American Spanish
Encyclopedia
Spanish language in the Americas, also known as American Spanish, refers to the Spanish
(or Castilian
) spoken in the Americas
, as opposed to European Spanish. Linguistically, this grouping is somewhat arbitrary, akin to having a term for "overseas British" encompassing variants spoken in the US, Canada, India, New Zealand and Ireland, but not England. The point is that there is great diversity among the various American dialects, and it would be hard to point to one trait shared by all of them which is not also in existence in one or more of the variants of Spanish used in Spain.
Of the more than 469 million people who speak Spanish as their mother tongue, more than 418 million are in Latin America
and the United States
.
There are numerous regional particularities and idiomatic expressions within Spanish. In American Spanish, loanword
s 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. In Latin America they speak of la computadora while in Spain it's el ordenador, and each word sounds foreign in the region where it is not used. It is important to note that many of these differences are due to Iberian Spanish having a stronger French influence than Latin America, where, for geopolitical reasons, the Anglo Saxon influence has been predominant throughout the twentieth century.
North America
Central America
The Caribbean
South America
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
(or Castilian
Names given to the Spanish language
There are two names given to the Spanish language: Spanish and Castilian . Spanish speakers from different countries or backgrounds can show a preference for one term or the other, or use them indiscriminately, but political issues or common usage might lead speakers to prefer one term over the...
) spoken in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, as opposed to European Spanish. Linguistically, this grouping is somewhat arbitrary, akin to having a term for "overseas British" encompassing variants spoken in the US, Canada, India, New Zealand and Ireland, but not England. The point is that there is great diversity among the various American dialects, and it would be hard to point to one trait shared by all of them which is not also in existence in one or more of the variants of Spanish used in Spain.
Of the more than 469 million people who speak Spanish as their mother tongue, more than 418 million are in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
There are numerous regional particularities and idiomatic expressions within Spanish. In American Spanish, loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s 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. In Latin America they speak of la computadora while in Spain it's el ordenador, and each word sounds foreign in the region where it is not used. It is important to note that many of these differences are due to Iberian Spanish having a stronger French influence than Latin America, where, for geopolitical reasons, the Anglo Saxon 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.- Most Spaniards pronounce ‹z› and ‹c› before ‹i› or ‹e›Hard and soft CIn the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages , a distinction between hard and soft ⟨c⟩ occurs in which ⟨c⟩ represents two distinct phonemes...
as θ, while most Latin Americans pronounce it as s, the same as ‹s›. However, the absence of this distinction is also typical of parts of Southern Spain (notably Seville) and of the Canary Islands. Seville and the Canary Island's predominant position in the conquest and subsequent immigration to Latin America from Spain is largely the reason for the absence of this distinction in most Latin American dialects. - As mentioned, Anglicisms are far more common in Latin America than in Spain, due to the stronger and more direct US influence.
- Equally, indigenous languagesIndigenous languages of the AmericasIndigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families as well as many language...
have left their mark on American Spanish, a fact which is particularly evident in vocabulary to do with flora, fauna and cultural habits. - See List of words having different meanings in Spain and Latin America.
- American Spanish usually features yeísmoYeísmoYeísmo is a distinctive feature of many dialects of the Spanish language, which consists of the loss of the traditional palatal lateral approximant phoneme and its merger into the phoneme , usually realized as a palatal fricative or affricate. In other words, ‹ll› and ‹y› represent the same sound...
—that is, there is no distinction between ‹ll› and ‹y›, and both are ʝ. Yeísmo is an expanding and now dominant feature of European Spanish. Speakers of Rioplatense SpanishRioplatense SpanishRioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
pronounce both ‹ll› and ‹y› as ʒ or ʃ. The traditional pronunciation of the digraph ‹ll› ʎ is preserved in some dialects along the AndesAndesThe Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
range, especially in PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and ColombiaColombiaColombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
highlands, and all BoliviaBoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
and ParaguayParaguayParaguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
. - Most speakers in coastal dialects may debuccalizeDebuccalizationDebuccalization is a sound change in which a consonant loses its original place of articulation and becomes or . The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspiration, but in phonetics aspiration is the burst of air accompanying a plosive...
syllable-final /s/ to h, or drop it entirely, so that está esˈta ("s/he is") sounds like [ehˈta] or [eˈta], as in southern Spain (AndalusiaAndalusiaAndalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, MurciaRegion of MurciaThe Region of Murcia is an autonomous community of Spain located in the southeast of the country, between Andalusia and Valencian Community, on the Mediterranean coast....
, Castile-La ManchaCastile-La ManchaCastile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...
, Canary IslandsCanary IslandsThe Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, CeutaCeutaCeuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
and MelillaMelillaMelilla is a autonomous city of Spain and an exclave on the north coast of Morocco. Melilla, along with the Spanish exclave Ceuta, is one of the two Spanish territories located in mainland Africa...
). - The ‹j› may be x in inland dialects, and often firmly strong (rough) in Peru, while in Caribbean and other coastal dialects it is usually h as in most southern Spanish speeches.
- In many Caribbean speeches the phonemes /l/ and /r/ at the end of a syllable sound alike or can be exchanged: caldo > ca[r]do, cardo > ca[l]do. This happens at a reduced level in Ecuador and Chile as well and is a feature brought from Extremadura and westernmost Andalusia.
North AmericaNorth American SpanishNorth American Spanish is the name of the Spanish dialects spoken in North America.*Mexican Spanish*Spanish in the United States**New Mexican Spanish...
- Mexican SpanishMexican SpanishMexican Spanish is a version of the Spanish language, as spoken in Mexico and in various places of Canada and the United States of America, where there are communities of Mexican origin....
- Spanish in the United StatesSpanish in the United StatesSpanish is the second most used language in the United States. There are more Spanish speakers in the United States than there are speakers of Chinese, French, Italian, Hawaiian, and the Native American languages combined. According to the 2009 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S...
- New Mexican SpanishNew Mexican SpanishNew Mexican Spanish is a variant or dialect of Spanish spoken in the United States, primarily in the northern part of the state of New Mexico and the southern part of the state of Colorado...
- New Mexican Spanish
Central AmericaCentral American SpanishCentral American Spanish is the general name of the Spanish language dialects spoken in Central America...
- Costa Rican SpanishCosta Rican SpanishCosta Rican Spanish is the form of Spanish language spoken in Costa Rica.-Phonetics:The unique or distinguishing characteristics of Costa Rican phonetics include the following:...
- Guatemalan SpanishGuatemalan SpanishGuatemalan Spanish is the national variant of Spanish spoken in the Central American republic of Guatemala. About 9 million of the 13 million population speak Spanish...
- Honduran SpanishHonduran SpanishHonduran Spanish is the Spanish language as spoken in Honduras. Voseo is routinely used in Honduras.-Local words:These words are slang words used in Honduras, some may also be used in neighboring El Salvador and elsewhere.*Bolulo - bread roll...
- Nicaraguan SpanishNicaraguan SpanishNicaraguan Spanish is geographically defined as the form of Spanish spoken in the country of Nicaragua in Central America. Affectionately, Nicaraguan Spanish is often called Nicañol....
- Panamanian SpanishPanamanian SpanishPanamanian Spanish is geographically defined as the form of Spanish spoken in the country of Panama, which is located in Central America.The variations among different speaker groups of the same language can be lexical , phonological , morphological , or in the use of syntax .Historically, Panama...
- Salvadoran SpanishSalvadoran SpanishSalvadoran Spanish is geographically defined as the form of Spanish spoken in the country of El Salvador in Central America.The Spanish dialect in El Salvador shares many similarities to that of its neighbors in the region, but it has its stark differences in pronunciation and usage.El Salvador,...
- Caliche slang
The CaribbeanCaribbean SpanishCaribbean Spanish is the general name of the Spanish dialects spoken in the Caribbean region. It closely resembles the Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands and Andalusia....
- Cuban SpanishCuban SpanishCuban Spanish is the dialect of the Spanish language as it is spoken in Cuba. As a Caribbean dialect, Cuban Spanish shares a number of features with nearby varieties, including coda deletion, seseo, and debuccalization.-Overview:...
- Dominican SpanishDominican SpanishDominican Spanish is Spanish as spoken in the Dominican Republic, a Caribbean country, and throughout the Dominican diaspora, which is found mostly in the United States, chiefly in New York City, Boston, and Miami....
- Puerto Rican SpanishPuerto Rican SpanishPuerto Rican Spanish is the Spanish language as characteristically spoken in Puerto Rico and by millions of people of Puerto Rican descent living in the United States and elsewhere...
South AmericaSouth American SpanishSouth American Spanish is a broad geographical term for dialects of Spanish spoken on the continent of South America....
- Amazonic SpanishAmazonic SpanishAmazonic Spanish , also known as Loreto-Ucayali Spanish or Jungle Spanish , is a variety of Spanish spoken in the Amazon, especially in the Peruvian Amazon provinces of Loreto and Ucayali...
- Bolivian Spanish
- Chilean SpanishChilean SpanishChilean Spanish is the variety of Spanish spoken in most of Chile. Though still entirely mutually intelligible with standard Spanish, Chilean Spanish has distinctive pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and slang usage...
- Chilote SpanishChilote SpanishChilote is a dialect of Spanish language spoken on the southern Chilean islands of Chiloé Archipelago...
- Chilote Spanish
- Colombian SpanishColombian SpanishColombian Spanish is a term that refers to the varieties of Spanish spoken in Colombia. The term is of more geographical than linguistic relevance, since the dialects spoken in the various regions of Colombia are quite diverse...
- Ecuadorian Spanish
- Paraguayan SpanishParaguayan SpanishParaguayan Spanish is a dialect of the Spanish language spoken in Paraguay, and influencing the speech of the Argentine provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, Formosa, and, to a lesser extent, Chaco...
- Peruvian Spanish
- Peruvian Coast SpanishPeruvian Coast SpanishPeruvian Coast Spanish is the form of the Spanish language spoken in the coastal region of Peru. The Spanish spoken in Coastal Peru has four characteristic forms today: the original one, that of the inhabitants of Lima near the Pacific coast and parts south, ; the inland...
- Peruvian Coast Spanish
- Rioplatense SpanishRioplatense SpanishRioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
(In UruguayUruguayUruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and most of ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
) - Venezuelan SpanishVenezuelan SpanishVenezuelan Spanish is a dialect of the Spanish language spoken in Venezuela.Spanish was introduced in Venezuela by the conquistadors. Most of them were from Andalusia, Galicia, Basque Country, and the Canary Islands...
Further information
- http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/m/jml34/city.pdf = Lipski, J. "The role of the city in the formation of Spanish American dialect zones"