[Ansteorra] Pronunciation...

Jane Sitton jane.sitton at radioshack.com
Wed Jul 11 11:20:20 PDT 2001


Well.... that would depend upon your time & location.  Castillians (but from
what time period, I don't know) at some point started pronouncing all "s"
sounds as a "th" due to some royal having a lisp, I've heard.  I don't know
if this story is true, but I have met a person from that area who does have
this speech pattern.  All other Spaniards, I presume, pronounce the cedilla
(the "c" with a tail) as an "s".

[Main Entry: ce·dil·la   Pronunciation: si-'di-l&  Function: noun
Etymology: Spanish, the obsolete letter ç (actually a medieval form of the
letter z), cedilla, from diminutive of ceda, zeda the letter z, from Late
Latin zeta -- more at ZED  Date: 1599  : the diacritical mark ¸ placed under
a letter (as ç in French) to indicate an alteration or modification of its
usual phonetic value (as in the French word façade) -- Merriam-Webster
Online dictionary]

Madelina de Lyndesaye

-----Original Message-----
From: Christine Huse [mailto:maria_elfsea at hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 1:08 PM
To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Ansteorra] Pronunciation...


Hola!

I will soon be changing my last name (when it gets approved) from "de
Vasquez" to "Cabeça de Vaca".

My question is this....How do you pronounce the "ç"? Is it pronounced as a
"k" or a soft "th"? Or is there a different pronunciation altogether?

I have 1 very small pocket Spanish dictionary and a text book for learning
Spanish. Neither of them have the pronunciation for this particular letter
in the Spanish language?

Maria



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