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What general intonation differences exist between romance languages like French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian?

• I always feel that these three languages are similar enough becaude they are all belong to romantic group. But after having talked with people from Italy and Portugal I find there are sitll signifacant differences among the three language in fonetic. Let me take "todo" as an example. Spanish speaker read the first consonat [t] much like "t" in English word "stop", while Italian and Portuguese read [t] like "t" in "ten" or "teeth" in English, which sounds quite different. Native Spanish speakers once told that the [t] [p] [b] [k] are just like english,but when in spelling it sounds really different. "ba be bi bo bu," " pa pe pi po pu" these two groups in Spanish fonetic sounds very similar for me, but Spanish speakers say they are very different. However, when I read these two Spanish pairs facing an Italian speaker, he still can not tell the difference and ask "they are same?"

• Answer:

  French and Italian grammar are drastically different (and closer to original Roman Latin) of Portuguese and Spanish (which are also distinct among themselves). It influences phonetics a lot, since French and Italian have a lot of abbreviations that don't appear (only rarely in case of Portuguese) in Iberian languages, and may confuse unaware ears. French phonetics is different of most of other Latin languages (conserving even some phonemas of late Roman Latin, like the pronounces of "oe", "ai", "au"). The sound of "r" is also distinct. In general, French is the most "nasal" of the Latin languages. "Au" will sound like a strong "o", "ai" like "a" in "fast" (American pronounce) and "oe" like "ö" in German. Italian phonetics is very influenced by Greek. And unlike the other languages mentioned in the question, plurals are not denoted with "s", but with "i" (male), "e" (female), "a" (neutral). The Latin language with the closest phonetics to Italian's is Romanian/Moldovan. The aspirated sound of "r" is also stronger than in the other languages (will sound like "rr" in Spanish). "R" in Portuguese has the same sound as in French, when it starts a word (always) and when it is double in the middle of words. The sound of "j" in Spanish is like "h" in English, which is unique of this language. In Italian, like in Greek or German, "j" sounds like a soft "y". In Portuguese and French, though, "j" has a sound that Spaniards and Italians have usually difficulty to pronounce (which may have come from the Celtic languages spoken in the territories that comprise France and Portugal/Galicia prior to Roman conquest), and sounds nearly like "zh" in Russian. Nh in Portuguese = Ñ in Spanish = Gn in French/Italian. In Spanish "ñ" 's pronounciation is less emphasized. Lh in Portuguese = Ll in Spanish = Gli in French/Italian. In most of Hispanic America (except Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay), you will find most of people pronoucing "ll" just like "j" in American English. In Argentina and Uruguay, "ll" will sound like a French "j", due to the strong influence of Southern Italian dialects brought by early 20th century's immigrants. In Paraguay, "ll" will be mostly pronounced like in Spain. In Spanish there is no "v", "z" or "sh" sounds like in English. "V" in Spanish is called "ube" and will mostly sound like a very soft "b", z ("zeta") in Spanish is almost a nasal "s". "S" in the middle of words, in Portuguese, Italian and French, follows the same rules as in English. The sound of "sh" in English, is made by "ch", and at times "x" (xadrez, xilofone, xenofobia, caixa, relaxado, eixo, mexicano) in Portuguese/French, by "sci" in Italian, and is absent in Spanish. In European Portuguese "sc" will also sound like "sh", at times, but it is also subject to regional accents and dialects of the language. "Ch" in Spanish will sound virtually the same as it sounds in English, and in Italian, it has a phonetic of "k". The sound of "x": In Portuguese, x will often sound like sh in English (when it starts a word, always), but it may also sound like "ks" in the middle of words (reflexão, circunflexo, máximo, axíoma, oxigênio). The sound of "ks" for "x" is a standard to Latin languages (inherited of Greek), but in Spanish it, just like "j", can also have the same pronounce of "h" in English. "Ç" in Portuguese and French will have the same sound of "z" in Spanish and "ss" in Italian (which is also the same in English). "Ss" is also used in Portuguese and French. In all these languages neither "Ss" or "Ç" are used to start a word. Portuguese has the biggest rank of accents among Latin languages: Á (a stressed and open sound of A), à (a nasal sound of A that will be rarely found in any other language. Usually the hardest for Portugueses students),  (similar to Ã, but softer), À (simbolyzes a double A, and is used exclusively as the feminine of "ao"), É (like "eh", sounds like "e" in the word "best", in American English), Ê (a nasal and stressed form of "e", used to emphasize this vowel in a sylabe), Í (stressed for of "i", sounds like  "ee" in English), Ó (open stressed form of "o", sounds like "o" in the American pronounce of "blossom", or "loss"), Ô (nasal sound of "o", sounds like "au" in French), Õ (very nasal form of "o", almost an "u". Usually comes within "es" as a plural form of many words ended in "ão", like "feijão/feijões" [bean/beans], padrão/padrões [standard/standards], mansão/mansões [manor/manors]), Ú (a stressed form of "u", sounding like "oo" in English), Ãœ (not officialy used since the International Ortographic Agreements of 2009, between Brazil and Portugal. Served for hilighting the sound of "u" in situations in which it would be normally a deaf vowel [basically, when accompanied of q or g before e or i], like "lingüiça, "agüenta" and "aqüífero"). It is almost possible to trace a "sequence of similarities" between Latin languages. If you know one or two of them which are not way too similar (like Portuguese and French, Spanish and Italian, French and Spanish, Italian and Portuguese), you will be able to "deduce" the meaning of many words of the other (at least in written form). Based on the informations above, there are some examples for training your pronounciation (native speakers, please, suggest me any corrections by editing): English: "I have been writting on Quora for seven months. During all this time, it helped me to acquire much knowledge and also to make clear many of my doubts and curiosities". Portuguese: "Tenho escrito no Quora há sete meses. Durante esse tempo, isso ajudou-me a adquirir muitos conhecimentos e a clarificar muitas das minhas dúvidas e curiosidades". Galician: "Teño escrito no Quoara hai sete meses. Durante este tempo, iso axudoume a añadir moitos coñecementos e a clarificar moitas das miñas dúbidas e curiosidades". Spanish: "Hace siete meses que estuve escribiendo en Quora. Durante todo ese tiempo, me ha ayudado adquirir mucha sabiduria y tambien clarificar muchas de mis dudas y curiosidades". Catalan: "He escrit sobre Quoran fa sete mesos. Durant aquest temps, això em va ajudar a guanyar un munt de coneixements i per a aclarir molts des meus dubtes i curiositats". French: "J'ai écrit dans le Quora il ya déja sept mois. Pendant ce temps, il m'a aidé à gagner beaucoup de conaissance, et clairifier beaucoup des mes doutes et curiosités". Italian: "Ho scritto nel Quora sette mesi fa. Nel frattempo, questo mi ha aiutato a aggiungere molta conoscenza e ha chiarito molti dei miei dubbi e curiosità". Romanian: "Am scris pe Quora de È™apte luni. In acest timp, ea ma ajutat să câștige o mulÈ›ime de cunoÈ™tinÈ›e È™i de a clarifica mai multe îndoieli È™i curiozități mele".