Pronouncing Spanish Diphthongs (corrected)

The original version of this video had a single typo that I have corrected in this version.
On this channel I make videos on topics in Spanish language and linguistics. Mostly phonetics and phonology, but also dialectology, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics. Many of my videos come from questions asked by viewers in the comment section.
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Track; LAKEY INSPIRED - In My Dreams
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[@beckygreenberg4283]

Your format is great--10 minutes--and you packed it up well, but not overloaded. Thank you

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@JuanMoreno-wo5yb]

Estoy de acuerdo!! 😊

[@ashtarbalynestjar8000]

Just a comment. A large number of Spanish speakers, even some with the most neutral pronunciation possible, do break up some diphthongs into hiatuses, what Hualde calls “hiatos excepcionales”, but the official orthography has been gradually marking it less and less since 1959 and decided to fully ignore it in 2010. This distinction is preserved almost completely in northern Spain, even in informal speech. In Latin America there seems to be a south to north gradient, with it being more common in Argentina and Chile and almost completely gone in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. First of all, their distribution. They can only occur either immediately preceding the stressed syllable, or with the stress on the second vowel. They occur most frequently in conjugated forms of verbs that alternate with other hiatuses. Third conjugation verbs with hiatus in the infinitive (reír, oír, huir, etc.; despite what the orthography indicates, nobody says /wir/) often retain the syllable break in the future and conditional, so oiré can and does often have three syllables in native speech. Then, there are a number of verbs in ‐iar and ‐uar where the root stress is on the high vowel, like envía, guía and actúa; these can keep their syllable break when the stress moves to the first vowel of the ending: envié [embiˈe], guiar [ɡiˈaɾ], actuamos [aktuˈamos]. This is what the 2010 spelling reform was about: verbs in the preterite like guie, lio, crio, hui, etc. are actually disyllabic for most neutral speakers, but they’re now treated as if they were monosyllabic for orthographical purposes. A minimal pair is pie [pje] ‘foot’ vs. pie [piˈe] ‘I chirped’. (I’m from northern Mexico, so only ‐uir verbs and the so‐called “orthographical monosyllables” have hiatuses for me, the rest are all diphthongal.) Nouns and adjectives coming from stems containing a final ‐i or ‐u may also keep them syllabic: virtual [biɾtuˈal], dueto [duˈeto], santuario [santuˈaɾjo], guion [ɡiˈon], viable [biˈaβle], criada [kɾiˈaða], diurno [diˈuɾno]. Words with the prefixes bio‐, dia‐, di‐, and tri‐ can also have hiatuses when the stress falls on the vowel immediately following the high vowel: biólogo [biˈoloɣo], diablo [diˈaβlo], diámetro [diˈametɾo], dióxido [diˈoksiðo], triángulo [triˈaŋɡulo]. (I use diphthongs for all of these, but I have heard them pronounced with hiatuses by speakers from Spain and South America). And finally, there’s a few scattered cases that don’t really fit any of these categories: piano [piˈano], liana [liˈana], diana [diˈana], ruido [ruˈiðo], ruina [ruˈina], cliente [kliˈente], cruel [kɾuˈel], prior [pɾiˈoɾ], embrión [embɾiˈon], etc. And finally, we get to the one case where the current orthography still somehow preserves a trace of this distinction. One of the very few words that begins with an exceptional hiatus is the word hiato [iˈato] itself. If this word is to be pronounced [ˈjato] with an initial consonant, like I do, and like the RAE seems to endorse nowadays, the copulative conjunction before it should be written “y”. But in northern Spain, it’s actually pronounced with an initial /i/: diptongos e hiatos. Case in point: this tweet from the official RAE account, literally linking to an explanation of the 2010 spelling reform: twitter.com/raeinforma/status/828559265912729600

[@tenminutespanish]

Very interesting! Thank you!

[@Muysc_quyne]

As a Colombian speaker from Bogotá, I keep discovering words that I pronounce with hiatus but that are supposed to have diphthongs... I say ar.cá.i.co, he.ró.i.co, o.i.ré, dé.u.da... 😮 I remember I had a class in which I didn't agree with the rules for marking the stress because I hadn't realized my stress was not the standard 😂...

[@square_wheel]

Good comment. I'm a native speaker from Spain, and while I pronounce piano, liana, diana, cliente, cruel, prior & embrión with hiatuses, I use diphthongs in ruido & ruina. However I use a hiatus in "ruin" (according to the 2010 orthography, without an accent, but it's two syllables for me, I'd want to write "ruín")

[@margog9604]

Holy smokes. I can't believe that in all my many years of learning Spanish, no teacher or mentor has ever explained how to correctly pronounce diphthongs or mentioned that I was absolutely butchering them. Thank you so much for posting this content. I do have a question on the word "Euro." I'm sure I was taught to say E-ur-o (three syllables). No??

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for your compliments and comments. To answer your question, no. It is not e-u-ro. It is two syllables [éw.ro]

[@margog9604]

Wow. A whole new world. Thank you. @@tenminutespanish

[@yvvxn]

The phonetic transcriptions are actually really useful for the sounds in spanish.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you. Be careful, though. I sometimes make mistakes. My transcriptions aren't perfect.

[@aubud1261]

gran leccion ,mucha gracias

[@ATLsOwn]

Wow! This CLEARLY makes a difference... Thanks!

[@tenminutespanish]

So glad it helped!

[@erlsonarreola3813]

This is exactly what I need!

[@ZhivagoDoctor]

lo mejor de lo mejor!

[@tenminutespanish]

Gracias!

[@loopernow]

This video gave me hope that I might learn how to pronounce "Lafourcade," the famous Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade's last name. Then I realized her last name is from French. Then I found a video where she introduces herself (a "What's In My Bag" video series entry) and pronounces her last name like "La-fur-cad-e" so...definitely not following the rules of dipthongs, since the weak vowel is stressed. Just thought this exception that proves the rule might be interesting to people out there.

[@candlespotlight]

Excellent video! Thank you! One thing though- I thought the last d in “ciudad” was pronounced [ð]. Have I been wrong all this time? Is there a regional difference, does it vary, or is only one of those two correct? Also, do you accept donations? EDIT: added that last question onto this comment rather than having to make a new comment

[@tenminutespanish]

You are 100% correct. The final /d/ in ciudad is [ð]. That was just a typo. Sadly, I make errors in phonetic transcription. I wish there were a spell checker for phonetic transcription. I have no way of accepting donations at this time. Thank you for offering, though!

[@SeongCastle]

The final D has multiple pronunciations, the standard is /D/ (I can't write that letter), but is not uncommon hearing the final D as /d/, /t/ and sometimes just ignore there is a D at the end (ex: Madrid -> Madrí)

[@orfrisbee2121]

Me ayudaste mejorar muchisímo mi pronunciación con tus vídeos, creo que sería interesante si harías un vídeo explicando cuando empezaste aprender español y por qué y qué te fue dificil en el proceso de aprender

[@tenminutespanish]

Me alegra muchísimo saber que te hayan ayudado mis videos. Por lo general, no me gusta hacer videos acerca de mí mismo, pero te haré esta promesa. Cuando este canal llegue a 50,000 suscriptores, haré un video acerca de mi vida, cómo y dónde aprendí español, en qué países he vivido, cuándo, y qué hice allí, etc. Y hablaré acerca de mis desafíos personales con respecto a la lengua, y cómo los superé. Sólo faltan 46,000 suscriptores.

[@johnharlowslophentoophilin494]

Time to make 46,000 different accounts and subscribe with each of them.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@johnharlowslophentoophilin494 That would be awesome!

[@gcyrus25]

@@tenminutespanish no entiendo por qué no tienes más de 100k seguidores ya. este contenido es puro oro. gracias por todoooo lo que haces!

[@tenminutespanish]

@@gcyrus25 Gracias, amigo!

[@dgoins6]

Here's a tricky one . Aún vs aun. I've listened to it from various native speakers and it is a subtle change between ah Un and own (not the English own, but ow with an N). Aún is the adverb and aun is the conjunction.

[@tenminutespanish]

Yup. Very interesting case. One is a diphthong, the other is a hiatus.

[@campjon1]

Super helpful video! Why is the "ui" pronounced differently in "guisado" (ee) and "cuidado" (wee)?

[@tenminutespanish]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you liked the videos. In the gui and gue combinations, the u is silent. Similarly in the qui and que combinations, the u is silent. This has nothing to do with phonetics, though. This is strictly orthography.

[@Martin-kh9zg]

Hi, I had a question regarding "aun" and "aún". For some reason, I assumed that the word "aun" without an accent would sound rhyme with "down," however I hear it as "aaa-OON" and practically a homophone with "aún" For instance: vendía has 3 syllables , but if it didn't have an accent hypothetically it would be "BEN-DYA" instead of "BEN-DI-A" . My question was asking why this doesn't apply to aún and aun. I would assume "aun" without an accent would be pronounced as if it was "áun." The Real Academía Española mentions that the correct way to pronounce it is to distinguish both. (Pronouncing aun (sin tilde) as "áun") The Real Academía Española says, "El adverbio aún /aun puede pronunciarse en español como una palabra tónica con hiato: [a.ún] (No la he visto aún); o como una palabra átona con diptongo: [aun] (Aun cuando sea verdad, no te creerán). Como reflejan los ejemplos, la forma bisílaba tónica debe escribirse con tilde, mientras que la forma monosílaba átona se escribe sin ella." I would assume the "head of the Spanish language" the (Real Academía Española) would be correct above all. However, I haven't heard any speakers pronounce it how they mentioned it, but instead pronounce aún and aun both like aún? TLDR: Why isn't the AU in "aun" without an accent, not pronounced with a diphthong when it should be?

[@chicopluma]

It is indeed mispronunciation. Saying it out loud I'm noticing that I speak too fast and fuse "aun" with the next word, similar to "aunque" and when I try spaeking slower I end up disjointing "a-un" and put an emphasis on the "un".

[@poleag]

8:16 The way you pronounce the "eu" in europa and deuda sounds like two syllables, but it sounds like one syllable in neutro.

[@driksarkar6675]

Should the “uy,” as in “uy” and “muy,” be considered a separate diphthong [uj], or is it the same as “ui” as in “fui” [wi]?

[@tenminutespanish]

The uy of "muy" is different because the stress is on the u. "Muy" is [múi], while "fui" is [fuí].

[@HK-cq6yf]

@@tenminutespanish So Y is an exception since it is a consonant, even though it is pronounced [i] in word final? It still becomes a diphthong across word boundaries, right? Like "muy enojada" would be [mu-je-no-xá-đa]?

[@tenminutespanish]

@@HK-cq6yf can't function as the nucleus of a syllable. In "fui", is the nucleus of the syllable [fwí]. can't do that. But, yes, can function as a glide or semivowel in a diphthong.

[@liliareyes7252]

Hi Do you have any worksheets ? It would be very helpful when teaching Spanish. Please let me know if I can give them somewhere. Thanks !

[@tenminutespanish]

Sorry, no worksheets. All my material is in these videos.

[@chocofro3]

So "prefieres" would be pronounced pre-fjer-es? I recall a native speaker mentioning it to a Spanish learner how his pronunciation in prefieres, among other words was a giveaway to sounding less native but they didn't know how to explain it as well as this. They told him that he, and most other English speakers put too much emphasis on the "eres" whereas they would put it more on the entirety of the "fie". I don't recall where he was native too however and wondered if that would change from speaker to speaker.

[@tenminutespanish]

You've got the right idea for sure. The syllabification is pre-fjé-res. I think a lot of Americans break up the diphthong into pre-fi-e-res. So, they say fi-e when it should be fje. Maybe that's what the person was talking about.

[@chocofro3]

@@tenminutespanish I believe so. Thanks for such a great channel dedicated to these fine grammatical details.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@chocofro3 Thank you for your kind words. I'm very happy you liked the video.

[@someonerandom704]

Que era lo equivocado del video anterior?

[@tenminutespanish]

Escribí la palabra "acuoso" con q en vez de c.

[@someonerandom704]

@@tenminutespanish btw muestro tu canal a instructores de español y les gustan mucho tus vídeos

[@tenminutespanish]

@@someonerandom704 Por favor, no mientas. Ni a mí me gustan mis videos. Son muy aburridos. ☺

[@someonerandom704]

@@tenminutespanish Un consejo: nos gustan tus vídeos, y a ti también te deberían gustar. No son aburridos, nos encanta escuchar tu voz y explicaciones rigurosas. Cómo te puedes crecer el canal cuando no te gustan tus vídeos? Quieres 50k subs (algo que pienso que mereces), pero tienes que disfrutar el camino.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@someonerandom704 Gracias por el aliento. Me alegro mucho de que te gusten mis videos.

[@Cesarc2]

U some times is silent

[@tenminutespanish]

Yes. See this very video at 9:28

[@atallah-dc2bx]

u̯

[@njwojc16]

Great job. Ref bonus section - I am struggling with the ou combination with ´Compro una casa - [ 'kom.pɾou.na 'ka.s̺a ] and the ¨Compró una casa - [ kom.'pɾóu.na 'ka.s̺a ] when the first and second words start combining together. I have heard it said a few different ways - thanks for your great job.