Spanish language in the Americas

Spanish language
A manuscript of the Cantar de mio Cid, 13th century
Overview
Pronunciation stress Orthography Names
History
Old Middle Influences
Grammar
Determiners Nouns gender Pronouns personal object Adjectives Prepositions Verbs conjugation irregular verbs
Dialects
Andalusian Andean Argentine Belizean Bolivian Canarian Caribbean Central American Chilean Colombian Costa Rican Cuban Dominican Ecuadorian Equatoguinean Guatemalan Honduran Mexican Murcian New Mexican Nicaraguan Paraguay Panamanian Peninsular Peruvian Philippine status Puerto Rican Rioplatense Saharan Salvadoran Standard Uruguayan Venezuelan
Dialectology
Seseo Yeísmo Voseo Leísmo Loísmo
Interlanguages
Llanito Jopara Judaeo-Spanish Portuñol Spanglish Castrapo Creoles Roquetas Pidgin Chavacano or Chabacano Palenquero or Palenque
Teaching
Hispanism RAE Instituto Cervantes
v t e

The different varieties of the

There are numerous regional particularities and idiomatic expressions within Spanish. In Latin American Spanish, loanwords directly from English are relatively more frequent, and often foreign spellings are left intact. One notable trend is the higher abundance of loan words taken from English in Latin America as well as words derived from English. The Latin American Spanish word for "computer" is computadora, whereas the word used in Spain is ordenador, and each word sounds foreign in the region where it is not used. Some differences are due to Iberian Spanish having a stronger French influence than Latin America, where, for geopolitical reasons, the United States influence has been predominant throughout the twentieth century.

Main features

Pronunciation varies from country to country and from region to region, just as English pronunciation varies from one place to another. In general terms, the speech of the Americas shows many common features akin to southern Spanish variants, especially to western Andalusia (Seville, Cádiz) and the Canary Islands. Coastal language vernaculars throughout Hispanic America show particularly strong similarities to Atlantic-Andalusian speech patterns while inland regions in Mexico and Andean countries are not similar to any particular dialect in Spain.

• Most Spaniards pronounce ⟨z⟩ and ⟨c⟩ (before /
  Canary islanders
  . Andalusia's and the Canary Islands' predominant position in the conquest and subsequent immigration to Hispanic America from Spain is thought to be the reason for the absence of this distinction in most American Spanish dialects.
• Most of Spain, particularly the regions that have a distinctive /
  s̺], with a weak "hushing" sound reminiscent of retroflex fricatives. To a Hispanic American, Andalusian or Canary Island Spanish speaker the /s/ in Spanish dialects from northern Spain might sound close to [ʃ] like English ⟨sh⟩ as in she. However, this apico-alveolar realization of /s/ is not uncommon in some Latin American Spanish dialects which lack [θ]; some inland Colombian Spanish (particularly Antioquia) and Andean regions of Peru and Bolivia also have an apico-alveolar /s
  /.
• The second-person familiar plural pronoun vosotros is not generally used in daily speech in Latin American dialects of Spanish; the formal ustedes is used at all levels of familiarity. However, vosotros and its conjugations are known and seen occasionally in writing or oratory, especially in formal, ritualized contexts.
• Latin America lacks the leísmo found in most of Spain.
• As mentioned, Anglicisms are far more common in Hispanic America than in Spain, due to the stronger and more direct US influence.
• Equally, Indigenous languages have left their mark on Hispanic American Spanish, a fact which is particularly evident in vocabulary to do with flora, fauna and cultural habits. Nevertheless, European Spanish has also absorbed numerous words of Amerindian origin, although for historical reasons, the vast majority of these are taken from Nahuatl and various Caribbean languages.
• Arabic-derived words with Latinate doublets are common in Hispanic American Spanish, being influenced by Andalusian Spanish, such as alcoba ("bedroom") instead of standard cuarto, recámara, and many others and alhaja ("jewel") instead of standard joya. In this sense Hispanic American Spanish is closer to the dialects spoken in the south of Spain.^{[citation needed}
  ]
• See List of words having different meanings in Spain and Hispanic America.
• Most Hispanic American Spanish usually features
  European Spanish, particularly in urban speech (Madrid, Toledo) and especially in Andalusia and the Canary Islands, though in some rural areas [ʎ] has not completely disappeared. Speakers of Rioplatense Spanish pronounce both ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨y⟩ as [ʒ] or [ʃ]. The traditional pronunciation of the digraph ⟨ll⟩ as [ʎ] is preserved in some dialects along the Andes range, especially in inland Peru and the Colombia highlands (Santander, Boyacá, Nariño), northern Argentina, all Bolivia and Paraguay; the Indigenous languages of these regions (Quechua and Aymara) have [ʎ
  ] as a distinct phoneme.
• Most speakers of coastal dialects may
  Castile–La Mancha (except the northeast), Madrid, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla
  ).
• ⟨g⟩ (before /
  German ⟨ch⟩ in ich); in other phonological environments it is pronounced either [x] or [h
  ].
• In many Caribbean varieties the phonemes /
  non-rhoticity. This happens at a reduced level in Ecuador and Chile^{[citation needed}
  ] as well. It is a feature brought from Extremadura and westernmost Andalusia.
• In many Andean regions the
  alveolar trill of rata and carro is realized as an retroflex fricative [ʐ] or even as a voiced apico-alveolar [z
  ]. The alveolar approximant realization is particularly associated with an Indigenous substrate and it is quite common in Andean regions, especially in inland Ecuador, Peru, most of Bolivia and in parts of northern Argentina and Paraguay.
• In Belize, Puerto Rico, and
  r
  / will usually be one of the following:
  • a trill, a tap, an approximant, [
    l
    ], or elided when followed by a consonant or a pause, as in amo[r ~ ɾ ~ ɹ ~ l ~ ∅] paterno ('paternal love');
  • a tap, an approximant, or [
    l
    ] when followed by a vowel-initial word, as in amo[ɾ ~ ɹ ~ l] eterno ('eternal love').
• The
  approximant that is characteristic of most other dialects): pardo [ˈpaɾdo], barba [ˈbaɾba], algo [ˈalɡo], peligro [peˈliɡɾo], desde [ˈdezde/ˈdehde]—rather than the [ˈpaɾðo], [ˈbaɾβa], [ˈalɣo], [peˈliɣɾo], [ˈdezðe/ˈdehðe] of Spain and the rest of Spanish America. A notable exception is the Department of Nariño and most Costeño speech (Atlantic coastal dialects)
  which feature the soft, fricative realizations common to all other Hispanic American and European dialects.
• Word-final /
  n/ can appear among some educated speakers, especially in the media or in singing. Velar word-final /ŋ
  / is also frequent in Spain, especially in southern Spanish dialects (Andalusia and the Canary Islands) and in the Northwest: Galicia, Asturias and León.

Local variations

North America

Further information: North American Spanish

• Mexican Spanish
• Spanish language in the United States
  • Isleño Spanish
  • Sabine River Spanish
  • New Mexican Spanish
  • Chicano Spanish

Central America

Further information: Central American Spanish

• Belizean Spanish
• Costa Rican Spanish
• Guatemalan Spanish
• Honduran Spanish
• Nicaraguan Spanish
• Panamanian Spanish
• Salvadoran Spanish

The Caribbean

Further information: Caribbean Spanish

• Cuban Spanish
• Dominican Spanish
• Puerto Rican Spanish
• Trinidadian Spanish

South America

Further information:

South American Spanish

• Amazonic Spanish
• Andean Spanish
• Bolivian Spanish
• Chilean Spanish
  • Chilote Spanish
• Colombian Spanish
• Ecuadorian Spanish
• Paraguayan Spanish
• Peruvian Spanish
  • Peruvian Coast Spanish
• Rioplatense Spanish
  • Argentine Spanish
  • Uruguayan Spanish
• Venezuelan Spanish
  • Maracucho Spanish

See also

• Spanish language in the United States
• Philippine Spanish
• Equatoguinean Spanish
• Spanish Filipino
• Latin Union
• Spanish-language literature
• Hispanic

References

1. doi:10.14713/arachne.v2i1.21. Archived from the original
   (PDF) on January 30, 2005.
2. ^ ^{a b} El español: una lengua viva – Informe 2022 (PDF) (Report). Instituto Cervantes. 31 October 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 November 2022.

External links

• Diccionario de americanismos by the
  Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española
• Latin American Dictionary with variants for every country