Mahou ...

I have trouble with the rolling 'rrr' as well, even though a native andaluz tried to teach me, I just can't do it.

We have a small town near us, named Ugijar, I hadn't a clue how to pronounce it when we first arrived.

Listened to the natives and finally got it: Ug-I-kar. (accent on the I).

A lot of expats, and there are a lot of them, can't pronounce the name of the town they live in: Torrevieja. It has it all, the double R, the V, the J, and the emphasis is on the last syllable.

that's a horrid one

I know how you're meant to say it, of course, but I've heard it mis-pronounced far more often than pronounced correctly, which means my ear & brain tend to scramble it




so whenever I want to say it, it comes out San Miguel

surely not

Yes, it's written Ugíjar, so naturally the stress falls on the "I". Friends of ours have a place in Otívar, and that suffers the same, I've heard the "O" and the "VAR" stressed, but rarely the "í", except by locals of course.. My brother pronounces Vejer something like Vecker.

This is from a Spanish-English webpage, with suggested pronunciations, some sound weird to me!
surprise (serpráids) - sorpresa; extrañar;
exactly (igdsǽktli) - exactamente
happen (jǽpən) - pasar; suceder; suceder
harry (jéri) - asolar; acosar; hostigar
manage (mǽnədch) - lograr; administrar;
used (yúdsd) - acostumbrado; usado
advantage (ædvǽntidch) - ventaja

Torrevieja ..... agree with Lynn. Slight emphasis on the 2nd bit of the dipthong, I'd have thought...??

Ugijar (can't figure how to put a tilde)...
scampicat described the local pronunciation as 'Ug-I-kar. (accent on the I)'.
Accent I understand, cos of the tilde. I'd have assumed it would be 'ooheeja' for want of a better English way of describing it
But then of course places have different pronunciations, as we all know. My late aunt's home village of Calonge - initially I always said calonhe.... but figured after a few times hearing her say calonshe that of course we're in Catalunya!!!
......is there an accepted way of expressing in 'english' lettering how the j tends to be pronounced? cos h obviously is fractionally too soft, k too hard.

Most Brits do pronounce it this way until they listen to the locals.

So oo-gee-kha? with a hard g? blimey!!

How about Almegijar? (Tilde on the i)

These are mountain people in the rural wilds of Andalucia, remember.

Not fair. Going to sulk



Al-me-gee-kha (guessing hard g again but no doubt wrong). Emphasis on the gee syllable.


...so are Colmenarenos

Sorry, I edited my post to say there was a Tilde on the I.

You are correct : Al-me-GEE-kha. Looked unpronounceable to me when I first saw it!

Have heard Brits who live in Fuengirola call FuengArola. Or usually Fuengy! The LL in marbella is ignored by lots. Miguel is often pronounced as MigWell. There seems to be a few who live in Friggy