Wednesday, November 23, 2011

RRRR YOU RRRREADY?

So...
I’m continuing to learn how to speak Spanish…
With all its nuances…
Like tongue placements…
Specifically, when saying certain letters of the alphabet…
Like “R”.
I’ve never had to think about “R” before…
Or where my tongue is in my mouth.
When I use an “R” in English…
The most I do is move is squeeze my chin down and purse my lower lip…
Keeping my tongue still at the bottom of my mouth.
But Spanish requires a lot more tongue movement.
For instance, “R” at the beginning of a word…
Gets rolled like  rrrrolled.
If “R”is in the middle of the word…
It gets a quick snap of the tongue past the teeth…
And up to the roof of the mouth.
And then there’s “D”…
That in Spanish gets a “th” sound…
But with the tongue sticking further out between the teeth.
“N” with an accent has the whole tongue pressed to the roof of the mouth
Like what you do when trying to get peanut butter unstuck.
Hmm?
Is it just me?
Or when you learned a new language…
Did your tongue have trouble...
Finding its place?

 Always, Em-Musing

5 comments:

Constance Phillips said...

I love hearing about how you're immersing yourself in your new home. When I took Spanish in college (Didn't do well overall) I loved those little things you're talking about.

farawayeyes said...

Amazing how it will come to you when you need it. Learned that a fee weeks ago in the Dominican Republic. Nobody spoke English. Of course, we stay away from the fancy resorts. It was fun and interesting. You know me always looking for the next adventure.

You know what's good exercise for all that Spanish tongue work? Think romance languages.

Misha Gerrick said...

I usually don't, since I'm sort of a natural at languages and accents, but one I did have was the mandarin chinese R. It involves bending the sides of your tongue up so that it forms a U-shape and THEN making an R similar to the one in English at the same time.

Talli Roland said...

Wow, well done for learning Spanish! I quite like learning a new language!

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