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I dunno, if you were having a conversation in a foreign language and "Mrs. Fields Cookies" came up, would it really be natural to pronounce it with an accent? In your own head you'd sound goofy, even a little mocking, so it seems pretty natural that you wouldn't, however comfortable you are with the language.
I would try to copy the way my conversation-mates would say it in their accent, which depending on the individuals, may or may not be strong. I wouldn't drawl it like a Texan, but more like MEES-sus filts galletas. The non-English-speaking ear does not hear all the phonemes of English, the way we do, and often do not understand a speaker who uses them. so comprehension is maximized by using phonemes that occur in their langage and that their ear can discriminate. Since I'm trying very hard to pronounce everything else I say with my best Spanish accent (although imperfect), why would I not say that with a Spanish accent, too?
On television and just in daily life i always hear hispanic americans talking in a perfect american accent but when they say words like "Mexico" "Latina" "Latino" they all of a sudden switch to a really thick mexican accent, what is up with this?
I believe they are using the proper pronunciation of these specific words instead of the English translation.
A friend of ours is from Equador and his name begins with a J but is pronounced as H.
I would try to copy the way my conversation-mates would say it in their accent, which depending on the individuals, may or may not be strong. I wouldn't drawl it like a Texan, but more like MEES-sus filts galletas. The non-English-speaking ear does not hear all the phonemes of English, the way we do, and often do not understand a speaker who uses them. so comprehension is maximized by using phonemes that occur in their langage and that their ear can discriminate. Since I'm trying very hard to pronounce everything else I say with my best Spanish accent (although imperfect), why would I not say that with a Spanish accent, too?
I guess I'm just saying I'm pretty flexible when I hear people revert to native accents when pronouncing words in their native tongue because it's perfectly natural for them. I am impressed with the effort not to, and notice it in the casual flow of conversation all the same. But when it doesn't happen it doesn't jar me out of the conversation, or annoy me when passively listening like on TV or something.
I often wondered why we change the name or pronunciation of proper nouns like countries-Mexico should always be Me-hico and Cuba should always be Coo-ba, etc. Why can't we call Spain Espana? Is Spain really that much easier?
Then tell all the Hispanics to call Nueva York, New York..
Every language has their own way of saying a country. United States is Estados Unidos in Spanish. Would you rather say Germany or Deutschland? I have no problem with saying Deutschland, because I know German, but it's kind weird to sincerely call Germany "Deutschland" when you're not speaking German.
Because the rest of the words they're saying are English and they pronounce them the correct English way. Mexico, Latina and Latino are Spanish words and they're correctly pronouncing them in Spanish.
But why just with Spanish words? I don't see people trying to incorporate this idea with every word of foreign origin. There are loan words from every language but only with Spanish do people insist they must be pronounced in the way of the other language.
I speak multiple languages but when I'm speaking English and have to say a word or a name from one of the other languages I speak, I do not shift my accent EXCEPT when I go to temple and have to say words in Hebrew or Yiddish during the services or in conversation. Then I let 'er rip, but most people in that situation do.
Outside of that situation, it's a little obnoxious to me. JMHO.
I think I can nail this question. I've noticed this too. People speaking perfect English then all of sudden they change the accent. but most of the people we are talking about go out of their way to say it differently. For instance, and the reason on on here, a few minutes ago, I was watching MSNBC and a Hispanic looking for in her 20s was speaking perfect English then all of sudden she said "Latino" in a heavy accent, then the following few non Hispanic words were in an accent as well, then back to perfect English. She did this a few times then towards the end, not surprisingly, she said Latino with absolutely no accent. I've also seen people have never spoken a word of Spanish in their lives and change their accent. If you watch MSNBC or CNN, they do it all the time. The reason why is because of political correctness.
I honestly never hear this in real life and I know many Hispanics.
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Pronouncing certain words; form of PC
