Spanish language
A manuscript of theCantar 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 Aljamiado
Teaching
Hispanism RAE Instituto Cervantes
v t e

Peninsular Spanish (Spanish:español peninsular), also known as theSpanish of Spain (Spanish:español de España),European Spanish (Spanish:español europeo), orIberian Spanish (Spanish:español ibérico), is the set of varieties of theSpanish language spoken inPeninsular Spain. This construct is often framed in opposition tovarieties from the Americas andthe Canary Islands.

From aphonological standpoint, there is a north-south gradient contrasting conservative and innovative pronunciation patterns. The former generally retain features such as/s/ –/θ/ distinction and realization ofintervocalic /d/, whilst the latter may not. Processes of interaction andlevelling between standard (a construct popularly perceived as based on northern dialects) and nonstandard varieties however involve ongoing adoption of conservative traits south and innovative ones north.^[1] In line with Spanish language's rich consonant fluctuation, other internal variation within varieties of Peninsular Spanish is represented by phenomena such as weakening of coda position -/s/, the defricativization of /tʃ/, realizations of /x/ as [x] and [h] and weakening or change of liquid consonants /l/ and /r/.^[2]

Morphologically, a notable feature in most varieties of Peninsular Spanish setting them apart from varieties from the Americas is the use of the pronounvosotros (along with its oblique formos) and its corresponding verb forms for the second person plural familiar.

Language contact of Spanish withCatalan,Basque andGalician in theautonomous communities in which the latter languages are spoken notoriously involveborrowings at the lexical level, but also in the rest of the linguistic structure.^[3]

Variation in Peninsular Spanish, especially phonetic, largely follows a north-south axis, often imagined or characterized as Castilian versus Andalusian in the popular imagination. That said, differentisoglosses intersect and never exactly coincide with regional borders.^[4][5]The Spanish dialects of bilingual regions, such asCastrapo in Galicia orCatalan Spanish, have their own features due to language contact.

A simple, north-south division is:^[5]

• northern dialects (Castile (including Madrid), León, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Aragon, and Spanish-speaking Catalonia)
• southern dialects (Andalusian Spanish,Extremaduran Spanish,Murcian Spanish)

Another north-south division would include a central-northern, found north of Madrid and equated with Castilian Spanish, a southern or Andalusian dialect, and an intermediary zone. This division does not include the Spanish of bilingual regions.^[6]

While a more narrow division includes the following dialect regions:^[4]

• northern Castile, including Salamanca, Valladolid, Burgos, and neighboringprovinces;
• northern Extremadura and Leon, including the province of Cáceres, parts of Leon, western Salamanca province, and Zamora
• Galicia, referring to the Spanish spoken both monolingually and in contact with Galician
• Asturias, especially inland areas such as Oviedo
• the interior Cantabrian region, to the south of Santander
• the Basque Country, including Spanish as spoken monolingually and in contact with Basque
• Catalonia, including Spanish spoken in contact with Catalan
• southeastern Spain, including much of Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, Albacete, and southeastern La Mancha
• eastern Andalusia, including Granada, Almería, and surrounding areas
• western Andalusia, including Seville, Huelva, Cádiz, and the Extremaduran province of Badajoz – the Spanish of Gibraltar is also included
• south-central and southwest Spain, including areas to the south of Madrid such as Toledo and Ciudad Real.

The related termCastilian Spanish is often applied to formal varieties of Spanish as spoken in Spain.^[7][8]

According to folk tradition, the "purest" form of Peninsular Spanish is spoken inValladolid, although the concept of "pure" languages has been rejected by modern linguists.^[9][10]

Dialectal variation in the Peninsula follows both north-south and east-west axes.^[11]

Leísmo is native to a large swath of western Castile, as well as Cantabria and neighboring parts of Leon and Extremadura.^[12]

In much of eastern Castile, as well as Navarre, Aragon and Álava, the clitic pronounse can express plural number, becomingsen, when it follows an infinitive, gerund, or subjunctive form used to express a command, as incasarsen 'to get married',siéntensen 'sit down'.^[13]

In an area of northern Spain, centered on Burgos, La Rioja, Álava and Vizcaya and also including Guipúzcoa, Navarra, Cantabria and Palencia, the imperfect subjunctive forms tend to be replaced by conditional ones.^[14]

In ruralAragon andNavarre, the cluster/tɾ/ is often realized as avoiceless alveolar non-sibilant affricate[tɹ̝̊], not unlike the initial consonant cluster in the English wordtrick. Similarly, the trilled/r/ may also be assibilated to[ɹ̝] in this region. The same pronunciations are also found in much ofHispanic America, especiallyMexico,Central America, and theAndes.^[15]

In a chunk of northwestern Spain which includes Galicia and Bilbao and excludes Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville, the sequence/tl/ in words such asatleta 'athlete' andAtlántico 'Atlantic' is treated as an onset cluster, with both consonants being part of the same syllable. The same is true in the Canary Islands and most of Hispanic America, with the exception of Puerto Rico. On the other hand, in most of Peninsular Spanish, each consonant in/tl/ is considered as belonging to a separate syllable, and as a result the/t/ is subject to weakening. Thus,[aðˈlantiko],[aðˈleta] are the resulting pronunciations.^[16][17]

The Spanish language is apluricentric language. Spanish is spoken in numerous countries around the world, each with differing standards. However, theReal Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), based inMadrid, Spain, is affiliated with the national language academies of 22 otherhispanophone nations through theAssociation of Academies of the Spanish Language, and their coordinated resolutions are typically accepted in other countries, especially those related to spelling. Also, theInstituto Cervantes, an agency of theGovernment of Spain in charge of promoting the Spanish language abroad, has been adopted by other countries as the authority to officially recognize and certify the Spanish level of non-native Spanish speakers as their second language, as happens in Australia, South Korea or Switzerland.^{[citation needed]}

The variants of Spanish spoken in Spain and its former colonies vary significantly ingrammar andpronunciation, as well as in the use ofidioms. Courses of Spanish as asecond language commonly useLatin American Spanish in theUnited States andCanada, whereas European Spanish is typically preferred in Europe.

Dialects in central and northern Spain andLatin American Spanish contain several differences, the most apparent beingDistinción (distinction), i.e., the pronunciation of the letterz before all vowels, and ofc beforee andi, as avoiceless dental fricative/θ/, as in Englishth inthing. Thus, in most varieties of Spanish from Spain,cinco, 'five' is pronounced/ˈθinko/ as opposed to/ˈsinko/ inLatin American Spanish, and similarly forzapato, 'shoe',cerdo, 'pig',zorro, 'fox',Zurbarán. A restricted form ofdistinción also occurs in the area aroundCusco, Peru, where[θ] exists in words such as the numbersdoce, 'twelve', andtrece, 'thirteen'.^[18]

Additionally, all Hispanic American dialects drop the familiar (that is, informal)vosotros verb forms for the second person plural, usingustedes in all contexts. In most of Spain,ustedes is used only in a formal context.

Some other minor differences are:

• The widespread use ofle instead oflo as the masculine direct object pronoun, especially referring to people. This morphological variation, known asleísmo, is typical of a strip of land in central Spain which includes Madrid, and recently it has spread to other regions.
• In the past, the sounds for⟨y⟩ and⟨ll⟩ were phonologically different in most European Spanish subvarieties, especially in the north, compared with only a few dialects in Hispanic America, but that difference is now beginning to disappear (yeísmo) in all Peninsular Spanish dialects, including the standard (that is, European Spanish based on theMadrid dialect). A distinct phoneme for⟨ll⟩ is still heard in the speech of older speakers in rural areas throughout Spain, however, most Spanish-speaking adults and youngsters merge⟨ll⟩ and⟨y⟩. In Hispanic America,⟨ll⟩ remains different from⟨y⟩ in traditional dialects along the Andes range, especially in the Peruvian highlands, all of Bolivia and also in Paraguay. In thePhilippines, speakers ofSpanish andFilipino employ thedistinction between⟨ll⟩/ʎ/ and⟨y⟩/ʝ/.
• In Spain, use ofusted has declined in favor oftú;^[19] however, in Hispanic America, this difference is less noticeable among young people, especially in Caribbean dialects.^{[citation needed]}
• In European Spanish, the letter⟨j⟩ as well as the letter⟨g⟩ before the letters⟨i⟩ and⟨e⟩ are pronounced as a stronger velar fricative/x/ and very often the friction is uvular[χ], while in Hispanic America they are generally guttural as well, but not as strong and the uvular realizations of European Spanish are not reported. In theCaribbean, Colombia, Venezuela, other parts of Hispanic America, the Canary Islands, Extremadura and most of westernAndalusia, as well as in the Philippines, it is pronounced as[h].
• Characteristic of Spanish from Spain (except from Andalusia and the Canary Islands) is thevoiceless alveolar retracted sibilant[s̺], also called apico-alveolar or grave, which is often perceived as intermediate between a laminal/dental[s] and[ʃ]. This sound is also prevalent in ColombianPaisa region, andAndean Spanish dialects.
• Debuccalization of syllable-final/s/ to[x],[h], or dropping it entirely, so thatestá[esˈta] ("s/he is") sounds like[ehˈta] or[eˈta], occurs in both Spain and the Americas. In Spain, this is most common in southern Spain:Andalusia,Extremadura,Murcia,Community of Madrid,La Mancha, etc., as well as in theCanary Islands; in the Americas it is the general pronunciation in most coastal and lowland regions.
• The sequence/tl/ is not a valid onset in European Spanish, unlike Latin American Spanish (particularly Mexican Spanish, where/tl/ is much more common). Thus, in Spain, words likeAtlántico andatleta are pronounced according to the syllabicationAt-lán-ti-co andat-le-ta. Instead, in Mexico, the pronunciation follows the syllabicationA-tlán-ti-co anda-tle-ta.^[16][17]
• voseo is the use of the second person singular informal pronounvos which comes with different verb forms compared totú. There are several sub-varieties of voseo within Hispanic America and many Hispanic American varieties do not have any form of voseo at all.

The meaning of certain words may differ greatly between all the dialects of the language:carro refers tocar in some Hispanic American dialects but tocart in Spain and some Hispanic American dialects. There also appear gender differences:el PC ('personal computer') in European Spanish and some Latin American Spanish,la PC in some Hispanic American Spanish, due to the widespread use of the gallicismordenador (fromordinateur in French) for computer in Peninsular Spanish, which is masculine, instead of the Hispanic-American-preferredcomputadora, which is feminine, from the English word 'computer' (the exceptions being Colombia and Chile, where PC is known ascomputador, which is masculine).

Speakers from Hispanic America tend to use words and polite-set expressions that, even if recognized by theReal Academia Española, are not widely used nowadays (some of them are even deemed asanachronisms) by speakers of European Spanish. For example,enojarse andenfadarse are verbs with the same meaning (to become angry),enojarse being used much more in the Americas than in Spain, andenfadarse more in Spain than in the Americas. Below are select vocabulary differences between Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries. Words inbold are unique to Spain and not used in any other country (except for perhapsEquatorial Guinea which speaks a very closely related dialect, and to a lesser extent thePhilippines).

• Fernández-Ordóñez, Inés (2016)."Dialectos del Español Peninsular"(PDF). In Gutiérrez-Rexach, Javier (ed.).Enciclopedia de Lingüística Hispánica. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.ISBN 9781315713441. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on July 12, 2020. Retrieved18 March 2022.
• Penny, Ralph J. (2000).Variation and change in Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9781139164566.ISBN 0521780454. Retrieved21 June 2022.

• Constraint interaction in Spanish /s/-aspiration: three Peninsular varieties, Richard E. Morris
• Coda obstruents and local constraint conjunction in north-central Peninsular Spanish, Richard E. Morris
• (in Spanish)Jergas de habla hispana Spanish dictionary specializing in slang and colloquial expressions, featuring all Spanish-speaking countries.
• COSER, Audible Corpus of Spoken Rural Spanish

• Spanish dialects of Spain

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