guapo

Question

es la "g" cpmpleamente silente en la palabra "guapo" o es un poco sonido de "g"?

Answer

Hola GarryLa "g" delante de -u tiene sonido como en las palabras inglesas "gate", "guy", "gone"...No es silenciosa.SaludosInma

Answer

es como pensaba pero en el sound-bite la "g" no tiene sonido.

Answer

Hola Garry
After analyzing the numerous questions on accents and pronunciation you have posted on the forum it sounds like you are looking to improve not only your listening skills but also your pronunciation and accent in Spanish.
All language learners are confronted with the fact that foreign languages use sounds that may not exist in their own native language. When you need to also learn a new alphabet that corresponds to these sounds, like Russian, Greek or Arabic, you actually question these less. When the alphabet looks like your own native alphabet you will often try to impose your own native pronunciation of those symbols and it’s tricky to get out of that mind set.
Letters that are pronounced completely differently like -z- (zorro) or some of the sounds of -c- (cerebro, cisne) don’t seem to pose as much of a problem to learners as those that are very close to being the same as when using your native pronunciation. This is because their proximity means that for communication purposes it doesn’t matter, you will be understood. If you can’t pronounce the -rr- sound of zorro or perro people will still understand. However, you will hear that a native Spanish speaker says these words differently to how you say them. To take one of your queries, for most English speakers the letter -n- seems to only have one pronunciation. In Spanish it depends what letter comes after it, including the letter of the word that follows it if the -n- is at the end of a word. Most Spanish students will either pick this up naturally or just continue to use their own native pronunciation of -n- and it won’t make any difference to being understood. You will however hear the difference when you focus on these words like you do in a dictation.
There are some resources on this page that you will most likely find useful: Improve Your Spanish Pronunciation.
All of our lessons are created by native Spanish speakers.
Saludos
Shui

Answer

and again the question is not addressed. I'm assured that the "g" IS sounded but in the sound  bite it is NOT.

Answer

I think maybe it is sounded, but not as the hard g you expect. Perhaps it's the second sound (/ɣ/: voiced velar fricative or approximant) described here:

https://www.mimicmethod.com/how-to-pronounce-g-in-spanish/

Answer

no, Alan, Shui and Inma, and any listener will confirm that the first sound is as "w" in English or "uapo". I note that Paraguay also drops the g and sounds a Para-wei. Maybe "guapo" is also a descendant (derivation) of the Guarani South American language which is pronounced warani so it seems that those words just ignore the "g" and sound the first vowel.

Regardless of all the previous instructor-comments, the "g" in guapo is not sounded in "guapo" como: "gate", "guy", "gone".

Answer

Shui, the fact that the sound bites are done by "native speakers" obviously does not prove that they are correct. If the sound bite sounds as "uapo" and is written as "guapo" then obviously the "native speaker" is not sounding the word as written (and assured for the "g" to sound as "gate", "guy", "gone")

Can I assume that all of the "native speakers" have listened to the sound bite in question so as to resolve all this back and forth? Can we get a definitive vote on whether or not the "g" is sounded as "gate", "guy", "gone" or actually is dropped and sounds as "un chico uapo"?

Answer

Garry, did you watch the video I linked to? The soft g is not like the g in "gate" etc. and might be hard for a non-native speaker to identify at the start of a word. I think I can hear something before the 'w', although I'm not sure.

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Alan, the sound bite is available on this site as "New Year's Eve" (la Nochevieja) and I'm darned if I can hear any sound before the "uapo". I'm fully aware that the Spanish 'g" can be soft or hard, but the instructors here have firmly stated that the "g" in "guapo" IS hard and IS pronounced as the "g" in "gate", "guy", "gone". So, if they can hear the "g" in the phrase "un chico guapo a mi lado" then I might need a hearing aid. Otherwise, clarification from the instructors is necessary.

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I listened to it before replying to you, and I'm not 100% sure what I can hear there. It's definitely not (IMO) a hard g but I thought it might be a soft g. According to the video I linked to, the same word could be pronounced with either a hard or soft g, depending on speaker or speed of speech etc.

Incidentally, the IPA for "Paraguay" according to spanishdict.com has /ɣ/ as the g sound.

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When a native of Paraguay states his country, to my ear, it's "Parawei". If there's any "g at all it must be way back in the throat with only air or as the tilde G. Both of the Spanishdict pronunciations are NOT Paraguayan but American and Spanish. Seeing as how the Conquistadores wrote Paraguay for the name the Guarani probably used, for Spanish consumption, then that's how the Spanish would pronounce it . . . with a "g" sound but the Guarani "g" is way back and almost impossible to detect which makes me wonder when "guapo" entered the Spanish language. Maybe it is Guarani.?

Answer

From https://www.thoughtco.com/pronouncing-the-spanish-g-and-j-3079543

Some speakers intensely soften or even drop the sound of the g in the letter combination gua, especially when it appears at the beginning of the word such as in guapo, guacamole, and guardar. So guapo sounds something like WAH-poh, and guacamole sounds like wah-kah-MOH-leh. This tendency, which can be heard here, is found in many areas and varies even within localities. At the extreme, you may even hear agua pronounced like AH-wah.

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Alan, which is exactly what I said at the very beginning but the instructors have stated adamantly that "guapo" has a hard "g" despite it bring absent in the sound bite "un chico guapo a mi lado" (de la Nochevieja), but none of them will address that soundbite. So, I think it's a cultural thing the same as pronouncing "muy" as "muoy".

Is "guante" pronounced with a hard "g"? So, the only question is where is the hard "g" in guapo in "la Nochevieja"?