Spelling Words in Spanish
This entry is part of a list of articles I wrote for a newsletter encouraging bilingual employees to embrace their knowledge of speaking Spanish. I found the articles while going through my old files, so I wanted to share them in this format.
In the U.S., a 14 year-old boy from Indiana won the National Spelling Bee. He correctly spelled the word AUTOCHTHONOUS. It means ‘native to a land’ or ‘indigenous,’ and in Spanish the word is ‘autóctono.’
Are you aware that there is no such thing as a Spelling Bee in Spanish-speaking countries ? This of course makes sense because in Spanish we pronounce nearly every letter in each word.
There are exceptions to this rule, however. For example, in the word águila (eagle), the ‘u’ is not pronounced. The ‘u’ is not pronounced if it comes both after ‘g’ or ‘q’ and before ‘e’ or ‘i’. So the combinations ‘gui’ or ‘gue,’ as well as ‘qui’ or ‘que’ are pronounced as if the ‘u’ were missing.
If the ‘u’ should be pronounced in a word, two little dots (called a dieresis) are placed over the u: ”ü” (e.g. lingüista, vergüenza).
In Spanish, many rules and exceptions exist for proper pronunciation of words. An argument among Spanish language aficionados criticizes such exceptions and calls for reform of the Spanish language.
For example, the words tasa (rate) and pasa (pass) are spelled similarly but never confused. This is because the initial ‘t’ and ‘p’ are completely different phonetic sounds.
On the other hand, tasa (with an ‘s’ means rate) and taza (with a ‘z’ means cup) are pronounced exactly the same but they mean completely different things!
Another example, for instance: the letters ‘v’ and ‘b’ are pronounced exactly the same in Spanish. Why, the question remains, should a language have separate letters for the same sound?
We do not know how this reform proposal is going to end, bit it seems to be an interesting conversation piece. Keep in mind that many Spanish language purists believe that reforming this established language is not necessary. Although there are no spelling bees for Spanish words, maybe there should be considering the various exceptions to the spelling and pronunciation rules… at least until this reform happens.