The differentdialects of theSpanish language spoken in theAmericas are distinct from each other, as well as from those varieties spoken in theIberian Peninsula —collectively known asPeninsular Spanish— and Spanish spoken elsewhere, such as inEquatorial Guinea,Western Sahara, or in thePhilippines. There is great diversity among the various Hispanic Americanvernaculars, as there are no common traits shared by all of them which are not also in existence in one or more of the variants of Iberian Spanish. A general Hispanic American "standard" does, however, vary from the Castilian "standard" register used in television, music and, notably, in thedubbing industry.[1] Of the more than498 million people who speak Spanish as their native language, more than 455 million are inLatin America, theUnited States andCanada, as of 2022.[2] The total amount of native and non-native speakers ofSpanish as of October 2022 well-exceeds 595 million.[2]
There are numerous regional particularities andidiomatic expressions within Spanish. In Latin American Spanish, for instance (such as inMexico orPuerto Rico, or areas of the contiguous U.S.),loanwords directly from English are used with some frequency, with English or non-Spanish spellings left intact. For example, the Hispanic American Spanish word for "computer" iscomputadora, whereas the word used in Spain isordenador, and each word sounds "foreign" in the region where it is not used. Some differences are due to Iberian Spanish having a stronger French and Mediterranean influence thanHispanic America, where, for geopolitical and social reasons, theUnited States' English-language influence has been predominant throughout the twentieth century. Another common loanword, used often in different Latin American Spanish dialects, is a simple affirmative "O.K." or "okay", instead of "sí" or "está bien" ("yes", or "it's good/okay").
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 theCanary 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/e/ and/i/) as[θ] (calleddistinción). Conversely, most Hispanic Americans haveseseo, lacking a distinction between this phoneme and/s/. However,seseo is also typical of the speech of manyAndalusians and allCanary 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 Latin American Spanish dialects.
Most of Spain, particularly the regions that have a distinctive/θ/ phoneme, realize/s/ with the tip of tongue against the alveolar ridge. Phonetically this is an"apico-alveolar" "grave" sibilant[s̺], with a weak "hushing" sound reminiscent ofretroflex 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 inshe. 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 pronounvosotros is not generally used in daily speech in Hispanic American dialects of Spanish; the formalustedes 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.
Hispanic America virtually lacks theleísmo found in a good deal of Spain, with this feature only being found commonly inParaguay and the highlands ofEcuador.
As mentioned, Anglicisms are far more common in Hispanic America than in Spain, due to the stronger and more direct US influence. Anglicisms in Chile and Argentina are even very common mostly because of the influence of British settlers there.
Equally,Indigenous languages have left their mark on Latin 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 Latin American Spanish, being influenced by Andalusian Spanish, such asalcoba ("bedroom") instead of standardcuarto,recámara, and many others andalhaja ("jewel") instead of standardjoya. In this sense Latin American Spanish is closer to the dialects spoken in the south of Spain.[citation needed]
Most Hispanic American Spanish usually featuresyeísmo: there is no distinction between⟨ll⟩ and⟨y⟩. However realization varies greatly from region to region. Chileans pronounce these 2 graphemes as[ʝ], for example. However, yeísmo is an expanding and now dominant feature ofEuropean Spanish, particularly in urban speech (Madrid, Toledo) and especially inAndalusia and theCanary Islands, though in some rural areas[ʎ] has not completely disappeared. Speakers ofRioplatense 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 theAndes range, especially in inlandPeru, the Sierra ofEcuador, and theColombia highlands (Santander, Boyacá, Nariño), northern Argentina, allBolivia andParaguay; the Indigenous languages of these regions (Quechua,Guarani andAymara) have[ʎ] as a distinct phoneme.
⟨g⟩ (before/e/ or/i/) and⟨j⟩ are usuallyaspirated to[h] in Caribbean and other coastal language vernaculars, as well as in all of Colombia and southern Mexico, as in much of southern Spain. In other Latin American dialects, the sound is closer to[x], and often firmly strong (rough) in Peruvian Spanish dialect.[citation needed] Very often, especially in Argentina and Chile,[x] becomes fronter[ç] when preceding high vowels/e,i/ (these speakers approach[x] to the realization ofGerman⟨ch⟩ inich); in other phonological environments it is pronounced either[x] or[h].
In many Caribbean varieties, 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; some people assimilate the phonemes /l/, /r/ or /s/ to a following consonant, so the wordsalta,harta andhasta may be pronounced ['atta]; in the situation of/r/ in word-final position, it becomes silent, giving Caribbean dialects of Spanish a partialnon-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, thealveolar trill ofrata andcarro is realized as anretroflex fricative[ʐ] or[ɹ] 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. That phonetic is also heard in Costa Rica, except pronounced as [z].
In Belize, Puerto Rico, andColombian islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, aside from[ɾ],[r], and[l], syllable-final/r/ can be realized as[ɹ], an influence ofAmerican English to Puerto Rican dialect andBritish English to Belizean dialect and Colombian dialect of Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (in the case of the latter three, it is not exclusive to Colombians whose ancestors traced back to Spanish period before British invasion, under British territorial rule, and recovery of Spanish control, but is also used byRaizals, whites of British descent, and descendants of mainland Colombians);"verso"' (verse) becomes[ˈbeɹso], aside from[ˈbeɾso],[ˈberso], or[ˈbelso], "invierno" (winter) becomes[imˈbjeɹno], aside from[imˈbjeɾno],[imˈbjerno], or[imˈbjelno], and "escarlata" (scarlet) becomes[ehkaɹˈlata], aside from[ehkaɾˈlata],[ehkarˈlata], or [ehkaˈlata]. In word-final position,/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 inamo[r~ɾ~ɹ~l~∅]paterno ('paternal love');
a tap, an approximant, or[l] when followed by a vowel-initial word, as inamo[ɾ~ɹ~l]eterno ('eternal love').
In Chile and Costa Rica, consonant cluster [tɾ] can be pronounced [tɹ̝̥],[tɻ], or [tʂ], makingcuatro 'four' andtrabajo 'work' pronounced as [ˈkwatɹ̝̥o~ˈkwatɻo~ˈkwatʂo] and [tɹ̝̥aˈβaxo~tɻaˈβaxo~tʂaˈβaxo] respectively. This is an influence ofMapudungun in Chile[3] and native languages of Costa Rica.
Thevoiced consonants/b/,/d/, and/ɡ/ are pronounced asplosives after and sometimes before any consonant in most ofColombian Spanish dialects (rather than thefricative orapproximant 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 theDepartment of Nariño and mostCosteño speech (Atlantic coastal dialects) which feature the soft, fricative realizations common to all other Hispanic American and European dialects.
Word-final/n/ is velar[ŋ] in much Latin American Spanish speech; this means a word likepan (bread) is often articulated['paŋ]. To an English-speaker, those speakers that have a velar nasal for word-final/ŋ/ makepan sound likepang. Velarization of word-final/n/ is so widespread in the Americas that it is easier to mention those regions that maintain an alveolar[n]: most of Mexico, Colombia (except for coastal dialects) and Argentina (except for some northern regions). Elsewhere, velarization is common, although alveolar 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.
