(no subject)

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

Random question for Russian and Spanish speakers:

How similar is нь to ñ? Are they similar, identical, completely different, etc? Are there any other noises that are similar between the two but not English (like both r's are rolled for example, at least some of the time in spanish).

Comments

[sovok.livejournal.com]

Similar - and as identical as similar sounds in different leanguage families only can be;
ñ is always transliterated by нь, the reverse is in general not true.

[merengue.livejournal.com]

Similar, but not at all. Ñ is more [н'] in баня than in свинья.
Sorry, I cannot explain better, I speak both Russian and Spanish, but hardly English :)

[damiel.livejournal.com]

They're not identical. нь is a н (which I think is a dental nasal) that has been palatalized (so part of the tongue body will get closer to the palate while producing a н, but the target is still closer to the teeth). Spanish ñ, however, is pronounced with a full-fledged palatal nasal. It gets produced with the whole tongue farther back than for the н.

They sound very similar, but the difference is perceptible.

As for other sounds that are similar, the Russian letter х has essentially the same sound as the letter J in Castillian Spanish.

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

yes after I posted this I figured it might sound more like не in нет or something... oh well ^_^ Thank you!

[logodaedaly.livejournal.com]

Have you ever taken a linguistics course in Russia? There is absolutely no difference between the н in баня and the n in конь.