This Cartesian Spanish Pronunciation Lesson began as an eBook and now is free and it is this…
English emphasizes
CONSONANTS over VOWELS.
Spanish emphasizes
VOWELS over CONSONANTS.
That’s it, very simple, but profound.
If you speak English and are learning Spanish or any other language in the world, you need to learn and practice the Cartesian Spanish Pronunciation Lesson (The CSPL).
Why is it called “Spanish Pronunciation?”
The CSPL does not teach you Spanish. It uses Spanish to explain the distinction between the way North American English is pronounced and how all other languages, including Spanish and ironically UK, South African, and Australian English are pronounced.
The CSPL works in both directions.
English as spoken in North America (the US and Canada) emphasizes consonants over vowels whereas Spanish and every other language in the world, including English spoken elsewhere, emphasizes vowels over consonants.
The CSPL also helps you if you speak Spanish, or any other language in the world, and are learning English. But for the sake of clarity and simplicity, we’ll focus on one direction in terms of learning, from English to Spanish.
The CSPL asks and answers the most fundamental question about learning Spanish: Why does Spanish sound so different than English? As a student of Spanish you are asked to do a very difficult thing, learn a new language without learning why that language (or any other) sounds so totally different from English, the language you know (or vice versa, if you are learning English).
The CSPL doesn’t teach you Spanish. It teaches you why Spanish may be so hard to learn and how to use that fact to your advantage. It teaches you how to learn…how to learn…Spanish.
In general, the more clearly you can perceive distinctions, the more powerful your perception will be. This is helpful in any discipline — art, science, philosophy, etc. Therefore, the better you understand what is going on with fundamental pronunciation in a given language, the better equipped you’ll be to learn and comprehend words in your target language as well as repeat them and use them fluently.
The following example is the core of The CSPL, namely that English hits all consonants harder and dismisses vowels, whereas Spanish (etc.) focuses on vowels and swallows consonants. Spanish has 5 and only 5 vowel sounds — Ah, Eh, EE, Oh, OO — they never change. English, however, has 14 vowel sounds or up to 20 depending on a person’s accent or dialect.
Let’s look at the word “Cat.” It consists of 2 consonants and 1 vowel, and in this case the a is the æ sound which you should know as an English speaker. It’s not the “long a” in “take” (the one that says its name) or the “short a” in “saw.” It’s the same sound as in “bat,” “at,” “hat,” and so on. If we look at The CSPL in action and display it graphically, meaning written out, it would look like this:
English — CaT
That’s how any American or Canadian would say “cat.” Now, pretend that you’re a native Spanish speaker, but one who has studied English long enough to know the correct æ vowel sound to make for the word “cat.” But, as a Spanish speaker you de-emphasize the consonants and instead, you emphasize the one vowel sound in this word. So, displayed graphically, that word would sound/look like this:
Spanish — cAt
You may know that the Spanish word for cat is “gato.” If you’re our hypothetical Spanish speaker, that word would sound/look like this:
Spanish — gAtO
Or to exaggerate a little bit, it would sound like “gAhhhhh-tOhhhhh.” However, if you’ve been around any Spanish language class you may recognize the phenomenon at work when an English speaker tries to say this word without fully exercising the distinction that The CSPL teaches. It would sound/look like this:
English — GaTo
Assuming that this person correctly pronounced the unique Spanish vowel sounds correctly (Ah, Oh) this would be understandable, but it sounds harsh or clunky. It sounds like an American accent. This is what virtually every American high school Spanish student does to the phrase “¿Donde esta la biblioteca?” Or to display it graphically, “¿DoNDe eSTa La BiBLioTeCa?”
Eliminate bad habits from the beginning.
Again, The CSPL doesn’t teach Spanish, English or any other language. It teaches you the mechanical distinction in the difference in basic pronunciation between English and the rest of languages. The CSPL does not address the 14 English vowel sounds, or the many French vowel sounds, or the additional Spanish consonants like the “LL” or the “CH.”
Likewise, The CSPL is not about the syllabic accenting that occurs in all words in any given language, such as in the word “Apple” (‘APP-ul,’ vs. ‘app-UL’) or “Manzana” (‘man-Za-na,’ vs. ‘MAN-za-na,’ or ‘man-za-NA’).
Those particular accents or emphases are the domain of vocabulary and learning grammar in your target language. However, not knowing the The CSPL makes it extra difficult to acquire that vocabulary or learn grammar in that target language. The alternative is the phenomenon that can be called “Learning Your Version of the Language” and it’s one of the biggest bad habits all students face.
Learn…how to learn…
If you can master this fundamental distinction before you get too far into learning Spanish, you’ll successfully avoid Learning Your Version of Spanish and instead, you’ll be able to hear, comprehend, and learn the real thing. Even if you’re already fluent in Spanish, The CSPL will help you improve your accent and eliminate it, if that’s something you want.
This is the secret to learning Spanish because it unlocks the difference between the language you know and the language you’re learning, forevermore.
If you like The Cartesian Spanish Pronunciation Lesson and have found it helpful in your language learning, please consider making a donation to help keep the lesson available and free.