That's a hard 'th' as in 'the' not a soft one as in 'thin' of course. The 'v' is pronounced somewhere between an English 'b' and 'v' - it's not quite either really.

That's a voiced th /ð/ as in they /þei/ and not a voiceless one as in thin /þɪn/. An intervocalic b or v in Spanish is pronounced as a voiced bilabial fricative /β/ as in deber 'ought' /ðɛβɛr/. Having grown up in California and lived in Nevada for a year, I heard both /nɛ'vɑdɑ/ and /nɛ'vædə/ for Nevada, both of which are nothing like /nɛ'βaða/.

[Corrected incorrect example of a voiced dental fricative.]

Last edited by zmjezhd; 07/30/2008 2:08 PM.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.