# Pronounciation of "El Bulli"



## Andreas_Jensen

Bon dia!

I would suspect that most of you know the restaurant El Bulli. As it is situated in Catalonia, I would expect its name to be properly pronounced in the Catalan language. Could you please explain to me how to do this? 

I have an extremely limited knowledge of Catalan phonology, but I speak quite a decent Castillian Spanish so you can use examples from, or and even answer in, that language. I'm also familiar with the sounds of German, French, Italian and the peninsular Scandinavian languages (and English, obviously). Phonetic spelling will probably confuse more than clarify, but it might be worth a go 

Thanks in advance!

Andreas


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## Agró

Andreas_Jensen said:


> Bon dia!
> 
> I would suspect that most of you know the restaurant El Bulli. As it is situated in Catalonia, I would expect its name to be properly pronounced in the Catalan language. Could you please explain to me how to do this?
> 
> I have an extremely limited knowledge of Catalan phonology, but I speak quite a decent Castillian Spanish so you can use examples from, or and even answer in, that language. I'm also familiar with the sounds of German, French, Italian and the peninsular Scandinavian languages (and English, obviously). Phonetic spelling will probably confuse more than clarify, but it might be worth a go
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> Andreas


OK, I won't use phonetic symbols. Since you are familiar with Italian, it would be:
/bugli/
with the stress on the 'u'.


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## MarieSuzanne

Y el artículo _el_ no se pronuncia como la "e" española, sino con un sonido intermedio entre _a_ y _e_ llamado "vocal neutra" (cuyo símbolo fonético es una _e_ invertida).


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## ernest_

Hola,

In phonetic terms, it would be something like

/əl.'bu.ʎi/

or maybe

/əɫ.'βu.ʎi/

There are three vowels: /ə/ which is a centred, neuter vowel (like the one found in English _the_), and /u/ and /i/ which are ordinary closed back and front vowels, respectively, that sound exactly like the Spanish _i_ and _u_.

Then there's an "l"-like sound, that can be either an ordinary "l" or a palatised one (ɫ).
There's a "b"-like sound, which again can be an ordinary _voiced b_ (without aspiration) or a softer β (a bilabial approximant, that is pronounced in a way that lips almost touch each other, but without really doing so).
And finally the most complicated sound: the palatal lateral approximant ʎ, which corresponds to the Italian "gl", and "ll" in some Norwegian dialects (according to the Wikipedia).

You can find samples of these sounds in the Wikipedia articles! (although I don't agree with some of them... )


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## Demurral

ernest_ said:


> Hola,
> 
> In phonetic terms, it would be something like
> 
> /əl.'bu.ʎi/
> 
> or maybe
> 
> /əɫ.'βu.ʎi/ més precisió, impossible!!
> 
> There are three vowels: /ə/ which is a centred, neuter vowel (?) (in English is usually called "schwa vowel") English,  (like the one found in English _the_), and /u/ and /i/ which are ordinary closed back and front vowels, respectively, that sound exactly like the Spanish _i_ and _u_.
> 
> Then there's an "l"-like sound, that can be either an ordinary "l" or a palatised velarized - here one (ɫ).
> There's a "b"-like sound, which again can be an ordinary _voiced b_ (without aspiration) or a softer β (a bilabial approximant, that is pronounced in a way that lips almost touch each other, but without really doing so).
> And finally the most complicated sound: the palatal lateral approximant ʎ, which corresponds to the Italian "gl", and "ll" in some Norwegian dialects (according to the Wikipedia).
> You can find samples of these sounds in the Wikipedia articles! (although I don't agree with some of them... ) here a thread that may help!



perfecte!

See you!!


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## ernest_

Gràcies per les correccions!


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## Andreas_Jensen

Thanks a lot guys! That was really a thorough explanation. I have couple of questions, though:

Ernest/Demurral: You write that there are two different versions of the "l" and the "b". Does the chosen version depend on dialect? I suppose that the softer β you speak about is the way a "b/v" is normally pronounced in Spanish. Is that correct? The velarized "l" is really cool, by the way  I recall to have heard such sounds on some occasions when listening to catalan, but they don't seem to be used by all speakers. Again, I suppose that this depends on dialect.

When I go to Barcelona in May I'll test my pronounciation on some of the locals ;-)

Andreas


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## ampurdan

Yes, /β/ is the sound of Spanish b/v between vowels and in some other places in connection with voiced consonants. I'm not sure, but I'd say that all speakers pronounce "B" in "El Bulli" that way. I think the "l" has something to do with it, since "Bulli" alone would be pronounced with a strong "b" sound, like "barca" or "Valladolid" in Spanish.

As for the velarized "l", I think it's not so common. I think it's the standard in Barcelona and Girona, perhaps also in Majorca, but I'm not sure about other places.

As for the Schwa sound, it's the standard in Eastern Catalan, which includes speakers from Roussillon in France, Girona, Barcelona and part of Tarragona provinces and the Balearic Islands.

All other speakers (Western Catalan, spoken in the rest of Tarragona, Lleida, Castelló, València and Alacant provinces) would pronounce "E" in "El Bulli" like a closed "e", like the "e" of "el" in Spanish.


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## dinji

ampurdan said:


> As for the Schwa sound, it's the standard in Eastern Catalan, which includes speakers from Roussillon in France, Girona, Barcelona and part of Tarragona provinces and the Balearic Islands.
> 
> All other speakers (Western Catalan, spoken in the rest of Tarragona, Lleida, Castelló, València and Alacant provinces) would pronounce "E" in "El Bulli" like a closed "e", like the "e" of "el" in Spanish.


To my perception, the barceloní schwa sound is remarkably openish. It is common for natives of five vowel systems like castilian to confuse it with the /a/ rather than /e/ of their own language.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_central_vowel the symbol [ə]  *is frequently used for almost any **unstressed obscure vowel*. I think, this is exactly what occurs when describing the barceloní schwa sound, which "for precision" would better be represented by either of the following symbols for half open or near open central vowel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_central_unrounded_vowel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-open_central_vowel


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## ernest_

dinji said:


> To my perception, the barceloní schwa sound is remarkably openish. It is common for natives of five vowel systems like castilian to confuse it with the /a/ rather than /e/ of their own language.
> 
> According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_central_vowel the symbol [ə]  *is frequently used for almost any **unstressed obscure vowel*. I think, this is exactly what occurs when describing the barceloní schwa sound, which "for precision" would better be represented by either of the following symbols for half open or near open central vowel:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_central_unrounded_vowel
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-open_central_vowel



True, in Barcelona it's rather a near-open central vowel, in my opinion. But by convention we transcribe it as a _schwa_, because it's a reduced, always unstressed vowel, although its exact quality may vary from place to place.


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