Learn the answer to the question 'What are the differences among Spanish dialects?'
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| Hi everybody! Rosa here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I'll answer some of your most common Spanish questions. |
| The question for this lesson is, What are the main differences among Spanish from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean? |
| Spanish is one of the world's most widely spoken languages. It's the official language of 19 countries as well as Puerto Rico. |
| It's so widespread because of Spanish colonial history. During the colonial period, Spanish mixed with native regional languages, and that's why Spanish today is so different around the world. |
| There's no standard Spanish dialect, only regional dialects. So it's common for Spanish learners to run into different kinds of Spanish - especially in terms of pronunciation. |
| In the U.S., Latin American Spanish is what's most commonly taught in schools. It's spoken in most of Central America and South America, including Mexico, and excluding Argentina, Brazil, Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana. |
| Latin American Spanish has strong r’s and a relatively clean pronunciation. Words are pronounced mostly as they're written. |
| Here are just a few regional varieties of Latin American Spanish: |
| Caribbean Spanish often drops s's at the ends of words, making it sound a lot faster than Spanish from other places. |
| Mexican Spanish takes a lot of vocabulary from the indigenous language Náhutal. You may be familiar with the word chocolate, which comes from the word xocolātl in Náhutal. Also, the double-l in Mexico has a "y" sound. So for the sentence, "My name is Ricardo," Mexicans say, me llamo (yamo) Ricardo. |
| Colombian-Ecuadorian Spanish is a mixture of Caribbean Spanish and coastal Spanish. Here, the double-l usually makes the sound "j," like me llamo (jamo) Ricardo. |
| Argentinian Spanish is in a category by itself. It's very different from the Spanish spoken in the rest of Latin America. It has some indigenous Guaraní vocabulary, but French and Italian immigrants also strongly influenced this dialect. |
| An interesting fact about Argentinian Spanish is that Argentinian slang, called "lunfardo," was originally a made-up prison language. Prisoners, mostly Italians, used it so guards wouldn't understand what they were saying. Now, lunfardo words are used all over Argentina. |
| Argentinian Spanish also uses vos, the formal "you" address, rather than tú, the more common informal address in Latin America. The double-l is also pronounced like "j/zh" as in me llamo Ricardo. |
| Spanish in Spain is called Castilian Spanish. Some pronunciations are very different than the other kinds of Spanish we’ve already mentioned. The double-l is pronounced differently depending on the region within Spain. |
| The Latin American "ci/ce" sound is pronounced with a "th" sound like, "ci/ce [Castilian pronunciation]." |
| For example, Gracias, meaning thank you, is "[Latin American pronunciation]" in Latin American Spanish and Gracias "[Castilian pronunciation]" in Castilian Spanish. |
| Another major difference is that Castilian Spanish often uses vosotros as the plural of tú instead of the Latin American ustedes. |
| Pretty fascinating, isn't it? |
| If you have any other questions, leave a comment and I'll try to answer it! |
| ¡Chao! |
Comments
HideWhat Spanish learning question do you have?
Hola Nathan Robinson,
Thank you for your feedback.
We will consider this for future lessons.
Let us know if you have any questions or doubts.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Sometime in the future, it would be awesome to see videos on dominican spanish.
Hola Tom,
Thank you for your comment.
You can search in the lesson library with her name "Rosa".
Sigamos practicando.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
I want to learn only from Rosa Martin. For me she is the best teacher and I find it easier to learn from her pronunciations.
Please figure out how you can update the software where you can click on her team staff picture and then it leads to only her lessons. It would make it easier to find only her lessons.
Hola JJ,
Thank you for your comment.
You can go to the lesson library and filter only the Iberian Spanish lessons.
Sigamos practicando.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
I have no idea what is going on. I seem to have a mixture of Spanish (I would presume and hope Iberian) and Latin American. It is confusing enough without these complications. How do I set up for just Iberian Spanish and preferably (real) British English rather than American "English"!
Hola PK,
Thank you for your comment.
I recommend you the Iberian Spanish lessons.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
I saw that the European spanish in the beginner & intermediate level pathway has less lessons and have no assessment along the way unlike the Mexican spanish pathway. Which pathway should I choose if I want to learn the castilian spanish accent with grammar lesson that is belong in the Mexican pathway?
Hi Art Strier,
Thank you for your question.
On this site we only teach Iberian and Mexican Spanish.
If you are interested in making changes in your subscription, please send an email to contactus@SpanishPod101.com
Cheers,
Lena
Team SpanishPod101.com
I just signed up for Basic program. I am looking to learn Carribean Spanish but my basic lessons are teaching Mexican Spanish how can I switch?
Hola Brittney,
Que bueno!
Great!
Please let us know if you have any other questions and keep enjoying our lessons.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
This helped clear some misunderstandings about some of the pronunciations, Thanks!
Hola Ara,
I recommend Studying Latin american Spanish.
When you feel conformable with your Spanish, you can move to look into the other lessons.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
I'm still a little confused as to how I should be studying Spanish. Studying all the different regional dialects may be confusing. Should I start with one and when perfected move on to the others? What do you suggest?
P.s. Also which is the most widely spoken?
Hola Ara,
No, you should stay with the one you relate the most.
Some people prefer Spain Spanish 'cause they 're going to travel to this country or also because they feel it's the original one. It's just like American english and Britain english.
It's ok to stay with Latin American . :smile:
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Heyy there!
Do I have to learn all the different types of Spanish or is it fine if I stick to Latin American simply?