Re: Ashamed of [T]? (fy: /T/ -> /t_d/?)

On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 08:54:45AM -0500, Sally Caves wrote:
> I'd call it "shame"; perhaps discomfort?  I'll admit to feeling
> a little silly pronouncing Spanish the Castillian way.  Cerveza and zapato
> make me feel as though I'm lisping, and having grown up with Mexican
> Spanish, it's extra work for me to remember what is an "s" and what isn't.
I swap back and forth between Latin American and Castillian
pronunciation depending on my interlocutors.  I don't know why, though.
As a non-native speaker, I could just stick with what I was taught, in
which case I sound mostly like I have a Cuban accent (no doubt tinged with
some Americanism).  But when speaking with my friend from Pamplona I
automatically drop into Castilian mode.

Fortunately, I have a very visual memory for vocabulary - whenver I
think of a word, the spelling automatically comes with it - so
*remembering* what's an 's' and what's a 'z'/'c' isn't an issue.  But
even so I have to fight a slight tendency to turn all [s]s into [T]
due to analogy (ceceo).

> I've produced similar hilarity in students I'm trying to
> teach the Welsh lateral fricative to.  But [T], I think, has more negative
> charge in many cultures.
Hilarity I can understand; the extreme negative reactions, not at all.
Besides, I think [K] is such a *fun* sound!  I don't know why [T] isn't
regarded similarly by those whose languages lack it.

-Marcos

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