Oh-oh. Avoiding Teletubby Spanish

Way back in October 2011 (I can't believe I've been writing this blog so long) I mentioned several instances where the rules of Spanish are 'bent' a little, to avoid dissonance, just to make it sound better. 

Examples included 'el agua' (when, as we know, 'agua' is a feminine noun) and 'diga SE lo a él', to avoid the 'lelo' combination of sounds. 
Well, here are a couple more cases, slightly different, where we substitute a vowel, to improve the flow and sound of the language. 

Consider the following sentence:
'I will travel to Wales and Ireland in summer or autumn'
Just think, for a moment, about how you would translate it into Spanish. 

Unless you already know what I'm talking about, you'd probably say something like
'Viajaré a Gales y Irlanda en verano o otoño'
At which point I interrupt with 'oh-oh' 
You reply 'What? What's wrong with that?' 
The answer is in the interruption. In Spanish the 'oh-oh' sound, found here in 'verano O Otoño' is not used. 

To avoid this combination of vowels, you replace the 'o' with a 'u', so it becomes 'verano u otoño' 
Don't believe me? 
Copy and paste the English sentence into the translator at www.spanishdict.com and see for yourself. 
Not all machine translations are accurate but, when I tried it, at least one of the suggested answers got it right. 

But, wait. If you've done that, you've probably noticed something else. 
What happened to the 'y' between 'Gales' and 'Irlanda'? 
It appears to have turned into an 'e'. 
So, not only are Spanish ears offended by the 'oh-oh' sound, but it appears that they don't much like 'ih-ih' either! 

So, there's the lesson. 
If 'y' , meaning 'and' is followed by a word beginning with 'i', it becomes an 'e' and if 'o', meaning 'or' is followed by a word beginning with 'o' it becomes a 'u'. 

Here's a couple more examples
'la sustitución se puede hacer con nombres E igualmente con adjetivos'
'The substitution can be done with nouns and, equally as well, with adjectives' (such as igualmente ;¬)

And, just to prove it can be done before verbs too, how about:
'Simon wanted to see or hear the group'
'Simon queria ver U oir al grupo'

You can make yourself a list of words beginning with 'o' or 'i', whether they be verbs, nouns or adjectives, and practise positioning them after 'o' and 'y', to get used to making the change.

So, let's say goodbye to Teletubby Spanish and sound even more fluent. 

¡Hasta la próxima!