|
 Enlace
- Encadenamiento - Spanish Linking
Enlace or encadenamiento is the phenomenon in Spanish whereby each
word seems to run into the next, as if there are no boundaries between them. In
fact, this is exactly the case: there are no phonetic boundaries in Spanish, and
words do run together, in three different ways.
| 1. |
Vowel + vowel |
|
a) |
When a word ending with a vowel is followed by a word
beginning with the same vowel, the two vowels are combined into a
single, slightly elongated sound. |
|
|
la escuela abre la puerta a las siete |
la escue la bre la puer ta la sie te |
|
|
|
|
b) |
When a word ending with a vowel is followed by a word
beginning with a different vowel, the two vowels diphthong into a single
syllable. |
|
|
tengo una idea interesante |
ten gou nai deain te re san te |
|
|
|
| 2. |
Consonant + consonant |
|
When a word ending with a consonant is followed by a word
beginning with the same consonant, the two consonants are combined into
a single, slightly elongated sound. |
|
|
los señores son nerviosos |
lo se ño re so ner vio sos |
|
|
|
| 3. |
Consonant + vowel |
|
When a word ending in a consonant is followed by a word
that begins with a vowel, the consonant sound at the end of the first
word is transfered to the beginning of the second word. |
|
|
un actor es un artista |
u nac to re su nar ti sta |
Notes:
- When the second word begins with an H, the word acts as if the H doesn't
exist, so the rules above still apply.
- Basically, the Spanish language doesn't like to have syllables begin
with vowels or end in consonants, so whenever possible the final consonant
is tacked onto the word that follows it. The end result of enlace is
that most syllables begin with a consonant sound and end with a vowel sound.
This also increases the musicality of the language.
Spanish pronunciation
index
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Laura
K. Lawless
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