Ribera vs. rivera

[bdlngton]

According to my dictionary "ribera" is the shoreline of a body of water and therefore the correct word to be used here at Lakeside, as in Riberas del Pilar and Auditorio de la Ribera. "Rivera" is a stream or small river, which does not seem to be the intention of tbe word here. I understand that the confusion comes from the pronunciation of b and v and it appears that many native speakers do not know the difference between the two words given all of the misspellings around here. Does anybody have a different take on the two words?

[More Liana]

The correct word for the area at Lake Chapala, as you explained so well, is ribera. It's written on the welcome signs: Bienvenidos a la Ribera de Chapala.

The 'b' and the 'v' are very often confused, as you mentioned, as are the 's' and the 'c'. Think serbeza instead of cerveza, think serbicio instead of servicio. It's just one of those things to overlook, in the grand scheme of things.

[ctyankee]

Well, "Ribera" can also be someone's last name. During the 15th & 16th century, Spain, nobllity folks often had their homes near the "Ribera's", which could be taken either as a river (rio) or lake (lago)

Cordially,

Carl Ribera

Ajijic, Jal. MX

[Travis]

If you let all the errors, mispellings and typos in local signage bother you, you will be certifiably insane by Thursday. Of this week.

[kbleitch]

Because the "b" and the "v" in español are essentially identical in the land of physical linguistics, these two letters often are interchanged when some Spanish-speakers spell. Based on my experience as a maestra de español NOB, as well as that gained in an earlier career working in international business with many clients in Spanish-speaking countries, I would say that non-native speakers of Spanish and native speakers who are more educated in reading and writing skills are less likely to spell a word with a "v" when it should be a "b" and vice versa. When I have the occasional Hispanic student here NOB who learned Spanish as his first language at home, but learned English outside of the home / at school, he has only oral / aural skills in Spanish, no reading nor writing, and is very likely to use the wrong letter when spelling the Spanish word, i.e., estava instead of estaba.