Re: Future of Spanish

Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote (days ago):

> Carlos Thompson wrote:
> >   Posible split of the /B/ into [B] and [v] based on orthography
> > (counter correction of speech).
>
> I suspect that that's rather unlikely.  I don't know of any examples of
> phonemes being introduced into a language from the orthography.
>
Ooh, ooh! I remembered something about this. Not a new
phoneme, though, but a sound that isn't supposed to be
there.

As you now, the "h" is silent in Spanish in all positions.
It doesn't even count for syllable division and can't break
a diphthong. Nevertheless, I constantly hear people doing
something strange to words like "anhelar" and "inhibir"
with a mid-syllable <h>. Most of them pronounce /an.ne'lar/
and /in.ni'Bir/. In some cases, I think I've heard a /N/
in there. A sound is being pronounced just because of the
written form of a word. Also, the middle <h> in "prohibir"
tends to break the diphthong.


--Pablo Flores

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