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Most Prestigious Spanish Dialect | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4640 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 9 of 63 07 May 2013 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I cannot comment that much on the situation in Latin America, but in general I do not find that Spanish-speaking people have a strong view on some accents being more prestigious than others. As regards Spain, some accents are considered "funny" or "peculiar", e.g. the singing tone of Galician Spanish or the thick L which betrays a Catalan accent, but at least to my knowledge people are not looked down at because of this. Many Spanish people I know also find the Argentinian accent quite attractive, even "sexy".
When I have been to Latin America with my native Spanish wife, she speaks her normal Castillian Spanish, and I can't remember that comprehension was ever an issue. It seemed that the Dominicans, Mexicans and Argentinians that we spoke with all understood perfectly well "European Spanish", it was actually harder for me, and sometimes my wife, to understand everything they said, but that had more to do with accents than with different vocabulary most of the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4263 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 10 of 63 07 May 2013 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
There is a difference in prestige of accents; it is pretty clear. In the US, for example, African American Standard English and the somewhat related Southern English are definitely considered less prestigious. A large percentage of people on tv or the radio go to speech therapy classes to adjust their accent to imitate the general American accent. Next time you see the main news stations in America, I'll guarantee you that the vast majority speech in "Standard" American. (Midwestern English) Similarly, I would be very comfortable betting that most people think that the accent from Castilla de la Mancha is more prestigious or associated with the higher class than the Dominican accent. Caveat: I'm not saying that one is better or worse, just reporting how it is. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4263 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 11 of 63 07 May 2013 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Andalucian Spanish (the grandfather of Caribbean Spanish, due to the settlers that went to America) is considered much less prestigious than the other types in Spain. So much that there have been books written about the prejudices that they have faced and if the "Andalucian Spanish" is "inferior." Once again, I'm not saying one is "better" nor "worse", just how it is. I'm fairly well acquainted with Spain since I lived there and aside from books regarding this subject, a lot of Spaniards have confirmed this for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5784 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 12 of 63 07 May 2013 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
But you're talking about English there, not Spanish!
It depends who you ask! You mention accent. Many Latin Americans find the distinction between c/z and s made in most of Spain to be far from prestigious! At risk of being too repetitious: you will not find that the dialect of La Mancha is universally considered more prestigious than that of the Dominican Republic throughout the Spanish speaking world, nor will you find the reverse! Spanish is just not like English in this regard. There is no overwhelmingly dominant power in the Spanish speaking world, not in terms of economic power, military power, population or cultural output; this is totally unlike the situation with English, where the USA is dominant in all those respects. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4669 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 13 of 63 08 May 2013 at 12:49am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I second that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4263 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 14 of 63 08 May 2013 at 12:57am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
"But you're talking about English there, not Spanish!"
It depends who you ask! You mention accent. Many Latin Americans find the distinction between c/z and s made in most of Spain to be far from prestigious! At risk of being too repetitious: you will not find that the dialect of La Mancha is universally considered more prestigious than that of the Dominican Republic throughout the Spanish speaking world, nor will you find the reverse! Spanish is just not like English in this regard. There is no overwhelmingly dominant power in the Spanish speaking world, not in terms of economic power, military power, population or cultural output; this is totally unlike the situation with English, where the USA is dominant in all those respects. [/QUOTE] I mentioned English to give an example of the high and low prestige types of English; it is similar in Spanish. Dude, of course there are many people that think that accent A is more prestigious than accent B. However, if you ask 10,000 people and get a statistically significant sample size, you can bet that the majority will say that one is more prestigious than the other. To be super correct in my statements: 1. General American (Midwestern, basically) is considered much more prestigious than African American Standard English and Southern English in major news stations. I challenge you to speak a southern twang and get hired as a news anchor on CNN or Fox news. It will be much harder than if you speak a more "neutral" type of English. 2. The northern accents in Spain are considered more prestigious than the Southern ones. (Granada, Sevilla--basically Andalucía) 3. In general, you will see a higher percentage of Americans looking upon the Spanish accents more favorably than the Mexican ones. I am an exception; I prefer the Mexican ones but not because I care about how it necessarily sounds, but because it is far more widespread in the US than European Spanish. 4. If you talk to thousands of Americans that study Spanish, it is extremely unlikely that you will find a majority of people that are gung-ho for the Andalucian accent instead of the Madrid, Valladolid, and Santander accents, for example. Edit: The reasons for the low prestige of the Andalusian accents stems from the fact that historically (and presently), Andalucia has had the lowest or one of the lowest average salaries in Spain. In an economics class in Spain, the Spanish professor (in Andalucia) showed us the data illustrating the fact that Andalucia was one of the poorest areas of the European Union and thus received much economic help from more prosperous ones. In addition, the rates of illiteracy were actually fairly high in Andalucia until fairly recently, like the 1970's or so when Franco passed away. (1975) Similarly, the southern US has also historically and currently been much worse economically than the North. Maybe the perceived low prestige of these two types is due to the lower amounts of wealth in these areas. It probably is a main reason, actually. Edited by casamata on 08 May 2013 at 1:06am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 15 of 63 08 May 2013 at 1:27am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Every time a value judgment post appears on HTLAL, I cringe. It's always just a matter of time before the opinions inevitably and invariably end up crossing the line. Opinions about "prestige" are just that, opinions. One man's prestige is another man's arrogance.
People get so hung up on accents and "dialects" even though, most learners are only ever going to achieve typically, at best, a modicum of whatever region's speech they are targeting in their own speech, without living in the TL region. There's nothing wrong with going for a particular country or region's speech patterns to get that modicum, but do it because you will be traveling there or your friends are from there- not because of "prestige". If your Spanish-speaking friends are Mexican, try to gravitate more in that direction. If you frequently holiday in Spain, you should focus your efforts there. I live in the Caribbean, Caribbean Spanish is the norm for me- not that I will ever be mistaken for a Cuban, Dominican or Puerto Rican- but still my efforts show I am interested in and care about my home region and are appreciated. When people outside the Caribbean hear me speak Spanish with a Caribbean tinge and vocabulary, it is always a great conversation starter, be it in Madrid, Mexico City or Montevideo. People are curious about it and it almost always opens doors for me. No one looks down on me for my accent. If anyone does, whether it's in Spanish, Portuguese or my native English, I don't need, or want, to know that person- ¡no vale la pena! Edited by iguanamon on 08 May 2013 at 1:39am 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4263 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 16 of 63 08 May 2013 at 1:43am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
How is there any "crossing the line" here? Ask one person, yes, it is an opinion. But if you ask 1,000 and 900 people say that A is true instead of B, then you are probably on to something. For example, here is a statement: The majority of Psychology majors in the United States are women. Look it up, the majority of Psychology majors *are* women. In Spain, I took some psychology classes at the University and...I was one of about three total men in the class of 40. I just did a google search and the American Psychology Association says that 3/4 doctoral psychology candidates are women. Some things are not opinions but facts. Now, something that is harder to quantify. Ask 100 people at random at your university if Mechanical engineering is harder than Art Appreciation or not. I would imagine that about 98 or so would say that engineering is much harder. Similarly, ask 100 Americans if a northern Spanish accent is more prestigious or not than a random Mexican accent. You will most likely see a statistically significant percentage opt for the Spanish one. Also, I'm not saying that one accent is better than another, just pointing out that some accents are considered more prestigious by the general population. For example, my family Chinese dialect is considered a "back-water" dialect that people in the poor countryside learn. My father, for example, looks down on his native tongue and thinks of Cantonese as more high-class. And a lot of other relatives say this. Hmm...maybe something is going on here? Conversely, Cantonese is the "prestige" dialect of Southeast China were my ancestors are from. Edited by casamata on 08 May 2013 at 1:50am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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