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Widely understood varieties of Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| dagojr Groupie United States Joined 5590 days ago 56 posts - 131 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 4 19 September 2010 at 10:21pm | IP Logged |
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What is the most widely understood variety of Spanish?
Let me give you a few examples from a couple of other languages with different regional varieties. The so-called general American variety of English is probably the most widely understood variety of English. Part of this is because millions of people speak it, but it's mostly due to the fact that so many English speakers are exposed to it through movies, TV, radio, etc. You are most likely to be understood if you communicate with this variety. Although I know very little about Arabic, I understand that the Egyptian variety of Arabic is the most widely understood. Like the American variety of English, the Egyptian variety of Arabic enjoys a large population who speaks it as well as a television and movie industry that is popular across the Arab world. There are of course many regional varieties of Spanish. Which one/s is/are are the most widely understood? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| El Forastero Pentaglot Senior Member Colombia alijunakai.blogspot.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6270 days ago 186 posts - 228 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, FrenchB1, EnglishC1, Italian Studies: German | Message 2 of 4 19 September 2010 at 11:02pm | IP Logged |
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I can say, for me, there are two very easy to understand varietys: those from mexican translators of movies or TV (very easy to understood and quite different from this one used in mexican telenovelas), and the "Neutral Bogotanian-Colombian" That is, Spanish used in TV and radio from Bogotá, very similar to the first.
However, you must realize that people from these places speak a little bit different to you can see at TV or Radio 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| galindo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5208 days ago 142 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Portuguese | Message 3 of 4 20 September 2010 at 10:41am | IP Logged |
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I also think Mexican and Colombian Spanish are the clearest-sounding, at least the TV varieties. (But maybe I'm biased because I'm Colombian...) I think those two are the best at not dropping letters and not slurring or speaking too fast.
You've probably noticed that a main feature of English dialects is how drastically vowels can change from one place to another, and that is the main thing that impairs comprehension. Spanish vowels don't change like that, so that automatically makes it hard to compare to other widespread languages with regional variations. I've never had trouble understanding any dialect of Spanish, not even when I lived in a small fishing village in Chile. Each country and region has its own little quirks, but Spanish as a whole has such a simple phonetic system that it's hard to mess it up to such an extent that it's incomprehensible (except when people speak ridiculously fast). Probably the worst that happens is 's' being swallowed or whole syllables being dropped, but anyone can adjust to that if they notice the patterns and they're familiar with the vocabulary. I think that's the harder part, getting used to the local names for common words, like vegetables. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Maikl Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6226 days ago 121 posts - 145 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch, English, Spanish Studies: Turkish | Message 4 of 4 20 September 2010 at 5:45pm | IP Logged |
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I've dicovered a YouTube channel recently that features Colombian films and I'm going to watch one tonight and I'm pretty sure that it will be tough comprehending, so to speak. Googled for transscripts didn't find any, the better, I guess, in the long run...
I believe that once you are proficient at understanding casually spoken Iberian Spanish (which I'm not, yet) then you won't have any problems with American Spanish. The other way round it may be slightly different, I'm not sure. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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