" (is it Miloch pronounced that way too, btw?).

 

As for the "Y" sound, we indeed have it, as well as the letter itself in many words, such as in the verb conjugation "vaya" (from the verb "ir", or "to go" in English). Nowadays it is very hard to tell the different between a "Y" and a double "L", but these two sounds used to be quite different. As I understand, and can remember vaguely, the first was like a regular latin "I", with a tendency to a soft double "L", kind in between both (I find it the same as the English "Y" by the way, but it could be just me). The double "L" then would sound like a stronger "Y", with more tongue emphasis on the roof of the mouth, I'd say getting closer to what the English "J" sounds like.

 

Anyhow, these two sounds now have been merged into one, although I'm too old, or to young, to say which one has enveloped the other. A similar situation has happened with our "B" and "V".

 

The truth is that, officially or not, some words are being buried in the sands of simplicity and forgetfulness. Perhaps this is one reason why our correct grammar is slowly being lost amongst our youngsters... it can be hard to say how to write a word if two letters have the same sound.

 

I don't know why I wrote all this. I think I just needed to write something. Thanks for reading.

[jastey]

I pronounce Ajantis the German way: like Atlantis, and the "j" pronounced as "y". (I mean the German pronounciation of "Atlantis", now that makes it clear..)

[Sir_Carnifex]

Hello, I'm Spanish.

 

I couldn't say for sure what kind of sound does the "H" from "Horse" have, but if it's something like the "H" from "Hello", our "J" is definitely not like that

 

I'd tend to agree with Miloch, in that it is a hard "H", kind of like the german "ch" in "Loch" (is it Miloch pronounced that way too, btw?).

Ok, so Spanish as in from Spain...? Because I understand that there are differences in the Spanish spoken there and that spoken in Mexico. That could explain the two different explanations of how the H sounds.

[-JW-]

Yes, you're completely right. I'm quite sure Mexicans pronounce it as you have said. Moreover, even in Spain itself, if you hail from where I live now, the south, people pronounce it that way too.

 

I guess I was a bit blinded by what I consider the right pronunciation, being born in the north and all.

 

Mystery solved