Eliminating yod-coalescence from your Spanish pronunciation

[@augustus2834]

I'm a native Spanish speaker. But the funny thing is that watching your videos help me with my English pronunciation as you point out many aspect of the languages than many others don't even though your main goal is to teach ppl to pronounce Spanish accurately lol 😂

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm very happy that you're able to get something useful from my videos.

[@kingjimmycraftofcalderonia2017]

Well, it is alway good to think outside the box sometimes, and I guess this channel helps with English since it also shows on how most English speakers pronounce Spanish words/sentences and why they do it intentionally/unintentionally.

[@kingjimmycraftofcalderonia2017]

And to be honest, I kinda do that too by using-on how I remember it-this video for my mom to help with her English pronunciation like the English “t” and “d” are pronounced slightly different and are usually aspirated.

[@brolin96]

As a Spanish speaker and English learner, I've always felt like English is lacking letters in its alphabet. The same letter makes way too many different sounds and it kind of confuses me. Then of course, you don't need to change anything to make things easier for me. But the current alphabet does make justice to the enormous sound inventory that are part of the language.

[@M_SC]

I used to try to tell my students about “secret y” in words like educate and I had cute names for the other ones as well. Yod-coalescence is a good name too! ;) I’m glad to have the real name of this and feel quite pleased with myself that I was kind of being a linguist all by myself in the countryside of Japan with no internet back then.

[@tenminutespanish]

Yod-coalescence is nowhere near as catchy as secret y. I like it!

[@DemoKade]

I find your videos fascinating as a British English speaker (a slightly more conservative SSE speaker specifically) with some elementary Spanish who is brushing up on my French. They're interesting in themselves, but really help me think about my own pronunciation and how I learn and practice grammar. Your videos really highlight subtle differences between GA and BE on top of that, as well as keeping at the learned bits of Spanish in my brain a little active too.

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm very happy you're enjoying my videos.

[@darthmaul6446]

Another great video! Its a shame that your channel is so small, I feel like it would be so useful to so many learners.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@NoahSteckley]

I’ve been studying linguistics for years, knew about yod-coalescence, and palato-alveolar voiced fricative, and even still the “knows your name” example blew my mind. The utter disconnect between phonetic sound and the mental representation is amazing.

[@tenminutespanish]

Ya, that's really fascinating.

[@t.c.bramblett617]

This is by far the most penetrating and enlightening phonetics channel on KZbin! I am a native English speaker, but my second and "learned" language was Russian, which I took in high school and college. Now that I am studying Spanish, I find the habits of Russian introducing themselves even more than my English habits into my Spanish pronunciation for some reason, even though Russian was never my native language. In Russian, all consonants (not just dentals) are highly palatalized when followed by front vowels (in fact, it is often a phonemic contrast in Russian). My ingrained Russian pronunciation habits occasionally pop up in Spanish and the result is this effect, only even stronger. Weird. It takes me a lot of practice and concentration to avoid this effect. As an example, I have trouble avoiding pronouncing "examen" with a palatalized "m", which is how it is spoken in Russian. Anyway, thank you for all these videos!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you so much for the kind words. I'm very happy you like my videos. What you're saying regarding your Russian intruding on your Spanish is very common. I've taught students who previously studied Russian, French, Chinese, and other languages, and all of them spoke their third language with elements of their second language. I speak a bit of several other languages, and I speak them all with a Spanish accent.

[@martinkullberg6718]

This sounds interesting i'm curious how it sounds when undisturbed, i think it would sound cool a russo-spanish accent 😃

[@DesignsByTRex]

I actually had a teacher early into my Spanish learning who pointed this out! I've definitely seen this mistake by a lot of beginners moreso than advanced speakers.

[@tenminutespanish]

As hard as it is to believe, I had a conversation with a gentleman last week who has been speaking Spanish at a professional level for 35 years, and in that conversation he pronounced "gracias" like "grashus". It makes me want to pay special attention to my own pronunciation.

[@sapphoenixthefirebird5063]

Some also yod-coalesce the entire cluster /st/ into /ʃt͡ʃ/, leading to "stupid" being pronounced /ʃt͡ʃuːpɪd/ "shchoopid", which had also happened in many Slavic languages, Polish being one of the most obvious examples.

[@tenminutespanish]

Yes. I'm considering making a separate video on that subject.

[@saisaipech]

I heard some speakers of Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole in the Philippines, do yod-coalescence or palatalization. Even Spanish loanwords in Tagalog underwent palatalization. Educacion -> edukasyon. Sy is pronounced like "sh". Radio -> radyo. Dy is pronounced like "j". Sitio is pronounced as "sicho". interestingly, we Tagalogs don't do yod-coalescence for "postura", "basura", and "indibidwal" (individual). It's the same as Spanish's.

[@kingjimmycraftofcalderonia2017]

Great video! I remember a time when I was young, I used to think that the Spaniards in Spain would pronounce soft c, s, z like sh in shell; don’t know why, and don’t really speak like that since I use the ones that most Latin American dialects use. This perspective changed when I learned about the Sesseo/Thetheo dialects that Spaniards would say Gracias like “grathias,” and not “grashias.”

[@FranciscoTornay]

That's because "s" in Northern (not Southern) Spain "s" is pronounced as a retracted s, If you're interested, here's a video that explains the retracted s sound, its history in several languages , including PIE Latin, ancient and modern Greek, Old and modern Spanish and much more: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKLFh2mYgdV2Y7c

[@dutchgirl2]

Would love to see a drawing where to place my tong to make the perfect sound.

[@laurenc5306]

Wow, this is something I never would've thought of! Thank you!!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you! I'm very glad you liked the video.

[@beckygreenberg4283]

¡conciso y muy bien hecho!

[@tenminutespanish]

Gracias!!

[@MotoM0nk]

I was using LinQ and listening to native speakers (news) and noted that CC is pronounced TH. LECCION or FACIL or PRINCIPIO Also S in some cases pronounced unlike english S, but a bit unlcearly like INCLUSO or PASO

[@tenminutespanish]

Yes, in Spain ce, ci, and z are pronounced like English voiceless "th", and s is apical. I have a video in that here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npO3mmxpbZefmKs

[@cronkitepercussion]

Now THIS is hardcore gold!! Gracias 🤠

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm so happy you liked the video

[@bugsworth6942]

I just realised, I don't think I've ever made one of these mistakes.

[@martinkullberg6718]

I was told that someone heared some englishman speaking sonewhat like this : coamoa ezta? The dondee erez? Estaymoz the loz eztadoz yuneedoz , yoa abloa ezpañol etc. I dont mind though, I like diffrent pronounciations ,but this for me mabe is difficult to understand

[@rebekahraines8369]

Love this!! Thank you for your fantastic content! So helpful!!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you! I'm so happy you liked the video.

[@nihaokellar180]

In my school in the US, our teachers never corrected this and just let us pronounce 'nosotros' as 'nosochros.'

[@tenminutespanish]

You're right. That's a similar form of palatalization that I'll make a video about someday.

[@saisaipech]

I tried pronouncing nosotros (with american english r) and nosochros (also with american english r). the latter is much easier to pronounce most probably because ch and american english r have nearer place of articulation (both near the roof palate) than t and american english r

[@ElectricChaplain]

Thanks for bringing this up. I've heard other Spanish students do this with -ción and it makes me cringe. I probably do it myself too, so I'll need to pay attention.

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm glad you liked the video!

[@bugsworth6942]

1:48 I laughed so hard at this. Referring to phase, the first thing that came to mind was a child going through a phase XD.

[@mle3699]

Another great video. ¡Gracias!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you! I'm happy you liked the video.

[@frankm.d1479]

Bro.. But have you come across the people that pronounce "mature" with NO yod coalescence...OMG I have never been so frustrated in my life!! lol

[@saisaipech]

Just heard awhile ago spanish speaker from a certain KZbin channel yod-coalesce or palatalize the c in "-cion". It's not really similar to the postalveolar sh sound. It's only palatalized and it doesn't require the rounding of the lips like in the postalveolar sh sound. It also says in the About that the speaker is from Peru. Peruvian spanish probably palatalizes the c in cion.

[@tenminutespanish]

Can you link it for me? I would be very interested in hearing it and trying to tease out an explanation for it.

[@saisaipech]

@@tenminutespanish Here it is. Short intro about it. MS Excel tutorial in Spanish kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6aro4x7mpx-sKs

[@sergiantonisilvaylerin6592]

Good video👍, but I have to tell you, a Spaniard🇪🇸 would tell you= with ENGLISH accent: ... Are you Portuguese? (S, 🇵🇹sound) and with LATAM Sp accent:... of course! you are from the USA🇺🇸, a British🇬🇧 will always say "GraTHias" (C = TH as in Thing : Spain's Standard)😉

[@callous21]

I wonder who asked about coalescence. Had to have been a linguistics student

[@tenminutespanish]

I just came up with it. The previous week I had a conversation with a guy who had 35 years of experience speaking Spanish in a professional setting and in many ways spoke excellent Spanish. At the conclusion of our conversation he said "gracias", but he pronounced it "grashas". I thought a bit about why he would have said it that way, and from there I came up with a lesson on yod-coalescence.

[@indiamarispereira6944]

The person speaking is a Spaniard?

[@tenminutespanish]

I am a native speaker of American English, and I speak Latin American Spanish.

[@indiamarispereira6944]

@@tenminutespanish I am impressed with your diction in both languages, Spanish is your heritage language?

[@tenminutespanish]

@@indiamarispereira6944 Thank you for your kind words. I learned Spanish as a second language about 35 years ago.

[@espartaco2028]

Honestly, I have not yet earned ANY right to say this but, I´m old and smart so, I´ll venture. I believe the best way, more likely way, (ONLY way¿?) to remove the glotal stop and the Yod-coalescense is by having a native Spanish-speaking lover or best friend, something I desperately hope to have one day. There is a face-to-face sharing of the billions of normally filtered particules of information which audio-recordings cannot transcend as of this writing. I´m often very jealous of simple men who find such a relationship and although their intelligence doesn´t warrant their success, they are noneless extremely successful with something we covet. I believe it is possible to TRADE accents with a language partner but, I don´t have that field experience for proof.