Jack of Many Trades, Master of Only One

[FigureofSpeech]

Hi everyone!

I discovered LibriVox, over 15 years ago, when I was in college and completing my Masters. It was a wonderful reprieve for eyes tired from perpetually reading. The audiobooks were a way to dive into a variety of different topics, all while knitting to keep my sanity. It was wonderful hearing the variety of languages, accents, dialects, and voices actively represented, reading texts from a myriad of genres and topic areas. Now as a bilingual speech-language pathologist and autism consultant, I'd love to add my voice to this treasure trove!

I've already started reading through the welcome letter forum posts, the 1 minute test, and have been tinkering with Audacity. I'm looking forward to diving in!

Kindest regards!

[vviera]

Hi everyone!

I discovered LibriVox, over 15 years ago, when I was in college and completing my Masters. It was a wonderful reprieve for eyes tired from perpetually reading. The audiobooks were a way to dive into a variety of different topics, all while knitting to keep my sanity. It was wonderful hearing the variety of languages, accents, dialects, and voices actively represented, reading texts from a myriad of genres and topic areas. Now as a bilingual speech-language pathologist and autism consultant, I'd love to add my voice to this treasure trove!

I've already started reading through the welcome letter forum posts, the 1 minute test, and have been tinkering with Audacity. I'm looking forward to diving in!

Kindest regards!

You're bilingual - what is your other language?

[FigureofSpeech]

Spanish is my first language and my parents are from Dominican Republic. Apparently, the Dominican accent takes new listeners some getting used to so over the years I've learned to adapt to my audience. Between living in Florida and growing up around Caribbean, South American, Spanish, and Mexican Spanish speakers, I've learned to not swallow my "s" as much, not cut off too many chunks of the beginning or ends of words, and slow down. Though when I talk with my parents it still always comes out as "Hola Mami! como tu 'ta?"

[TriciaG]

Welcome!

I did my student teaching in Puerto Rico (high school math). The school was in English, but most of the teachers were Puerto Rican. When sitting around chatting before and after school or whenever, I understood little of what was being said. It was a lonely few months!

We even went on a field trip to see a play. I understood maybe 10% of that - not even enough to understand what was going on.

I wonder how similar the accents are between DR and PR.

Anyway, welcome!

[vviera]

Welcome!

I did my student teaching in Puerto Rico (high school math). The school was in English, but most of the teachers were Puerto Rican. When sitting around chatting before and after school or whenever, I understood little of what was being said. It was a lonely few months!

We even went on a field trip to see a play. I understood maybe 10% of that - not even enough to understand what was going on.

I wonder how similar the accents are between DR and PR.

Anyway, welcome!

I lived in Puerto Rico for two years in the '90s. By that time I'd already spoken Spanish for 15 years. I never could hear the difference between PR and DR Spanish, though they'd recognize it immediately.

[vviera]

Spanish is my first language and my parents are from Dominican Republic. Apparently, the Dominican accent takes new listeners some getting used to so over the years I've learned to adapt to my audience. Between living in Florida and growing up around Caribbean, South American, Spanish, and Mexican Spanish speakers, I've learned to not swallow my "s" as much, not cut off too many chunks of the beginning or ends of words, and slow down. Though when I talk with my parents it still always comes out as "Hola Mami! como tu 'ta?"

I worked with Cubans when younger, so had already picked up some features of Caribbean Spanish (sí, comía la' ese'). I lived in Puerto Rico for a couple years and totally picked up the accent. I'm not a native speaker, so I start sounding like whoever is around me. After that, I lived on the U.S./Mexico border for 6 years, where my accent and vocabulary changed quite a bit. When I really made myself get rid of the Caribbean accent though, was when I worked as an interpreter in Seattle. 99.9% of our clients were either Mexican or Central American, and I needed a very neutral accent. That was about 15 years ago, but I still sound a little bit Puerto Rican when I'm just in conversation, as opposed to a professional context.

Here is my standard welcome for Spanish speakers, FYI. Hope you can join us on some projects. One of the wonderful things about Librivox is the variety of voices and accents, so don't hesitate just because you might sound Dominican.

¡Bienvenida, Figure!

Siempre me entusiasma saber que ha llegado otro(a) hispanohablante a LibriVox.

En este momento hay tres proyectos en español que tal vez te interesen. Este foro contiene todos los proyectos en idiomas que no son inglés, y allí encontrarás los actuales en español.

Hay hispanohablantes de varios países acá; vas a conocer a gente verdaderamente genial.

Veo que ya hiciste tu prueba de 1 minuto, y estás listo(a) para grabar! Diviértete aprendiendo - esta es una comunidad amistosa, y todos están disponibles para responder a cualquier duda.

Repito, ¡bienvenida! Y haznos saber de necesitar algo de ayuda.

Verlina

[FigureofSpeech]

I worked with Cubans when younger, so had already picked up some features of Caribbean Spanish (sí, comía la' ese'). I lived in Puerto Rico for a couple years and totally picked up the accent. I'm not a native speaker, so I start sounding like whoever is around me. After that, I lived on the U.S./Mexico border for 6 years, where my accent and vocabulary changed quite a bit. When I really made myself get rid of the Caribbean accent though, was when I worked as an interpreter in Seattle. 99.9% of our clients were either Mexican or Central American, and I needed a very neutral accent. That was about 15 years ago, but I still sound a little bit Puerto Rican when I'm just in conversation, as opposed to a professional context.

Here is my standard welcome for Spanish speakers, FYI. Hope you can join us on some projects. One of the wonderful things about Librivox is the variety of voices and accents, so don't hesitate just because you might sound Dominican.

¡Bienvenida, Figure!

Siempre me entusiasma saber que ha llegado otro(a) hispanohablante a LibriVox.

En este momento hay tres proyectos en español que tal vez te interesen. Este foro contiene todos los proyectos en idiomas que no son inglés, y allí encontrarás los actuales en español.

Hay hispanohablantes de varios países acá; vas a conocer a gente verdaderamente genial.

Veo que ya hiciste tu prueba de 1 minuto, y estás listo(a) para grabar! Diviértete aprendiendo - esta es una comunidad amistosa, y todos están disponibles para responder a cualquier duda.

Repito, ¡bienvenida! Y haznos saber de necesitar algo de ayuda.

Verlina

¡Gracias, Verlina!

I've had a similar journey with my accent! Some people naturally pick up on the features of different accents and incorporate them into their speech patterns if they hear them often. I grew up in Florida, so you could always hear hints of Cuban and Puerto Rican linguistic features when I spoke. Once I moved to Oregon over a decade ago and began providing speech therapy to bilingual students, working with their families, and conducting speech and language evaluations, I also had to neutralize my accent. In Oregon, I primarily encounter Mexican and Central American Spanish speakers. Learning the nuances and different vocabulary of Mexican Spanish has been so much fun, and people have shown a genuine interest in my Caribbean Spanish culture and accent, too. It's always a fun conversation starter.

I'd love to join in on a Spanish project! It's reassuring to see how inclusive the community is of different accents, voices, and speech patterns in ALL languages for all projects.

I look forward to learning as much as possible and diving into some recordings soon.

Claudia

[FigureofSpeech]

Welcome!

I did my student teaching in Puerto Rico (high school math). The school was in English, but most of the teachers were Puerto Rican. When sitting around chatting before and after school or whenever, I understood little of what was being said. It was a lonely few months!

We even went on a field trip to see a play. I understood maybe 10% of that - not even enough to understand what was going on.

I wonder how similar the accents are between DR and PR.

Anyway, welcome!

Thanks for the welcome Tricia!

I hope that you still enjoyed your student teaching time in PR despite not understanding much of the language. It can be a lonely experience when you go to a new country for a short amount of time and don't have enough time to really learn the language and immerse yourself in the cultural experience because of the need to focus on work.

The Caribbean Spanish accents have similarities, just like those you'd find between speakers of the same language from different countries but in the same general part/region of the world. However, there are definitely features that set them apart. Things like how we roll our /r/'s, nasality, differences in rhythm, and word choice are common ways to distinguish among speakers once you hear them often enough. Although, just like in the US and other countries, there are some accent features that are common among speakers of a region but are not always the rule. For instance, you can usually pick out general differences between Midwestern, Northeastern, Southern, and other regional accents but some people have less prominent accents, are from different parts of those regions, or have a different ethnicity that can influence those features. For instance, if you've lived in NY for long enough or studied languages, dialects, and accents, there are subtle differences in word usage, cadence, and accent that you can pick out even among people of the same ethnicity from different parts of the same borough.

Sorry if that was too much of a nerdy dive into speech and language! Once I get started it's hard to rein myself in.