pronounces it Barthelona. Ooh! That sets my teeth on edge just from seeing it, let alone hearing it. That is the main reason I've always disliked Spanish. Jenet's comment hit it: I can't help thinking to myself, "Why can't they make the letter sound properly?" In college, I met a couple of students from Colombia (I think), and they taught me that our words that end in -ty (for ex. university) end in the -ath sound for them, so that their pronunciation would be universidath. I couldn't help it--to me it just sounded like they couldn't be bothered to make the correct sound. And yes, for the record, I realize how childish that is of me, but.
Thanks for the distinctions of Catalan, etc.