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Sorry, but that is just wrong
in reply to a message by ADT
The Y in Spanish (in Spain and in the rest of locations where Spanish is spoken) doesn't sound like an English J or like a French J. Here you have recorded sounds (for English and for Spanish):http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#Try to hear first the Spanish Y (ficativa, and the symbol is like a j) and immediately the English J (afrricate, voiced) and you will notice that they are very different.
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
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Or perhaps, since you are Polish,you are refering to the Polish J. In that case, your affirmation would be correct.
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My background is Polish, I've lived in Madrid as a child. Spanish is my first language.
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You lived in Madrid from 4 years old to 8 years old. The first 4 years you lived in Poland and later you lived in Canada, right? It is clear that Spanish is not your first language and I think that neither one of your familiar languages.Some time ago, for instance, you affirmed in this board that in Spanish Albert was pronounced AL-bert. If Spanish was your first language (meaning main language) you would know perfectly: a) the form Albert is not Spanish at all, but Alberto is the form; b) it is pronounced al-BER-toh (which shows that it was not a typo when you wrote the supposed correct pronunciation).And now that. The English J is not a sound of the Spanish, as you can see (if you are unable to hear the difference) in all the bibliography about Spanish dialectology and Spanish phonology. Saying that the Y in Spanish is (or can be) pronounced as the English J shows me not only that Spanish is not your first language, but that your knowledge of this language is not as fluent as you say.
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