Jump to content
Chapala.com Webboard

Correct pronunciation?


camillenparadise

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 125
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I vote for ho-CO-teh-peck. I have not heard any variants of this, but I don't get around much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way do they grow joCOtes in Jocotepec?

I don't believe so, but you can find a lot of them in Guatemala. Like a cousin to plums, no? Tasty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I vote for ho-CO-teh-peck. I have not heard any variants of this, but I don't get around much.

I don't think we can vote and pick our favorite. I think we need to learn to pronounce it the way they have for many years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or JocotePEC?

This should be correct according to Spanish rules of pronunciation and there is no accent to move the stress from the last syllable. The rules of natural stress are:

If a word ends in a vowel, an N or an S, the next to the last syllable gets the stress.

If a word ends in any consonant other than N or S, the last syllable gets the stress.

Any word that violates these two rules will have a written accent on the vowel of the syllable where the stress falls.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can buy jocotes at the Ajijic tianguis but they are called ciruelas up there. In Chiapas they are called jocotes same thing. I have seen them at the tianguis so they grow somewhere but I do not remember seeing the trees in Jocotepec so I was wondering.ut I was just wondering about Lakeside.

Down here it is the seaason ight now and they are everywhere in the tierra caliente.

Since it is a Nahuatl word I would think it follows Nahuatl pronunciation rules or qhat the Spaniards thought they heard ...

Actually I have heard JocotePEH and JocotePEC but I do not know what is correct.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I communicate in Spanish, several hours every day. However I do make many errors. I learned that the second syllable in Jocotepec was the one that was stressed more than the first; you know JoCOtepec.

But you had better double check.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The correct pronunciation is ho-co-te-PEC. The capital, bold-face letters indicate where the stress falls. Some people drop the pronunciation of the final 'C' in Jocotepec (as mentioned by bmh in post #11), but that pronunciation is colloquial and incorrect.

As bdlington said in post #10, when a word ends in a consonant OTHER than S or N, the stress is on the last syllable. That's why 'doctor' in Spanish is doc-TOR; 'hotel' is oh-TEL; 'actriz' (actress) is

ak-TRIZ.

Once you know the rules of pronunciation, Spanish is a very simple language to pronounce. At first it's a question of memorization, and then it becomes second nature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can buy jocotes at the Ajijic tianguis but they are called ciruelas up there. In Chiapas they are called jocotes same thing. I have seen them at the tianguis so they grow somewhere but I do not remember seeing the trees in Jocotepec so I was wondering.ut I was just wondering about Lakeside.

The Hotel Perico has ciruela/jocotes trees,they were loaded with them the last time we were there.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As More Liana said, dropping the hard sound at the end of a word like Jocotepec is colloquial. There was actually a thread not long ago on TOB wherein it was claimed that the correct pronunciation of Ajijic was Ahehee.... she had been told by her maid. On the other hand, my maid calls me Senor My (my name being Mike). And WalMart is WalMar.... they just like to drop that last bit, but it is definitely wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because San Juan Cosalá carries an accent on the last 'a', it's San Juan Co-sah-LAH.

Anytime a word or name has a written accent, the syllable where the accent is written is where the stress falls. Examples:

  • difícil is dee-FEE-ceel
  • fácil is FAH-ceel

Both of those words would be pronounced differently if they did not have the written accent.

A word to the wise: another town name that causes infinite mispronunciations among foreign residents is Ajijic. Because it follows the rule that bdlington and I mentioned, the correct pronunciation is ah-hee-HEEK. The stress is on the last syllable.

When you come visit me in Mexico City, I will tell you how to pronounce Iztaccíhuatl, the name of a street around the corner from my house. LOL...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a fun one. There is "v vaca" and "b baby". Both sound like "b", although in my years as a linguist (okay, just a fan of My Fair Lady), it seems to me that the "v vaca" is more like blowing a b rather than saying a b. Does that make sense? (Vaca means cow, of course.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks for this pronunciation info. I didn't remember it from my high school Spanish and have wondered why some words were not accented on the next to the last syllable. Y'all did good work today. I learned something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you ponounce it the same way nobody will notice as they have to follow either one of the letter with a word to clarify...

There is also the "correct way" and the way local pronounc things. Down were we live when you see CHANIB it is pronounce it CHANIM if you want to be understood so so much for the Spanish phonetics. One good

thingm in the highlands any Maya word ending with a B is pronounced M, at least they are consistent....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMHO, the letter 'b' and the letter 'v' are generally undifferentiated in their Spanish pronunciation. That's why you so often hear people ask if you spell a thing, "B grande o V chica?" (The big B or the small V?)

Written spelling of words with 'b' and 'v' is another thing: servicio is often incorrectly spelled serbicio. Cerveza is often misspelled cerbeza or serbeza. Etc. This incorrect spelling is due mainly to the so-similar pronunciation of these two letters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, whenever I'm spelling my name for someone, I always have to specify which b/v I mean. (I'm sure it doesn't help that almost nobody here has heard my name before. :lol: )

Re Jocotepec. Yes, the accent is on the last syllable, but it's not heavy-handed or drawn out in anyway. I think for foreigners the real key to pronouncing it well is, as always, the correct pronunciation of the vowel sounds, and..... the rythmn of it. If you listen to a Mexican pronounce it, each syllable is given pretty much the same amount of time/weight. It's very staccato.

I pronounced it incorrectly and poorly for a long time, but then I really listened to it. Now I'm getting better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep, whenever I'm spelling my name for someone, I always have to specify which b/v I mean. (I'm sure it doesn't help that almost nobody here has heard my name before. :lol: )

Re Jocotepec. Yes, the accent is on the last syllable, but it's not heavy-handed or drawn out in anyway. I think for foreigners the real key to pronouncing it well is, as always, the correct pronunciation of the vowel sounds, and..... the rythmn of it. If you listen to a Mexican pronounce it, each syllable is given pretty much the same amount of time/weight. It's very staccato.

I pronounced it incorrectly and poorly for a long time, but then I really listened to it. Now I'm getting better.

Sorry, but I have to disagree that each syllable is given pretty much the same amount of weight. Every word has one syllable that is stressed and changing that stress can change meaning. However, to the uneducated ear this stress may not be so obvious. I have a friend who always mispronounces the name Cesar. He pronounces it Ce-SAR, which would actually follow the rules of stress. However there is a written accent on the E of the first syllable, so the correct pronunciation is CE-sar. My friend does not hear the difference but my ear does.

Interestingly most English speakers tend to stress most Spanish words in the correct place according to the rules of stress. I'm not sure why that is as I don't really know the rules for English pronunciation as well as I know those of Spanish. However when a Spanish word breaks the rules of stress and has a written accent most English speakers seem to have more trouble with pronouncing the word correctly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




×
×
  • Create New...