Proper Speach

[Mel]

Some of you may have seen the thread that Colt started about the Esplendidos and I have posed the question about how to properly say the word. Is the accent on the next to last syllable or on the second one?

Es plen di' do or Es plen' di do?

How about Partagas?

Is it Part' ta gas or Part ta' gas?

I doubt there is little arguement over

Co hi' ba

El Rey del Mun'do

Ro bai' na

Monte cris' to

Any thoughts? Any here who's native tongue is Spanish?

[Colt45]

Mel, here is a link to a site where you can listen to the pronunciations of the

various marques:

http://www.mycigarsite.com/subopciones/opc...pcion5aeng.html

Thanks for bringing a little culture to the board.

[Colt45]

» The site did not help me with the Espy.

Yes, it only gives the marques. I also tried spanishdict.com, and freedict.com,

but neither gave the aural for esplendido

[Colt45]

P.S. - shall we begin with proper speech......:-D

[Mel]

» P.S. - shall we begin with proper speech......:-D

Not that we will be correct but we should know correct.

SOB It's Part ta gas' I have never heard anyone say it that way. The site did not help me with the Espy.

[zuma]

» Any thoughts? Any here who's native tongue is Spanish?

Well.. Don Mel & Don Colt45...

As far as generally accepted usage goes, there is no other rendition of the word espléndido in Spanish. Whilst it can often be found without the accent mark, it is still "intoned" as if it is present. Mind you, sometimes we forget to put the accent mark (particularly when capital letters are used)... Oh and yes, if I were to pronounce espléndido improperly my mother would beat me blue... as English was unknown to me until the age of 15 (that's a bit less than half my current lifespan)

Since I failed to find an online pronunciation example for espléndido, and I was not able to upload a *.wav sample file to the forum, I had to make a fairly stupid youtube sound sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7QtD4vFZZQ

Also, note that the COHIBA branding does not have the accent mark that should be on "I".

[Mel]

Well Crap all over me as I have been firmly told that I am wrong again. I bow to the spanish brother Zuma and thank him for the correction. More news to me that it is Bo li' var. Hell I'm lucky to tell a DC from a torp.;-)

[Colt45]

Thanks Zuma! That's basically how I've pronounced it, except that I had been using

a short last i - did - instead of a long last i - dee.

Mel, you get the special gold star today as well, for broaching the subject and

givin' me some learnin' .

[rafa]

Es plen' di do?

Partaga's

Boli'var

» Co hi' ba

» El Rey del Mun'do

» Ro bai' na

» Monte cris' to

[El Presidente]

The Cuban way

Esplendido (emphasis on the i)

El Rey Del Mundo (pronounced ooon)

Bolivar

Cohiba

Partagas

Sancho Panza

[zuma]

» The Cuban way

per saecula saeculorum...

(so that it may not be taken as an insult to the Prez, the above is Latin for "por los siglos de los siglos" or, roughly in Lingua Britannica, "for ever and ever"... used toward the end of the traditional chanted Latin mass... my dad was a priest ;-) )

[Bernard]

» Mel, here is a link to a site where you can listen to the pronunciations of

» the

» various marques:

» http://www.mycigarsite.com/subopciones/opc...pcion5aeng.html

»

» Thanks for bringing a little culture to the board.

Good recommendation, its a great site.

[Mel]

» The Cuban way

»

»

» Esplendido (emphasis on the i)

» El Rey Del Mundo (pronounced ooon)

» Bolivar

» Cohiba

» Partagas

» Sancho Panza

A buddy of mine (Aaron) from Southern Cal. reminds me that the Cubans hate the Spaniards and have thier own version of "Spanish" so proper is fer books. Colt we-uns isa lernin a rite smart.

[Colt45]

» Colt we-uns isa lernin a rite smart.

Ga-ron-teed!

[12stones]

Okay, so the names of many cigar brands/vitolas bend the rules of Spanish accentuation.

First, Esplendido would have the accent over the "e" (Es plen di do) because general Spanish grammar would otherwise dictate that by normal rules it would otherwise be pronounced Es plen di do.

Second, Cohiba would not require an accent mark over the "i" because when a word ends in a vowel, the accent is stressed naturally on the penultimate syllable, which in this case would be the "hi" (hee) of Cohiba.

Partagas also seems break the rule of accentuation because normally any word that ends in "s" has the accent on the penultimate syllable also, but they add the accent over the "a" so it makes it alright and should be pronounced Par ta gas.

There's your high school Spanish grammar lesson for the day.