Where I live in San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia the “s” sound in words is inclined to disappear.  I have now got used to hearing “ma o meno” for “más o menos”, although the first time I heard it when I arrived from northern Spain it was a bit of a culture shock.  Another interesting fact about Spanish pronunciation in general, is that there are no words that start with “sp”, “sl” “sk” or “st” – of which of course there are thousands in English.  Their equivalents in Spanish always start with an “e” – estación, escribir, España.   Now all that explains why the other day I was told how important “elogane” are in marketing.  Think about it!   If you want to test this phenomenon out for yourself, ask your Spanish friend to pronounce the word “Schrek”.  The result is quite interesting!

Pandereta means “tambourine” of the sort my children used to carry when dressed in their traditional costumes in our village fiestas.  They would chant the local folk songs and bang on the “panderetas” with strident voices.  A while ago I heard the expression:  “España es un país de pandereta” spoken by someone on a radio phone-in programme.

The gentleman concerned was a pensioner who said that a few days previously his pensioners club had been raided by police for playing “illegal” bingo.  Each pensioner had paid 10 cents per card and there was a kitty of 22 euros.  The police confiscated the bingo set and kitty, and took the names and identity numbers of all the pensioners.  I can just imagine the scene, can’t you?

His conclusion to the story was to complain that Spain is “un país de pandereta” – in other words a country not to be taken seriously on the international stage, or words to that effect!

The Spanish have several phrases to represent the idea of empty words and empty promises.  “Vender humo” (selling smoke) is one.  This is the activity of a person who “vive del cuento” (makes a living from storytelling).  These phrases always make me think of those “charlatans” (also a Spanish word) who used to sell miracle cures in the Wild West.  I’ve met a few of them here as well, like the man at a exhibition who tried to sell me a gadget to keep the air clean in my house.  Well, he wasn’t selling smoke anyway.

We have now arrived at the third of our vowels, that is, the letter I.  Just like the other four vowel sounds, the I is a short single sound, in this case made with the lips pulled out to either side.  The resulting vowel is longer and more open than the English “i” as in the word “it”, and shorter than our “ee” as in the word “eat”.  You may have noticed than Spanish speakers of English have problems differentiating between these two English sounds, confusing “fillings” with “feelings”, “ship” with “sheep” or “sin” with “seen”.  This is because in Spanish only the one I sound exists.

We can find this letter at the beginnings, middles and ends of words, where it always maintains the same quality.  It is also frequently found linked to other vowels, such as in the words aire or seis.  In these cases the I sound is preserved intact, but as it follows straight on from the A or E in the word, it appears to change the overall sound.  This effect is called a diphthong, meaning a double vowel sound.

Well, I know I have a bit of an obsession about “spanglish”.  It’s not that I disapprove of including foreign words in Spanish, in fact I think it is part of the normal development of languages worldwide.  However, these gems do tend to catch my eye, or my ear, on a daily basis.

Here’s oneI came across last year which I think for the moment wins the prize.  Yes, on 31st December last year, the traditional date for “San Silvestre” races around the country, San Pedro del Pinatar hosted its first “nordicwalkeando san silvestre” race in Lo Pagán.  If you don’t believe me, you may refer to www.nordicwalkeando.com for confirmation.

“If you want to you can” or “to want is to be able”.  A good positive phrase but I heard this spoken by the great Rafa Nadal recently in a slightly different way.    He said “Querer no es siempre poder” (Wanting isn’t always being able) when he was knocked out of the London Masters Cup.  He bounced back a couple of weeks later though in the Davis Cup final – Rafa, Rafa, Rafa!!!!!!

Well for once I’ve got relatively little to say about the pronunciation of a Spanish letter, and this is because the letter H in Spanish is silent.  This is why our greeting “hola” sounds just like “ola”  and the well known verb to speak “hablar” likewise sounds like “ablar”.   This statement on my part is usually followed by someone asking – so why have an “h” at all then?  There is an answer to this but it’s all to do with the history and development of words from Latin and other languages.  The answer I prefer to give is that, if you think the silent H in Spanish is a problem, what about all those silent letters in English (lamb, debt, half, light, psychology) which don’t seem to follow any particular rule at all!  Also, isn’t it odd that in English sometimes we pronounce the H and sometimes we don’t, as in “hour”, but “how”.  Our class system even comes into this a bit, as some posh people still say “otel” while the rest of us say “hotel”.   English is a strange language.

So meanwhile back at the Spanish language, if the H is always silent, this applies in the middle of words as well as at the end.  A favourite word is alcohol which therefore sounds like “alcol”, and that wonderful word for carrot that everyone struggles with “zanahoria”, which sounds like “zanaoria”  (with the main beat of the word on the “o”).   You need to be able to ask for them, otherwise you might become vitamin deficient.

When you follow the news in Spain, certain phrases come and go depending on the political season.  I noticed that during the recent electoral campaign the phrase “sacar pecho” seemed to come up a great deal.  This literally means “sticking your chest out”, but perhaps “putting your shoulders back” would be a less risky translation.   It’s certainly a visual expression and means to be proud of something and stand up for your own ideas (sometimes with the slight implication that you are doing it against the odds).  Once the election was over we heard about how our new president Mariano Rajoy is going to “llamar el pan pan y el vino vino” (“to call a spade a spade”, with Mediterranean overtones).   We await developments.

It happens every year.  As soon as the New Year hangover is out of the way and the work routine begins again, everyone starts talking about “la cuesta de enero”.  What does it mean?  Well “cuesta” means “hill” or “slope” and unless otherwise specified, is likely to refer to “up” rather than “down” hill.

“La cuesta de enero” is nothing more or less that the uphill struggle to get to the end of the month.  This might just refer to travelling to work in the cold when you’d rather been at home in the warm as you were over Christmas, but more often it means the financial uphill struggle, after all that over-spending on food and presents.  Mind you, this year’s a bit different as everything seems like a “cuesta” at the moment.  Still, let’s hope it goes back to only being “enero”.

My Spanish classes in 2012 in Torrevieja start on 16th January with a one-week Intensive Beginners course. The dates are Monday 16th to Friday 20th inclusive from 10 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. (Two 90 minute classes a day making a total of 15 hours) The price is 75 euros including materials and the venue is La Rústika restaurant, Avenida Baleares, Torrevieja. This is an ideal way to get started with your Spanish, to refresh your memory about the basics and also provides a perfect foundation to move forward. The dates of this course means you can carry straight on to the next stage.  Starting on 23rd January I will be running my standard eight-week courses covering levels two to six in twice-weekly classes of an hour and a half. Over the same period I am also offering more advanced listening and speaking classes on a weekly basis. You will find more details on my website www.janecronin.eu If you would like any more information please do not hesitate to contact me.