I'd bet they could once their English got good enough. By the end of my stay, I could tell the difference between two of the 5-6 distinct regional dialects in Venezuela, but that was it. So maybe Peruvians would need a year or so to really pick up on the Boston/NewYork/Midwest/Canadian varieties while only a few months for the West Coast and southern styles. Just a guess.
I endorse Special K's assessment, although I think it would be more difficult for a Spanish speaker to hear differences in English pronunciation than the other way around. English has a lot more vowel sounds than Spanish, so a Spanish speaker would have to train their ear a lot to hear the difference between southern /me:ri/ (Mary), /m@ri/ (marry), and /meri/ (merry). (Can't seem to use IPA symbols in this field, so you'll have to make do with ASCII equivalents).
I'd bet they could once their English got good enough. By the end of my stay, I could tell the difference between two of the 5-6 distinct regional dialects in Venezuela, but that was it. So maybe Peruvians would need a year or so to really pick up on the Boston/NewYork/Midwest/Canadian varieties while only a few months for the West Coast and southern styles. Just a guess.
ReplyDeleteI endorse Special K's assessment, although I think it would be more difficult for a Spanish speaker to hear differences in English pronunciation than the other way around. English has a lot more vowel sounds than Spanish, so a Spanish speaker would have to train their ear a lot to hear the difference between southern /me:ri/ (Mary), /m@ri/ (marry), and /meri/ (merry). (Can't seem to use IPA symbols in this field, so you'll have to make do with ASCII equivalents).
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