Excuse Me! How Do You Pronounce Your Name?

Hi, my name is Alicia and mispronouncing my name happens very often. The first syllable of my name is A, which has the sound of a central mid vowel of ə and is pronounced the same as in the word balloon, asleep. It is followed by the onset of a voiced lingual alveolar l and the front high vowel i  together. This sound is made using the tip of your tongue and placing it on the top back part of your teeth to produce the l sound. The sound should be the same as in the word late and a vibration should be felt if placing your finger on your larynx. The i sound is the same you make when pronouncing week. Once reaching the middle of my name where the C is located, its sound is produced using the onset of a fricative lingual alveolar voiceless s. The s is produced by placing your teeth together with your tongue right behind your closed teeth and releasing air, which would sound the same as in miss. Once again it is followed by another front high vowel i and ends with a front low vowel æ that sounds the same as the word at. Placing all the sounds together it would be pronounced as [ə-li-si-æ].

My Language Story

My thoughts on language...... It is the most significant form of communication we can have. I was born in Mexico D.F. but raised in the US since I was three years old. Even though I remember speaking Spanish first, somehow I feel much more confident speaking English. It's not that I am not fluent in either for I read and write perfectly well both languages, but I guess my thoughts are all in English. 

One of my greatest passions is reading. Not only because it's a way to open my mind to other thoughts, cultures and places but also because I enjoy reading in other languages. Since I was in junior high school I took up Italian as my third language. At that age I was excited at the idea of learning a third language but did not care for it as much as when I reached high school. By then my interest to learn a third language was greater. 

Language is very diverse even when you speak the same language. For instance, Spanish and Italian, both languages are the same but the dialect is completely different depending on where you go or who you’re speaking to. Even though I’m fluent in Spanish, the Spanish my relatives speak in my country is different to the words I would use but somehow I still understand them. However, I remember when I was once so embarrassed at my inability to understand the Spanish of my ex-boyfriend's family at a reunion years ago. My ex-boyfriend is Ecuadorian and his family comes from a town named Cuenca. It was my first time over at their home, they were all talking, laughing and having a good time except for me since I was trying so hard to grasp a couple of words to understand what they were all speaking of. My face turned bright red and I felt my blood rise to my head when they all had their eyes fixed on me and my ex said “Alicia, they just asked you a question…” I didn’t know what to do, they repeated the question but still I couldn’t understand them.  This was when I realized how diverse and special language can be, even if we speak the same language, dialect is what makes it unique.

In the past years I have tried to travel as much as possible and have realized how vast language is. I have been able to learn new words and new meanings to words I thought I already knew the meaning of. Language has recently turned into one of my new goals. I hope to learn as many languages as possible and to adapt to each dialect as best as I can so that I won’t sound as a foreigner. Having the privilege to know three languages, I hope to accomplish many more. In my opinion, learning different languages makes each person much more unique and makes way to a prosperous future. Language can open many more doors than we can imagine.