Does anyone in your country yodel?
Funny question!
Well, me, of course (another Swiss legacy, I guess). People don’t normally yodel in Spain, but I can’t be the only yodeller here surely? I really enjoy doing it and find it kind of therapeutic. Which reminds me of Shakira – she must have fun doing that yodelly thing with her voice when she sings. Another funny thing to do with your vocal cords is what flamenco singers often produce, and which, to me, seems much more difficult to perform. Country singers are usually good at it, too.
How about you, Jamie – have you tried it? And what made you think of that question in the first place?
I yodel when my wife beats me 
I see you’ve noticed that country singers also yodel, Conchita. Nowadays they just make their voices crack, but some of those from decades past, such as Roy Rogers, were really good yodelers.
I thought of the question for kind of a complicated reason. I like to search the iTunes store to see how many versions of certain songs have been recorded. For example, there are at least 25 versions of the theme song from the 1960s American TV show called “The Munsters”. I found at least 80 versions of an old country song from the 78-rpm era called “Hey, Good Lookin’!”. I listen to the various versions to see how they differ, and it can be very interesting.
Last year I heard part of the theme song from the old German/Japanese cartoon show “Heidi”. One of my corporate students knows the song, and he also likes to imitate the accent of the Czech warbler Karel Gott as he sang the theme from the “Biene Maja” cartoons. We have a lot of fun with this, and soon I decided to see how many versions of the “Heidi” theme can be downloaded from iTunes. There are at least 20, including the original version, imitations of the original version, a version sung by a child, French and Italian versions where they can’t pronounce the H in “Eidi’s” name, a jazz piano version, a 1930s-sounding big band version, a techno version, more than one punk version, and many others.
In ESL class on Monday, the word “echo” came up in the lesson, and this made me think of yodeling. An Iraqi girl who understood the word volunteered to yodel for the class, after another one had been able to produce only an anemic Tarzan yell. Yodeling made people think of Switzerland, that made people think of Heidi. It turned out that people from every part of the world had seen this cartoon show, which is unknown in the US. (I have never seen it.) Even people from Iraq and Syria had fond memories of it. Soon we were yodeling Heidi’s name as it’s done in the theme song of the cartoon.
Just a normal moment in Jamie’s “English for Academic Purposes” class. People think I’m a tough instructor, and yet something like this happens almost every day.
I yodel occasionally… but not in the presence of others, of course, to the rejoicing/relief of the rest of the world.
There’s worse than that: the Spanish tend to pronounce it as ‘kheidi’. They don’t like the soft ‘h’ as in English or German and prefer using the raspy Spanish ‘j’ sound (as in the Scottish word ‘loch’).
Conchita, what is the correct pronunciation of the X in Xavi?
Is it “H” or “Sh” or the “Kh” you just mentioned?
Thanks,
Tom
I ask because there’s a soccer player named Xavi Alonso and I want to know how to pronounce his first name.
In Spanish it’s pronounced with ‘kh’ (as in ‘loch’) and is normally written ‘Javi’, which is short for ‘Javier’. In Catalan it would be ‘Xavier’ (pronounced ‘sh’). In French, it’s Xavier, too – said ‘gza’.
Latin Americans produce a softer ‘kh’, almost like the English ‘h’.
If you’re referring to this player, who is Basque:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xabi_Alonso
then it’s pronounced ‘sh’.
yep, that’s the dude to whom I was referring
and thanks for the phonetic/pronunciation clarification.
Is there still controversy in Spain concerning the Basques? I remember hearing about their request for independence but didn’t hear how it turned out (obviously they’re still part of Spain – that much I do know).
In spite of a strong separatist movement, only a minority of the Basques want independence from Spain. So, the Basque Country, as one of the 17 Spanish autonomous communities, is still very much part of the nation.
Strange how this thread has evolved from yodelling to the Basque separatists!
I think we can take care of that:
Do Basques yodel?
hehe
Jamie
While some current country artists lack the required talent to trill/yodel/add grace-notes to their croonings, others do.
(IE, there are a few country vocalists who are gifted singers)
Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, the dude from Rascal Flatts, and Keith Urban are some of those who are able to sing the heck out of their songs – while avoiding the cheap “voice-cracking” method of trills and grace-notes.
Keith Urban and Vince Gill are also wonderful guitarists – true musicians.
Do you know Conor Oberst from a band called “Bright Eyes”? He doesn’t yodel, but to my mind he has added a new dimension to country music. He’s from Athens, Ohio.
I haven’t, Ralf, but I’ll check out his music.
Thanks for the tip.
T