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Latin American Spanish versus Castilian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| joebelt Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6332 days ago 51 posts - 68 votes  Speaks: English*, French | Message 1 of 18 26 June 2010 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What are the differences in pronunciation between the two? I just started Pimsleur Spanish (the Latin American course) and was kind of wondering. I know there are no big differences but what are the few pronunciation differences? thanks!
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| justberta Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5584 days ago 140 posts - 170 votes Speaks: English, Norwegian* Studies: Indonesian, German, Spanish, Russian | Message 2 of 18 26 June 2010 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Since you live in the United States it's a great idea to learn Latin American Spanish.
The grammar is the same as far as I know. Vocabulary in Latin America is a little bit more American, carro instead of coche, for instance. People from Spain speak faster and with a special sounding C. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6202 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 3 of 18 26 June 2010 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There are differences in grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, but like you said, none of them are big. Since you asked about differences in pronunciation, it kind of depends on what kind of Latin American Spanish (and what kind of Peninsular Spanish) you are talking about. If we go with the most general versions, the main differences are:
-intonation (varies widely within Latin America as well) -seseo vs. distinción: In Spain, the standard pronunciation of "c" (before "i" or "e") and of "z" is similar to the "th" in the English word "thin", while in Latin America it's always pronounced like "s". -pronunciation of the "j": In Spain it's much "stronger" and further back (uvular in Spain vs. velar in Latin America). In both regions, however, there are dialects that pronounce it like English "h" -The "s" is also different in general Peninsular vs. general Latin American. In Spain, it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue behind the top teeth, but in Latin America it is generally pronounced with the blade of the tongue behind the top teeth. Those are the major differences that I can think of. As you can see, they're really not that big. I would say that the most important differences are in vocabulary, followed by grammar. But again, there are huge differences among different regions within Spain or Latin America. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nicill Bilingual Triglot Newbie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5281 days ago 17 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, EnglishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 18 26 June 2010 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I am a native speaker, but not a language expert. My personal opinion is that grammar is quite stable (sentences are built more or less the same way everywhere).
Differences tend to arise in vocabulary, pronunciation (seseo/ceceo has already been mentioned) and idioms. For a detailed description you can check wikipedia, with a nice long article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language Unfortunately, the English version is much worse than the Spanish one, so if you can, I would recommend reading it in Spanish (section "Descripción lingüística" contains most of what you need). http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idioma_espa%C3%B1ol#Distribuci. C3.B3n_geogr.C3.A1fica To get a "taste" of some of the most frequent differences (in this case between Spanish and Chilean dialects) check: http://www.iesribalta.net/html/departaments/castella/html/di ferencias.htm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| joebelt Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6332 days ago 51 posts - 68 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 5 of 18 26 June 2010 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks a lot! I guess I'm not going to worry too much about all this for the moment. I am guessing the vocabulary is Mexican in Pimsleur's Latin American course since situation are based in Mexico. They say the accent is a neutral accent whatever that means?!?!?!?
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| plaidchuck Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/plaidchRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5304 days ago 71 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 6 of 18 26 June 2010 at 11:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I had a quick related question to add to this thread:
Does anyone know where they pronounce the ll as yl as in silla pronounced as "silya" or hallar as "halyar" I know there was a mention of this pronunciation in the FSI Basic Course, but I had never heard it until listening to Alba's readings at albalearning.com. Is this specific to a region in Spain? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5566 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 7 of 18 27 June 2010 at 3:59am | IP Logged | |||||
Spanish is the opposite of English when it comes to dialects. In English, everybody pronounces consonants pretty much the same, but there is a lot of variation in how vowels are pronounced from region to region. In Spanish, everybody has the same five vowels, and it's the consonants that tell you where somebody is from.
Sí. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye%C3%ADsmo
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| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5584 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 8 of 18 27 June 2010 at 4:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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no one mentioned the "vosotros" thing!
in Latin America I barely hear anyone use the "Vosotros" form of verbs, they rely more on Ustedes :) I won't say you'll NEVER hear it, but You'll mostly here Ustedes :) Edited by datsunking1 on 27 June 2010 at 4:49am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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