Welcome to another blog entry from Gabu to their parents! So this blog entry is shorter, but hopefully it is informative! Even though it's technically Sunday here, since it is still Saturday where my parents are I figured I would put this blog post here as day three, 'Saturday'.
Good luck!
Now let me explain about dividing syllables in Spanish, which I have already said is quite easy because there are rules.
The rule is, if a WORD can begin with a consonant or combination of consonants, then a SYLLABLE can also begin with that consonant or combination of consonants. The exception to this rule is the ‘r’ as in the word ‘cara’ which means ‘face’ - so not the rolled R, just the regular tap R like the way that the double T sounds in the English word ‘butter’. While this tap R (as seen in the word ‘cara’) cannot begins words, it CAN begin syllables. If you see an ‘r’ at the beginning of a word (example: río), this R must be rolled, as I explained in the R entry. So while a tap R (as opposed to a rolled R) cannot begin a word, it CAN begin a syllable, and that is the exception to the rule where a if a word can begin with a consonant or combination of consonants, then a syllable can also begin with that consonant or combination of consonants. --- So let’s put this into practice--- Here’s an example. A word can begin with the letter S, right? Take, for example, the word ‘seis’, which, as you know, means ‘six’. So if a word can begin with S then any syllable can begin with S, like in the word CASA, which is divided into two syllables, like CA-sa. See how the S begins the second syllable?
Whenever possible in Spanish, one needs syllables which end in vowels (this makes the syllables easy to pronounce quickly). So you know that the rule is that if a word can begin with a given combination of consonants, then any syllable can begin with that given combination of consonants. So let’s look at the word TRES, which begins with the consonant combination TR. Because, as is evident in the word TRES, words that begin with TR can exist, any syllable can begin with these letters. So in the word CUATRO, how do we divide the syllables? We MUST divide it like CUA-tro, NOT CUAT-ro, because the first syllable in CUATRO CAN end in a vowel, and since it CAN, it MUST (must be pronounced CUA-tro, not CUAT-ro).
Now look at the word CATORCE. The way we divide this word into syllables is ca-TOR-ce, because there is no such word that begins with ‘RC’ (indeed, such a word would be very difficult to pronounce!)
In Spanish, one syllable can be found not only at the beginning of the word or in the middle of the word, but can also span two words. Take, for example, the phrase ‘las ideas’. The first syllable should be ‘LA’ because the next syllable can be ‘si’, and this makes both the first and the second syllable end in vowels, which one needs to do in Spanish whenever possible. So we divide the phrase into syllables like LA-si-DE-as. If we divided it into syllables like LAS-i-DE-as, then we would have the first syllable ending in a consonant, even though it COULD end in a vowel. We want the syllables to end in vowels whenever possible.
So we know words cannot begin in ‘RC’, so we have to divide the word CATORCE like ‘ca-TOR-ce’. This is pretty easy to understand because what the frick kind of a word would begin in RC? This is lunacy in both Spanish in English.
But there are certain cases where a word can begin with a certain combination of consonants in English, but cannot do so in Spanish. An example is the combination ‘SP’. In English, words can begin in ‘SP’; a fine example is the word ‘Spanish’. But in the Spanish language, words CANNOT begin with the combination ‘SP’. Indeed, the word for Spanish in Spanish is ‘español’ -- the word begins with the vowel E, and NOT with the consonant combination ‘SP’. The English word ‘special’ is ‘especial’ in Spanish, and the English word ‘specifically’ is ‘específicamente’ in Spanish. Because words in Spanish cannot ever begin with ‘SP’, syllables also cannot begin with ‘SP’. Words/syllables cannot ever begin with S plus ANY consonant. So you notice in cognate words (words that sound similar in both English and Spanish and also come from a common origin) that the English word begins with S-plus-consonant, while in Spanish there is a vowel (the vowel E) beforehand. See: ‘stress’ is ‘estrés’, and ‘Scotland’ is ‘Escocia’, and ‘slogan’ is ‘eslogan’, etc. etc.
I think this is one of very few cases where in English, words can begin with multiple consonants and in Spanish it’s just not the case. Indeed, it is the only case that comes to mind at the moment.
Some more examples of what we have just learned put into practice:
The Spanish word ‘enlace’ is divided into syllables like ‘en-LA-ce’ because words cannot begin in NL (which sounds common-sensical in English just like in Spanish)
‘calco’ is divided like ‘CAL-co’ because words cannot begin with LC (common sensical)
‘monja’ is divided like ‘MON-ja’ because words cannot begin with NJ (common sensical)
‘espejo’ is divided like ‘es-PE-jo’ because words cannot begin with SP (which, as I have already explained, is a reality only in Spanish, in contrast with English, where this is allowed)
So let me give you some more information. Let’s look at a word in Spanish, ‘clavo’. This word is divided up like ‘CLA-vo’, which you should already have figured out based on the information I have already given you. So words can begin with the consonant combination ‘CL’, and therefore the same is true of all syllables. Now look at the word ‘esclavo’. Remember that in Spanish words should be composed of syllables which end in vowel sounds, if at all possible. So we might look to make the first syllable be ‘e’, so that it is a syllable that ends in an ‘e’, which is a vowel. BUT the problem is that, as I have already explained, neither words nor syllables can begin with S-plus-consonant in Spanish. Therefore, we must divide the word into syllables like ‘es-CLA-vo’. We could try to divide it like ‘esc-LA-vo’ but this is not gonna fly because words, just like syllables, can begin with CL... and can we all agree that the syllable ‘es’ is more open than the syllable ‘esc’, even if it’s not so open of a syllable as to end in a vowel? Words/syllables can begin with CL, and so therefore, we are gonna divide syllables with CL at the beginning. The Spanish word ‘chicle’ is divided like ‘CHI-cle’ because if we make the second syllable begin with ‘cl’, which is allowed, then the first syllable can end in a vowel, which we want whenever possible.
More examples:
‘esdrújula’ is divided like es-DRU-ju-la ; DR may begin a word/syllable as in words like ‘drama’ (a word in both English and Spanish) but SDR may not begin a word/syllable as already explained above
‘encoger’ is divided like ‘en-co-GER’ ; NC may not begin a word/syllable in English OR in Spanish
‘en línea’ is divided like ‘en-LI-ne-a’ ; NL may not begin a word/syllable in English OR in Spanish
‘con una maleta’ is divided like ‘co-NU-na-ma-LE-ta’ The second syllable is NU even though the letter N belongs to a different syllable than the letter U because a syllable may span two different words in Spanish, and if the syllable
‘destruye’ is divided like ‘des-TRU-ye’ ; STR may not begin a word/syllable in Spanish (unlike in English, as explained above) but TR may begin a word/syllable (like, for example, in the word TRES)
--- So I would say it’s easy to figure out whether certain combinations of consonants can begin words (and therefore syllables) in Spanish.And there you go! Until next time...
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