Re: Spanish Pronunciation for gringos like myself

On Sat, 3 Mar 2007 22:35:19 -0500, "Daniel Hogg" <dhogg2@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"Brian Whatcott" <betwys1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4o5ku2ts7gc4ekg82kh8cgabg7ccnidtrl@xxxxxxxxxx
On Sat, 3 Mar 2007 18:40:58 -0500, "Daniel Hogg" <dhogg2@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


.... The word "focus"
has a long "o", a la the sound of the word "faux" and thus the first
syllable is usually pronounced as somewhere between the short and long
"o"
in some attempt to pronounce the word. English speakers have similar
problems with some Spanish words.

My eye finally caught this interesting exchange. The unnamed subject
of the exchange in question was the diphthong.

No. If anything, the subject was a monophthong. The word "focus" does
not
have two vowels juxtaposed making a perceived monosyllable...

I evidently didn't illustrate the idea well.
The diphthong in focus is ah and oo joined together in the first
syllable - the two vowel sounds don't need to be written, just spoken.

[mild inappropriate expeltive deleted]
. The issue was/is the correct pronunciation of words which share
letters with another language. There is no diphthong issue save in your own
mind. Let me guess - you don't speak Spanish natively.


Hmmm...you don't get it. But that's OK.
"Faux" in French does NOT pronounce like focus in English.

Brian Whatcott AltusOK

.

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