Ok, I am used to it being pronounced just like the "y", so the "ll" and "y" sounds in rollo and arroyo are the same. However, I am getting the sense that it is pronounced differently here. I checked online and one site suggested that the "ll" in Spain is pronounced like the "ll" in million. Any advice? This is important, as I have just moved to Calle Rollo!

Wendy--

I happen to be taking a class in Spanish phonetics right now and we are looking at this very issue. There is a difference between 'll' and 'y' in much of Spain--but to varying degrees. It is more pronounced in the north (Valladolid is where it is supposed to be pronounced the most 'purely').

Places where the 'll' is pronounced as 'y' are said to exhibit yeísmo. This is the case in a lot of Latin America.

I think the 'll' sound in million comes close, but the tongue is pressed a bit more against the roof of your mouth with the little hollowed out part of the tongue that allows air to escape to the side (there is a two page description of this in my book--with a diagram). My phonetics book says that for the 'll' the tongue is in the same place as it would be to make a 'ch' sound. Personally, I find it really, really hard to identify exactly what the difference is.

For the 'y' your tongue does not quite press against the same spot. If you want to be a complete geek, you can think of the 'll' sound as a 'lateral palatal,' while the 'y' sound is an 'linguopalatal sonoro'.

There is also another phenomenon with both 'y' and 'll' here in Madrid, where people will pronounce them with something between 'ch' and 'j' (as in 'joke'). Usually for emphasis.

Please forgive me if this explanation has bored you to tears. After learning this stuff, I am speaking worse, not better...

Wendy--

I happen to be taking a class in Spanish phonetics right now and we are looking at this very issue. There is a difference between 'll' and 'y' in much of Spain--but to varying degrees. It is more pronounced in the north (Valladolid is wher

Here is a very nice pronunciation website with audio, video and animations. It does (U.S.) English, Spanish and German.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

The Spanish seems to be Mexican, but as it doesn´t say I presume the sounds are the same (as distinct from the association to letters which of course is different).

You could try jotting down the instructions for the tricky ones so you can practise at home.
--
Stephen

Wow, that is a great site! Thanks so much for posting the link.

It has all the sounds in Spanish in all dialects detailed--not just Mexican spanish. In the case of sounds that are particular to Castilian Spanish, they have a Spanish-Spanish speaker (with a video of of his mouth making the sound), Argentinians making the sounds particular to their dialect, etc.