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Cuban Spanish - why not? | ||
Tags: Latin America | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5921 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 17 of 29 28 May 2010 at 4:53am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
I'm guessing the past perfect. Spaniards tend to say things like "Yo he comido" where most of Latin America would say "Yo comi."
Cockney English and Boston English aren't the dialect of a whole nation. ;) Thick Cuban accents do sound crass, but nobody'll harp on you for having a light Cuban accent. After all, Cubans in general are pretty well-educated. I'd like to take the moment to say that Cubans (from my experience) are rather critical of other accents. I've yet to meet a single Cuban with a friendly word to say about the Mexican accent, let alone the Argentinian or Colombian! (I've heard that Colombian spanish is the clearest; I disagree). It's a friendly ribbing type of thing. Edited by lynxrunner on 28 May 2010 at 4:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ZeroTX Groupie United States Joined 6134 days ago 91 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 18 of 29 28 May 2010 at 5:30am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Ahh, okay. I've heard that they say that and it also makes no sense to me... at least not directly translated. I prefer the preterit.
Interesting. I find the Colombian accent to be clear and easy to understand, but I find the easiest and most "educated-sounding" Spanish accent (in my gringo opinion) to be an EDUCATED person from Mexico City. I would equate it in English with a college-educated middle-west "generic" American accent, e.g. what a TV news reporter would have, or what is becoming the standard in the U.S. for educated people as regional accents diminish (my mom, for instance, has replaced her Alabama drawl with a very generic American accent in order to succeed in business). Also, you can't really just say "Mexican accent" to refer to a single accent. Mexico is a huge nation (the largest and most populated nation of Spanish-speakers in the world.... far more than Spain), so there are big regional differences and CLASS differences. A "campesino" from the Chiapas area probably isn't going to have a very clear, nor educated-sounding accent, nor is a lower-class person from D.F. But, a college-educated person from Mexico City is about as crystal clear as Spanish gets. And despite what Americans seem to think about what "Hispanic" means, they are often white-skinned. IMHO :) I love Mexican Spanish, because it can be understood without concentrating. The Cubans? You have to try to play a puzzle game, filling in what letter they MEANT say, but never actually said it... "Ohh... you MEANT to say "como estaS... I thought you said 'como esta' and I responded '¿como esta que?'" I agree with the Cubans that the Argentinean accent is strange and sounds a little silly. Any accent that "swallows" important sounds that convey meaning, makes the accent sound uneducated and by definition difficult for a non-native to understand. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Javi Senior Member Spain Joined 5980 days ago 419 posts - 548 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 19 of 29 28 May 2010 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
That's simply not true. For starters, all Latin American accents lack the sound θ, a phoneme that conveys meaning, and no one regards this as uneducated. Most if not all Spanish speaking countries have an educated, high register version of the language, and all those versions sound educated throughout the Spanish world, no matter if they don't always stick to the 'letters', to the written language. You seem to like some Mexican accents, but that is just a matter of taste. Here in Spain I would say that Cuban and Argentinian are the best known and most liked accents. Just thinking that a Mexican sounds more educated than someone from you-name-the-place makes me laugh big time. But hey, you see GA as the epitome of educated English, so it all makes sense. Edited by Javi on 28 May 2010 at 2:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 20 of 29 28 May 2010 at 3:36pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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One of the great things about growing older is that you reach the conclusion that there are some issues which are not as important anymore. My Spanish dialect (an Andalusian from Almería, with traits from Granada and just a hint of Jaen:-) probably sounds very uneducated, and does not correspond to my "status" as someone with a 10 years' university education and who is way above average focused of speaking an educated version of Norwegian. But guess what, I do not care. Last year I spoke Spanish to an English gentleman, whose Spanish was stiff, and full of errors, but who literally stepped back in horror when he heard me speak Spanish, exclaiming: "Oh, how horrendous - what a ghastly accent you have!"
Personally I thought that opinions might differ concerning whose accent was ghastly, but I was too polite to say so. I have also often been teased by Englishmen about my almost-American accent. I don't care. I am comfortable using it, and if others are unhappy about it, the problme is entirely theirs :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5921 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 21 of 29 28 May 2010 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
In the same way that people use "American accent" to refer to the general American accent, "Mexican accent" refers to some generic Mexican accent. I have no idea where it's from (probably Mexico City) but that's the one most people refer to. I identify it by very sharp drops in intonation near the end.
Do you think there's just one Cuban accent? This applies to pretty much everything. There's more than one Southern accent, more than one Spanish accent, more than one German accent... but you know what I mean when I say "Cuban accent". I don't have to specify "The accent spoken in old Havana by middle-class college-educated Cubans". Nobody thinks "The accent spoken by rural farmers in the Oriente region" when I say Cuban accent. Is "Mexican accent" a huge field? Yes, it is. However, I'm pretty sure you know what I mean when I say Mexican accent. Out of curiosity, what would you say is the proper name for the stereotypical Mexican accent? I found some video on Youtube of some kid doing a bunch of different Mexican accents but they all sounded similar to me.
Crystal clear, perhaps... but we don't have to like their accent. :P Most Cubans don't seem to like how Mexican Spanish sounds.
Uh, I'm a white hispanic so yeah? I wouldn't say Hispanic people are majority white... there's a lot of mestizos out there, as well as mulattos and black people. Lots of mixing.
Cuban Spanish is notoriously hard for non-native speakers. There are some Cubans who will jokingly say that this is just that non-Cubans just don't think quickly enough to understand... it's a joke, though. ;) Nobody actually thinks that.
I personally kind of like Argentinean accents... I consider them the Australia of the Hispanic world. Their accent just sounds so fun.
Spaniards like Cuban accents? I must work on strengthening my accent should I ever go to Spain... ;) I've heard that Spaniards consider Cubans to be very polite because we address everyone with "ustedes". Everyone. I'm not sure if this was for real or a joke but I found it amusing and odd since Spaniards should be accustomed to this.
They said GA was the most educated accent in the United States. There isn't really any more educated accent in the US. The only thing I could think of is some "prep school Conneticut" thing but that's dying out. The US, in terms of educated accents, has "General American" and "everything else". There's nothing like RP... Edited by lynxrunner on 28 May 2010 at 6:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Javi Senior Member Spain Joined 5980 days ago 419 posts - 548 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 22 of 29 28 May 2010 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Yes, that's true, Cubans and all Latin American speakers for that matter, and the same goes with usted, which is used in Cuba and other countries much more often than in Spain. That contributes to the perception that many people have of the Cuban accent as being more polite and sweeter. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dama_J Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 5295 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 24 of 29 29 May 2010 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thanks paranday! That's great!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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