Culture of Nicaragua - Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics and Phonology

In Spanish, few words end in plosives. However, many such words are borrowed from English. In Nicaragua, all such stops are usually pronounced like 'c's. The Costa Rican ice cream shop Pops, with franchises in Central America is pronounced by many people as Pocs. Internet is sometimes pronounced Internec, Laptop is pronounced lactoc, and robót pronounced robóc. This is sometimes extended to native Spanish words where such stops are found at the end of a syllable. For example, Aceptar is often pronounced Acectar.

Some other characteristics of Nicaraguan phonology include:

• /s/ at the end of a syllable or before a consonant is pronounced like .
• /j/ (/x/) is aspirated; it is soft like the /h/ in English (e.g.: Yahoo).
• Intervocalic /b/, /d/, and /g/ show no sign of reduction, and are much more pronounced than in most dialects.
• There is no confusion between /l/ and /r/, as in the Caribbean.
• /s/, /z/ and in some cases /c/ (as in cerrar) are pronounced as
• /m/ at the end of a word tends to be pronounced as