My dictionary is no help with this :(

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

Puerto Rico - Пуэрто Рико or Пуерто Рико?
Mexico - Мехико or Мексико?

Google points towards the first for Puerto Rico, and is more or less split between Mexico. Russian Wikipedia says the last two, though.

What is it?

(спасибо :D)

Comments

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

To me э sounds lots more like Spanish, because е affects the letter before it, right? Spanish e doesn't affect the consonant before it.

But I see as in Пуэрто Рико it's э... because it starts the syllable. Right? I guess that makes sense... don't really want to put э behind a consonant, because е will... mesh better? (can't think of a good way to say that). Is that it?

(sorry if I'm coming across as ignorant or something...)

[merengue.livejournal.com]

...because е affects the letter before it
Not exactly. It's difficult to me explain this in English, but I'll try. I would say the letter before will also affect the sound of Russian "e", so it can be [э], [е], [iе] or neutral. And the Russian "э" vocal is more palatal then the Spanish "e".

in Пуэрто Рико it's э... because it starts the syllable
Right! There are three syllables in Russian: Пу-эр-то, but in Spanish remain two: Pue-rto, because -ue- is a diphthong.

[merengue.livejournal.com]

Vowel, not vocal, sorry. Sometimes I think in Spanish :)

[24karrot.livejournal.com]

Pues, si quieres explicarlo en español, no me importa :D

Thanks for the clarification... I think I get it. :)