I am confused over the pronunciation of the double L, as in billete, botella etc. I thought it was pronounced as a Y sound , ie boteya. However an on line course I am using pronounces it as a J sound, ie boteja. Is this a South American thing or is it like this in mainland Spain or more to the point in the Valencia region?

the 'h' pronunciation is indeed south american

in some countries it is even a 'tch' - llueve comes out as 'tchooweveh'

here it is indeed more like the english 'y' sound

Hi,
Just as a matter of interest, how is the "c" pronounced before an e or i? And where? (e.g. Barthelona or Barsselona?)
TIA

it's regional - different areas pronounce it differently

personally I pronouce it 'th' - I was taught that way, but I had an intercambio for a while with a lady who pronounced it 's'

I can't remember where she was from

Yes that is the pronunciation on the course I'm using. Like a short J. The reason I ask is that I have heard people in Javea pronounce it that way and wondered if perhaps it is the way it is pronounced in Valenciano/Catalan

that's because we have a lot of south americans in Javea!


there is no 'll' in valenciano - the 'x' is pronounced 'sh' in valenciano though

so Xabia is pronounced 'shabia' in valenciano

Of course, that'll be it!

It sounds like you were learning argentinian Spanish. Very typical is the "j" sound. So calle (caye" becomes almost a caje sound")

Though even within Argentina the 'hardness' of the ll in, to use that example, varies. Memory fails me but I think Buenos Aires & far west are harder, more like cazhe, or the j in jeremy. Elsewhere more like the sh in share. Andaluz is similarly hard, though inevitably not everywhere!

I taught english to a couple of Argentinians - both from near Buenos Aires

they both used a really hard 'tch' sound


I also know a Venezuelan who has pretty much the same pronunciation

When you consider the accent variants in the UK, and then of course america, australia etc.. I guess its no different in Spain, its Islands and South America etc

Jo xxx

Curiously enough I was wondering this morning, before I saw this thread.....

Doesn't paella originate from Valencia? If so, is paella a translation into castellano? What's the valencian for paella and how is it pronounced?

Also the name Lluis, with 2 Ls - is a catalan spelling of Luis, isn't it? As far as I know, Valencian is very very similar to catalan, but I may be assuming too much. Have never been in either place.

We call it paella, and it's called paella on the menu from school which is in Valenciano



btw - when I said in an earlier post that there is no 'll' in Valenciano, I meant really that it doesn't make quite the same 'y' sound, so maybe we should be pronouncing 'paeya' as 'paelya'

Thank you

So ll in valenciano (and catalan?) is -ly- ?

Could do with all our spanish members to help out