Features of the Spanish language in different countries of Latin America. Differences between Spanish in Spain and Latin America Difference between Spanish and Latin American Spanish
All about Spanish
If you are starting to learn, then be careful about whether you are really studying Spanish and its literary version. It would never occur to a Russian-speaking person that only in Spain itself this language has several dialects, which differ quite seriously from each other. Only in the North of the country are there three accents and one dialect, which also has its own characteristic differences, especially phonetic ones.We are talking about Aragonese, Leonese and Castilian dialects, as well as Asturleonese dialects. Each of the dialects has its own dialects, localized geographically. In the southern part of this state, the Andalusian dialect is widespread.
Mexican Spanish
The capital of the Mexican dialect, as well as of Mexico itself, is Mexico City. In other regions of the country, the dialect is close to the capital, but only some lands have their own characteristics. For example, the dialects of Yucatan and Chiapas are somewhat different, but not so much that residents of different regions do not understand each other.Let us also note that it is the Mexican version of the Spanish language that is the basis for the replication of Spanish in the United States of America. One of the main differences of this dialect is the firm pronunciation of consonants and the reduction of vowels, which is not observed in any other variant of Spanish.
Argentine Spanish dialect
Do not know, ? Don't forget that in the Argentinean version of this language everything is much simpler than in classic Spanish. Argentine Spanish is called "castesciano". Its ancestor was the Castilian dialect, which was noticeably simplified. Phonetics has undergone changes. The Argentine dialect is in many ways more reminiscent of Portuguese than Spanish. It is the language of immigrant workers, which eventually captured the rest of the population. In the Argentine dialect, j is pronounced like [sh]. This applies to all words, including names or titles.Peruvian dialect of Spanish
The Peruvian dialect has the following characteristic features: the sound [z] is mixed with the sound [s], representing a cross between these two sounds. Some consonants are pronounced softer than in traditional Spanish.“Neutral” Spanish – what is it?
The non-literary version of Spanish is considered neutral. The phonetic features of “neutral” Spanish were taken from Colombian pronunciation, which is rightfully considered one of the most beautiful. However, native speakers were only confused by the pace of speech, which was too fast in the “Colombian original” and not always understandable to speakers of other dialects. Therefore, the phonetic features of the Caribbean dialect, which can safely be called relatively measured for Latin America, were also used.“Neutral Spanish” completely lacks Mexican and Argentine intonations, words, speech rate and other features. They can only be used if it is necessary to emphasize the origin of a particular person. All TV series, songs and other cultural products of Latin America today are presented to the world through the use of such “neutral Spanish”, in fact adapted so that all Spanish speakers and foreigners can find common ground and understand each other.
What should a Russian-speaking student who decides to get to know the Spanish language better do? Experts advise starting with a standard literary language that will allow you to conduct business negotiations, correspondence, and so on. Learning a particular dialect depends on your goals. If you are planning a trip to Latin American countries, then seek help directly from a native speaker who will teach you all the intricacies of the dialect of interest.
INTRODUCTION
Over the five centuries that have passed since the beginning of the colonization of the countries of the American continent, a number of specific features have emerged in the Spanish language of America that distinguish it from European Spanish. Latin American countries have developed their own linguistic tradition, their own language policy, a special socio-geographical structure of speech has been determined, and unique relationships have formed between the dialect and literary levels of the language.
All this requires detailed consideration and understanding. To date, the arsenal of Spanish-American dialectology has accumulated a huge amount of material, uneven both in its factual reliability and scientific value. In our work, we were initially based on the works of Academician G.V. Stepanov, who made a huge contribution to the development of linguistic variability based on the material of the Spanish language, as well as N.M. Firsova, since she, in turn, is based on Stepanov’s concepts. For a more in-depth analysis, we are going to turn to English- and Spanish-language sources that address the issue of variability in the Spanish language in order to take into account different views on the zonal dialectological division.
There is an opinion about the “inferiority” of the Latin American version due to deviations from the classical Castilian norm. For several centuries there has been a struggle (and in some cases, promotion) of the dogma of Iberian Spanish and the transformations that occurred during colonization and continue to this day due to the influence of a number of factors that will be discussed in this work. We set ourselves the goal of understanding this issue and dispelling the existing myth about the imperfection of Spanish in Latin America, in particular the Mexican version, to show with examples that it has a right to exist, since it is a reflection of the history and modern life of huge sections of the population of various countries united one language, although it varies from territory to territory. To do this, in the second part of the work we will classify the Mexican vocabulary into semantic blocks, including both simple words and fixed expressions, noting the presence of this vocabulary in the dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (DRAE)
language lexical semantic Spanish
Spanish in Latin America
The concept of variability and Latin American variant
Academician G.V. Stepanov defines the variability of language as one of its fundamental properties, ensuring the ability of language to serve as a means of human communication, thinking, expression and objectification of manifestations of real life [Stepanov, 2004: 3].
It is advantageous to consider variability using the example of the Spanish-speaking area (Spain and Latin America), since it is this area that represents a unique phenomenon as an object of linguistic research. The length of the Spanish-speaking American territory alone from north to south is over 12 million km (by air); the total area of the neo-Spanish zone is determined to be 10.5 million square meters. km. Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world (approximately 329 million speakers, not including secondary speakers). It becomes obvious that the issue of its external linguistic variability deserves special attention. In addition to Spain, the Spanish language is widespread in Latin America, where it is used by the population of Mexico and most countries of Central America (Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua), the Antilles (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic), South America (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Chile) and the Rioplata region (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay).
The expansion of the Spanish language beyond its original distribution created the conditions for the formation of its individual varieties. (The term “variety” is used by Firsova as a generic concept to designate any form of existence of the Spanish language).
Insufficient development of the complex problem of the forms of existence of the Spanish language leads to great discrepancy and confusion in terminology regarding the status of individual varieties of the Spanish language outside Spain. Among Spanish and Latin American linguists, differential features of their classification have not yet been developed. Most often in foreign scientific and educational literature, in relation to the rank of the Spanish language used in Latin American countries, terms such as: idioma nacional, nuestra lengua, el idioma de + the name of the inhabitants of the country, el idioma nacional de + the name of the inhabitants countries, idioma patrio, idioma nativo, castellano, el espanol en + name of the country, lengua + definition derived from the name of the country.
In domestic scientific literature, when indicating the status of the Spanish language in various countries of Latin America, one can often find a confusion of the concepts of a national version of a literary language and a dialect. There are also such definitions as “the Latin American version of the Spanish language” (about the language of the Venezuelans), “the local version of the Spanish language” (about the language of the Bolivians). In Russian linguistics and sociolinguistics, thanks to the works of G., V. Stepanova, A.I. Home A.D., Schweitzer and a number of other scientists, a firm point of view has been established that national variants of multinational languages are subsystems of a higher rank compared to dialects. In Russian Spanish studies, following G.V. Stepanov defines the status of the Spanish language in Latin American countries as a “national variant” of the Spanish language. N.M. Firsova fully agrees with the point of view of G.V. Stepanov, who wrote that “it is methodologically erroneous, and since situations develop within states, it is also politically incorrect and tactless, to combine hierarchical structures by bringing into one stratification scale, for historical, purely linguistic or other reasons, territorial options involved in different situations, and qualify Brazilian Portuguese as a dialect of the language of Portugal, Canadian French as a dialect of French France, and Argentine Spanish as a dialect of European Spanish or vice versa" [Stepanov, 1976: 59]. National varieties of the Spanish language have their own dialects.
As for the linguistic differential features between the national varieties of the Spanish language, observations show that nowadays there are clearly visible differences in terms of literary national norms of the Spanish language at all linguistic levels (least of all at the grammatical level). There is no doubt that “the national (national) linguistic norm of Spain itself is not currently the only norm for all countries that speak Spanish” [Stepanov, 1963: 8]. In this case, we are not talking about individual deviations from the norm of the literary standard language of the former metropolis, but about deviations inherent in entire groups of Spanish-speaking people living in different territories of its distribution and belonging to different national-cultural communities. The point of view that follows from this concept “on the equality of Latin American and Iberian norms of national speech seems valuable, since the latter, being a “historical starting point,” does not embody in its current state the unconditional ideal of a common Spanish language” [Stepanov, 1966: 20].
So, according to the research of N.M. Firsova, at present, in general terms, the following classification of the forms of existence of Spanish is possible:
1. National option the Spanish language, which is characterized by such features as: 1) Spanish has the rank of an official (state) language; 2) the presence of a national literary norm; 3) Spanish is the native language of the absolute number of residents or the share of the Spanish-speaking population is more than 50% of the total population of the country; 4) the Spanish language performs a full range of social functions; 5) the language has a certain linguocultural specificity. All Latin American variants of the Spanish language have signs of a national variant, except for the Iberian one. Latin American national varieties of the Spanish language differ from each other, primarily in the number of residents of Indian origin and in the percentage of the Spanish-speaking population.
2. Territorial option the Spanish language, which is characterized by the following features: 1) Spanish has the rank of official (state); 2) lack of a national literary norm; 3) Spanish is not I'm in is native to the absolute number of residents, and the share of the Spanish-speaking population is less than 50% of the total population of the country; 4) has a well-known linguocultural specificity. These features are characteristic of the Spanish language in Equatorial Guinea.
3. Territorial dialect Spanish language. Its main features: 1) spread outside of states in which the sociolinguistic status of the Spanish language is defined as a variant (national or territorial); 2) does not have its own literary norm of the language; 3) does not have the rank of an official (state) language; 4) is not native to the absolute majority of the country’s population; 5) serves certain small groups of the population; 6) used in limited areas of communication; 7) the language has certain local specifics. These features are characteristic of the Spanish language in Morocco, Western Sahara, Andorra and the Philippines.
4. Dialect Spanish, which differs from a territorial dialect in the first way, namely, that it is typically distributed within (not outside) countries in which the sociolinguistic status of the Spanish language is defined as a variant (national or territorial). The areas of use of the dialect are limited to everyday conversation and religion. The number of dialects of the Spanish language is very large. Dialect studies in a number of Spanish-speaking countries (outside Spain) are at an early stage of development. In modern Spain, dialects such as Andalusian (andaluz), Aragones, Asturian-Leonese (murciano) and Extremaduran are usually distinguished. (extreme).
In Spanish-American studies, the view of the Spanish language of America as a single dialect has long been widespread, which has given rise to the erroneous idea that the conclusions obtained based on the analysis of linguistic factors in a limited area can be applied to the entire American area as a whole.
One of the first Spanish-American dialectologists to outline the classification of dialects by zone on the scale of the entire American area was P. E. Ureña. In the next block of my work, I will consider various zonal classifications of Latin American varieties of the Spanish language.
Recently I noted to myself that I am very clearly aware of the difference between the Spanish of Spain and the Spanish of Latin and Central America. Apparently this is due to the fact that at the university the main emphasis was on the Iberian variant, and the dialects of Spanish in Latin America were a separate subject in one of the senior courses. This is where my acquaintance with overseas Spanish practically ended. I’m not eager to go to Latin America, so I didn’t devote time to studying any country and the peculiarities of Spanish on its territory. From time to time I come across words from South America, but they always come with a note that they are used in such and such a place, so nothing gets confused in my head; I studied Pyrenean Spanish and still do it.
And not least because our textbooks are all from Spain. And even if you are going to Chile, Peru, Paraguay or somewhere else in the same region, you can safely continue to study using Spanish textbooks. Why? Because you will speak in simple sentences, actively accompany your speech with gestures and try in every possible way to convey your thoughts to your interlocutor. Even if he is not familiar with a word, he will guess it from the context. And it is unlikely that you will use any word that, say, a Peruvian will not understand you. You won’t speak to him in the youth slang of Andalusia;)
I don’t see the point in learning, for example, the Argentinean version of Spanish, in which . plays a big role. Moreover, this is what I say, “Argentine version,” but Argentina is very large, so in the north there will be some words, in the center others, and in the south others. Big cities have their own slang. And what option to study?
Difference in vocabulary? And God be with her! As a rule, some frequently encountered things and concepts are called differently, for example, in Spain peach - el melocotón, in Lat. Am. – El Durazno. When you come to the market in Peru, you see that the sign says el durazno, and that’s what you ask for! No problem!
I would like to talk about one interesting phenomenon in the layer of Spanish vocabulary in South and Central America. Words- pseudoarchaisms are words once used in Spain with the same meaning as they are now used in South and Central America. But in reality now the meaning of the word (in Spain) has become more specific. It's better to look at examples.
Cuero used to mean any skin, both human and animal. Nowadays in Spain cuero is only the skin of an animal; human skin on the Iberian Peninsula is called la piel. And in LA everything remains the same as it used to be in Spain and cuero denotes both types of leather*.
Or it could be like this: the word took on some specific connotation in Spain. For example, in Spain yacer- “to lie, rest in the grave”, and in LA - simply “to lie”.
And I also promised a test:
Try to determine where, in Spain or Latin America, this word is used. You can write your answers in the comments, and then I will write the correct options.
peach – el melocotón, el durazno
potatoes – papa, patata
fruit juice – zumo, jugo
food – almuerzo, comida
meat products – fiambres, carnes frias
jacket – saco, chaqueta
zipper – cremallera, zipper
sweater – sueter, jersey
car roof rack – cubo, balda
cartridge – zócalo, portalámparas
car trunk – maletero, baca
suitcase – maleta, petaca
tank (for gasoline) – depósito, tanque
bus – bus, camion
ticket – billete, ticket
Following on from this post, I wrote Spanish for Spain and... any other Spanish
Now about English
All our lives we studied using British textbooks, and films, TV series and music were much more often American. So, I can honestly say that my head is a bit of a mess. If I tense up, I'll remember that lift used in Britain, and elevator in the USA, but I'm not sure that I can use only British words in a conversation with a British person. But, to be honest, I won’t say that this upsets me very much. It’s all about practice, constant communication with native speakers. If you communicate a lot with Americans, without noticing it, you will begin to copy their pronunciation and use the words you heard from them.
It seems to me that the problem “which version of English should I learn?” we need to take it simpler. Learn from the existing textbook, and then, if anything happens, they will correct you. And again, all these differences are related to everyday vocabulary. When you arrive in the USA, you go up to Starbucks and see that it says take-out on the door or window, and that’s it, you will never get it out of your head that coffee to go is take-out!)) And the same with everyone in other words. Everything is learned “on the spot,” so to speak)
But if you really want to check whether you can distinguish American words from British ones, here are some tests.
By the way, I came across here that modern British schoolchildren are using more and more Americanisms in speech and writing.
Nineteen countries of Latin America, seventeen regions of Spain - in each zone the language has characteristics that depend on linguistic and extra-linguistic circumstances. In this article we will get acquainted with the Mexican version of the Spanish language and outline the features that distinguish it from other varieties and dialects.
Reasons for the emergence of Mexican Spanish
Mexico is home to many ancient civilizations, some of which still retain their languages and dialects. In addition, Mexico is the northernmost country in Central America, bordering the United States. These two circumstances have a strong influence on the Mexican version of the Spanish language. When the conquistadors, led by Fernando Cortez, conquered southeastern Mexico in the 16th century, they encountered hundreds of tribes, each speaking a local dialect with individual phonetic and grammatical features. The current sociopolitical situation in the country is directly related to the English language, which also influences the speech of Spanish-speaking Mexicans.
Since ancient languages were the basis for the “introduction” of Spanish at all levels, and Spanish in Mexico is in contact with English only phonetically and lexically, it is logical to consider the features of the Mexican variant separately at each linguistic level in order to understand the Mexican features and where they come from happen.
Phonetic level of the Mexican variant
Let's start with phonetic features common to Latin American countries. Due to the fact that Spanish did not develop naturally on the American continent, but was brought and introduced artificially, it underwent simplifications that spread throughout all Latin American countries. The most important of them:
fusion of sounds: interdental sound /θ/ (letters c, z) and sound /s/, pronounced as /s/;
fusion of sounds: into a single /ʝ/ (pronounced like the Russian / й/), the semivowel /y/ and the sound indicated by the fusion of consonants /ll/ merge.
In the scientific field, these phenomena are called seseo And yeahismo. The result of such changes is the merger of words casa(house) and caza(hunting), llanta(tire) and yanta(afternoon snack). However, this does not cause any difficulties in understanding the speech of Latin Americans by Spaniards.
The phonetic feature of the Mexican version, as we noted above, is the sounds borrowed from English, contact with which has been maintained in Mexico for several centuries. In big cities, as well as in the north of the country, Mexicans use the Americanized non-vibrating sound /r/ instead of the Spanish sounds /r/ and /rr/:
merging sounds into one borrowed one: /pe§o/ instead of /pero/ and instead of /perro/;
Thus, when you arrive in Mexico and speak Spanish with the local population, you will immediately feel (or rather, hear) the closeness of the United States.
Another phonetic feature of Mexican Spanish is variety of intonations in the regions. They are studied by the special science of dialectology, since we are talking about various regional dialects of the Spanish language in Mexico, associated with the dialects of the ancient Indians. When America was conquered by the Spaniards, the indigenous peoples adopted the new language, but assimilated it into the languages of their ancestors, which is why Spanish sounds different in the southern Mexico, where the Mayan Indians lived, or in the north. It happens that northern Mexicans come to the south and have difficulty understanding their compatriots, although lexical features, which we will discuss below, most likely play a larger role here.
Morphology and grammar of the Mexican variant
Neither English nor Amerindian languages are thought to have had a strong influence on the morphology of Mexican Spanish. Despite this, we can talk about changes-simplifications in the Mexican version, associated with the fact of the artificial development of the Spanish language in Latin American countries. Thus, in ancient Indian languages there were many consonant sounds (by the way, close to the Russian sounds /ch/, /sh/, /sch/), due to which the difference in overstressed vowels in the Mexican version was no longer clear. If a Spaniard says , pronouncing each vowel, a Mexican will say , “eating” the endings, like Americans “eating” the endings of English words:
vowel reduction: instead of ;
Another trend is related to creating analogies in verb conjugations. During the development of the Spanish language in Mexico, the final consonant /s/ in the form of the 2nd person singular verb of the present tense (tu hablas) strengthened in the same position in the simple past, from where the forms estuvistes, hablastes, etc. appeared.
creating an analogy: instead of, instead of;
In connection with grammar, features common to Latin America are also important:
using the Ustedes form instead of vosotros: “- ¿Adónde van? ¡Esperenme! " instead of " - ¿Adónde vais? ¡Esperadme!”;
widespread use of the simple past tense(Pretérito Perfecto Simple) and its widespread use instead of the compound past (Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto): “Hoy estuvimos en casa” instead of “Hoy hemos estado en casa”;
These features do not distinguish Mexico's Spanish from other Latin American varieties, but are important because of the strong bias in Spain's Spanish language norms.
Lexical features of the Mexican variant
The most striking features of Mexican Spanish are associated with the most mobile and changeable layer of the language - vocabulary. Here again the influence of neighboring English and ancient Indian languages is important. The Mexican Spanish vocabulary is full of borrowings from English:
shorts (English shorts)– shorts (instead of the Castilian pantalón corto);
rentar) - rent/rent (instead of Castilian alquilar);
checar (English check)– check, find out (instead of Castilian investigar);
lunch (English lunch)– afternoon snack, lunch (instead of Castilian almuerzo), etc.
Through the Mexican variant, a considerable number of Spanish have spread to different countries. indigenisms(indígena from Spanish - native, aborigine):
Avocado, chocolate, chile etc.
Indian words associated with Mexican realities are preserved only in the Mexican version:
Pozole(corn dish) jícara(painted bowl), turush(Mayan utensils), etc.
At the same time, the spoken language of Mexicans is rich in spontaneous innovations that are not associated with the influence of other languages. The most popular expressions in Mexico:
buey- an analogue of the Spanish colloquial address tio: “Buey ¡espera!”;
¡a poco!– “come on!”, as a natural reaction to new information: “-La biblioteca está cerrada. “A poco buey, por qué estará cerrada a esta hora”;
No mames!- “come on!”, similar to the previous expression: “¡No mames buey, como puede ser posible!”
¡a huevo!- an analogue of the American colloquial exclamation “yes!”, “uhu!” (Russian colloquial “yuhu!”), used by Mexicans in joyful situations: “¡No hay clases mañana! “¡A huevo!”;
chin– the use of which coincides with the Russian use of the word “devil”: “Chin, vamos a llegar tarde por el tráfico...”
Such colloquial addresses, phrases, interjections and curses develop uniquely in each country and for the youth of Latin American countries they seem to be the most interesting and significant in the context of linguistic self-determination or the definition of residents of other regions. Latin Americans, like Spaniards, are proud of the colloquial features of their variant. So, when you are planning to go to Mexico, do not forget to learn a couple of such phrases in order to immediately make friends. ¡A huevo!
Text: Anastasia Lukyanova
The first mention of the Spanish language dates back to the 2nd century BC and it appeared on the Iberian Peninsula and has now spread to several continents. It is spoken by more than 400 million people in different countries of the world. Such a phenomenon as Latin American Spanish appeared thanks to the arrival of the conquistadors in America. Then the conquered countries began to speak the language of the invaders, mixed with local dialects. This is the same Spanish language, it is not distinguished separately, but is called a dialect or “national variant of the language.”
About 300 million Spanish-speaking people live in 19 countries of Latin America, for half of them it is a second language, and there is also a local one. Among the population there are many Indians, there are Uruguayans, Guarani, their number ranges from 2% (in Argentina) to 95% in Paraguay. For them, Spanish has not become their native language; many do not even know it at all. In some countries, archaisms have been preserved - words, addresses and figures of speech that have not been used for a long time.
Today, in addition to Spain itself, Spanish is spoken in Mexico and the countries of Central America - Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua. There are 3 countries in the Antilles with the predominant use of the language - Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rico. On the mainland of South America there are also countries that use Spanish as their main or second language - Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia. The Rioplata region of the mainland is occupied by the states: Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay; a lot of Spanish-speaking people live on their territory (more than 90% of Argentines speak Spanish).
Reasons for differences in language in different Latin American countries
The territory of modern Peru was inhabited for a long time by colonizers, mainly of noble origin, so the Spanish language in this country is closest to the original one. At the same time, unskilled workers and peasants lived in Chile and Argentina, who spoke more without complex phrases and words, simply in a working manner. Therefore, the Spanish language in Chile, its Chilean version, is very different from the classical pure one.
In countries where mainly Guarani Indians lived, the original Spanish mixed heavily with the local language, borrowing from them the features of spoken language, pronunciation and vocabulary. This option is most evident in Paraguay. But on the territory of modern Argentina lived both Spanish colonialists and local residents, as well as immigrants, who made up up to 30% of the total population. So the pure language was diluted by the dialect of local residents and the peculiarities of the conversation of visitors, in particular Italians.
Lexical features
The vocabulary of the Spanish language has undergone changes since the beginning of its existence, borrowing words and meanings from different languages and dialects. The conquest of the territory of modern Latin America was no exception. When the Spaniards came here, the bulk of the population were Indians and local tribes with their own linguistic characteristics. The colonizers, in turn, brought their families, black slaves, and their own speech patterns. Thus, all changes in vocabulary that occurred in Spanish in these countries can be divided into 2 main groups:
- Local words that have entered the Spanish vocabulary, denoting some features of the life and life of the indigenous inhabitants of the mainland, as well as Anglo-Saxon, Italian or American concepts;
- Spanish words that have undergone changes while living in Latin American countries.
A separate category of words – archaisms, or “Americanisms” – appeared due to the transition of some concepts into the vocabulary of local residents from the Spanish language. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that in Spain they have not been used for a long time or have been greatly modified, turning into a new word.
For example, the word “pollera”, used in Latin America, means “skirt”, but is not used at all in Spain. This also includes prieto (black color) and frazada (blanket), which in Spanish would sound like negro and manta, respectively.
Thanks to the Indians and other peoples living on the mainland, many words hitherto unknown to the Spaniards came into the Spanish language.
- Scientists call them indichenisms.
- For example, papa (potato), caucho (rubber), llama (llama), quina (hina) and tapir (tapir) were not known to the Spaniards at all before arriving in South America.
And from the territory of modern Mexico, from the language of the Aztecs, Nahuatl, came the concepts used by Mexicans today - cacahuete (groundnut), hule (rubber), petaea (snuffbox). Many words came from the need to designate objects and plants previously unknown to the Spaniards.
Phonetic differences between languages
In the pronunciation of some words and letters, you can also find differences between classic Spanish and its Latin American version. Their appearance is due to the same reasons as new concepts - some sounds simply did not exist in the language of the indigenous people, they did not hear them, and some were pronounced in their own way. In general, pronunciation in the American version is softer and more melodic, words are pronounced less sharply and more slowly.
Jorge Sánchez Mendez, a linguist and scientist, describes the general sound of the Spanish language in different countries of Latin America:
- Catalan (classical) – sounds sharp and authoritative, the words are pronounced heavily, firmly;
In the Antilles on the contrary, all sounds are pronounced softly, speech is fluid, flowing;
Andalusian variant– brighter, sonorous and lively;
In Mexico speak softly and slowly, speech is unhurried and careful;
In Chile and Ecuador– melodious, melodic, sounds soft and calm;
and here is the conversation on the territory Rio de la Plata seems slow, calm and unhurried.
The main differences in pronunciation are recorded by the Institutes of Language Studies, have their own names and are as follows:
- Same pronunciation of letters "r" and "l", if they are at the end of a syllable. This feature is typical for the population of the countries of Venezuela and Argentina, some regions of the state - Puerto Rico, Colombia, and on the shores of Ecuador. For example, calamares in transcription looks like this - soldado sounds like , and the word amor reads like .
- Phonetic phenomenon Yeismo– the sound of the letters ll in combination, like “y”, or like “zh” - in Argentina. For example, the word “calle” is translated as “street” and is pronounced in Spain, in Latin American countries and in Argentina. Found in Mexico, Colombia and Peru, Chile and western Ecuador, as well as on the Caribbean coast.
- Changing the pronunciation of the letter "s", if it is at the end of a syllable, this feature is called aspiration. As for example in the words: este (this) will sound like, mosca (fly) is pronounced. Sometimes the letter is simply lost and not pronounced - las botas (shoes) are made into .
- Seseo – phonetic featureь, found in almost all countries of Latin America and consists in pronouncing the letters “s” and “z”, and sometimes “s”, as [s]. For example, pobreza sounds like , zapato - , and entices would be pronounced like - .
- Shifting stress in some words to an adjacent vowel or another syllable: pais is read as in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries.
These are the most common differences; there are many more small ones that involve different pronunciations of the same word. Despite these differences, representatives of states in South America have no difficulty understanding the Spaniards and each other.
Word formation
Hispanics use suffixes in words more often than Spaniards, the main ones being –ico/ica and –ito/ita. For example, platita (money) comes from the word "plata", ranchito (ranch) from "rancho", ahorita (now) from "ahora", and prontito (soon) comes from "pronto". In addition, some nouns have a different gender than in classical Spanish. For example, the word actor in Spain is masculine and pronounced comediante, and in Latin America - comedianta is feminine, the call in Spain la lamada is feminine, in Latin American countries ell lamado is masculine.
The same applies to animals, for which the Catalan language uses one word and most often it is masculine. And in Latin America they also added feminine ones: tigre, male. – tigra, female (tiger), caiman, male – caimana, female (cayman), sapo, husband – sapa, female (toad).
Basically, new words are formed by taking a root of non-Spanish origin and adding suffixes and prefixes to it. The basis is taken on common American concepts, adapted to a specific situation and nationality. Word-forming particles or suffixes are added to them, which give them a completely different meaning: -ada, -ero, -ear, -menta.
They all have their own history, “nationality” and meaning. For example, the suffix –menta is actively used in word formation in the Venezuelan dialect; it has a general meaning: papelamnta – a pile of papers, perramenta – a pack of dogs. The suffix –io has the same meaning for the countries of Uruguay and Argentina – tablerio – a pile of stones.
In the words picada (path), sahleada (saber strike), nicada (company of children), “-ada” has a collective meaning or defining belonging to something. More examples: gauchada (an act characteristic of a gaucho), ponchada (a volume of things that can fit on a poncho) and so on.
But the suffix –ear creates new verbs or American nouns: tanguear - dance the tango, jinitear - ride a horse and other examples. The Spanish language in South America is more mobile, lively and developing than its European counterpart. Here there is a constant replenishment of the vocabulary, the formation of new concepts and phrases, due to the movement of the population across the mainland and the arrival of immigrants.
Grammatical differences
The grammar features characteristic of Latin America have their own system and are the result of many years of language evolution. The Spanish have a concept of "grammatical gender" applied to inanimate objects.
In the Latin American version there are words with the same meaning, but of strictly opposite gender. In Spain - el color (color), el fin (end), la bombilla (light bulb), la vuelta (surrender), and in South American countries - la color, la fin el bombillo, el vuelto.
The plural endings are also systematically different in different countries: café (1 cafe) - cafes (several cafes), te (tea) - tes (several types of tea), pie (leg) - pies (legs), and in Latin America they will be be called: cafeses, teses, pieses, respectively.
- Peculiarities.
- Words that have only a plural form (scissors, trousers, pliers) in the South American version are also used in the singular: tijeraz - tiera (scissors), bombachas - bombacha (trousers) and tenazas - tenaza (pliers). If a noun ends with the letters –ey, then according to the rules of the Spanish language their plural is formed by adding the ending “-es”, while in Latin America the ending is simplified: buey (bull) - bueyes/bueys, or rey (king) - reyes /reys.
When addressing people, Spaniards use the pronoun “you” - vosotros; in Latin America they address strangers - ustedes. And the pronoun “you” sounds like “vos” in South America and like “tu” in Europe.
As a conclusion
The result of the comparison is the understanding that Spanish is a living and spoken language, therefore it develops, breathes and absorbs new words, concepts and phrases. It depends on the national, territorial, cultural characteristics of the people speaking it. All differences are the result of a natural process of evolution and in no way affect the understanding of the Spanish dialect by representatives of different countries.
If you decide to learn a language, then you do not necessarily need to know these features and memorize them in order to travel to any country in Latin America. The classic version of Spanish is enough, you will be able to communicate with the locals, and the presence of “own” words is characteristic of each language, Russian is no exception. In each region of our country, there are several dozen phrases and concepts used only within a small territory, but this does not at all prevent us from understanding each other, even living in different regions of the Russian Federation.
