In the Neapolitan dialect "guaglione" (pronounced guahl-YO-nay) signified a young man. The chiefly unlettered immigrants shortened that to guahl-YO, which they pronounced whal-YO. That was inevitably further shortened to yo. The common greeting among young Italian-American males was "Hey, whal-YO!", and then simply, "Yo!" And so it remains today.
Expert articles and interactive video lessons on how to use the Spanish language. Learn about 'por' vs. 'para', Spanish pronunciation, typing Spanish accents, and more.
My Spanish teacher is from Colombia and he says yo as "yo" most of the time, though sometimes, it sounds a little like a j. In Spanish, J and Y are allophones, meaning that they can be substituted for each other. For example, "ella" can be pronounced "eja", "eya" or with a sound that is roughly between y and j.
Expert articles and interactive video lessons on how to use the Spanish language. Learn about 'por' vs. 'para', Spanish pronunciation, typing Spanish accents, and more.
