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How do you pronounce the name Arantzazu? It's a Basque feminine name.
"Between fact and breakfast, madness lies"
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In Basque any A sounds [a] (AH) and any U sounds [u] (OO). The letter Z indicates a sound like the English S (not like the Spanish S, with is represented by S in Basque, too) and TZ indicates the compound sound of this S with a T. The R is an alveolar flap, just like the simple R between vowels in Spanish (cara, mira).
About the stress, the main stress is over the second syllable and there is a secondary stress over the last syllable. So, more or less: ah-RAHN-tsah-,soo (, represents the secondary stress).
About the stress, the main stress is over the second syllable and there is a secondary stress over the last syllable. So, more or less: ah-RAHN-tsah-,soo (, represents the secondary stress).
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Lumia, I'm just curious, could you clarify the difference between the Spanish and English /s/? I wasn't aware there was a significant difference there.
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The Spanish (and Catalan and Basque) S is an apicoalveolar fricative (with the end of the tongue on the alveols); the English S (and Basque Z) is a laminodental fricative (the sound is produce with the blade of the tongue).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_alveolar_fricative
It is one of the erroneous pronunciations that identify most of Spanish speakers when speaking English and viceversa (the other one is the Spanish T and D versus the English T and D).
Because of the influence of some languages in American Spanish, in some of the Spanish dialects in America the S can be pronounced as the English S, but that is not the standard (and original) pronunciation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_alveolar_fricative
It is one of the erroneous pronunciations that identify most of Spanish speakers when speaking English and viceversa (the other one is the Spanish T and D versus the English T and D).
Because of the influence of some languages in American Spanish, in some of the Spanish dialects in America the S can be pronounced as the English S, but that is not the standard (and original) pronunciation.
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Thanks, that's very helpful. I was aware of the difference in articulation of the Spanish vs. English /t/ and /d/, but not the /s/. And most interesting that in Basque the difference between the two is phonemic. Thanks a lot!
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