Re: Request for help, Spanish

Carlos Thompson wrote:
> As I've read (but I'm unable to hear or even know if I pronounce it that
> way) is that [A] is realized in open syllabes, while [a] is realized in
> closed syllabes (syllabes ending in consontant).
Mil gracias, so it's the same as [e]/[E] and [o]/[O], then?

The reason I'm asking is that syllable-final /s/ is dropped, spliting
the /e/, /o/, and /a/ phonemes, so that, for instance, chica/chicas
which is now ['tSikA]/['tSikas] would become ['tSikA]/['tSika], same
with chico/chicos, which, IIRC, has already happened in some dialects.
I needed to know what other situations /a/ would appear in.  Since
clusters like /nd/ simplify to /n/, this would probably also happen with
words like "anda" [andA] -> [an:A] -> [anA] (I'm wondering if the
English substrate might raise [a] to [&]?)

> In my dialect both are pronounced [j\], a fricative version of [j].  I know
> is not a [j] (because _hierba_ is contrasted whit _yerba_)
Then the {h} in words like "hierba" actually as a use!?  So there is a
phonemic contrast between /j/ and /j\], then?

> I guess Mexicans have the same pronunciation, but after neither Esperanto
> nor English have a voiced palatal fricative, I guess the sound can orbit
> towards [j] (intervocalic) and [dZ] (begining of word).
I was considering /Z/

> Proposed change: [sju'DaD] -> [sju'D_aa] -> [sju'a] -> [Su'a] -> [Swa]
> (where [D_a] is an alveolar [D] or a non-sylibiant [z], already present in
> my dialect).
That's similar to what I was considering before.

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