It is well known that Spanish is spoken not only in Spain but also in America. We can see the difference in audiovisual products like films, TV shows, or even books and articles. But what differences can we find? In this article, we will see them.
Accent and pronunciation
You are extremely wrong if you think that Spanish sounds the same everywhere. There are a lot of variances: “seseo”, “yeísmo” and other variations.
Seseo
This phenomenon makes the distinction between the “S” and the “Z” disappear, so both letters sound the same. This is very common in a lot of dialects in America, some examples are the word “pizza”, said as “pisa”; “azúcar”, said as “asúcar” or “zapato”, said as “sapato”.
In Spain, in the region of Andalucía, this distinction is also heard, but the “S” and the “Z” are pronounced as an English “TH”. In the examples we have seen before, the equals will be “pitha” for “pizza”, “athúcar” for “azúcar” and “thapato” for “zapato”.
Yeísmo
In this case, we refer to the similarity of the sound of the “LL” and the “Y” in Spanish. It doesn’t matter how the word is written, because it will sound the same. Some examples are “calle” and “caye”, “castellano” and “casteyano” and “brillante” and “briyante”.
There are more differences depending on the country or the region. For example, in Spain the “C” is pronounced as “TH”, in the Caribbean and the south of Spain the letter “R” is replaced by an “L” and in Argentina and Uruguay the “LL” is pronounced as a “SH”.
Grammar
In Spanish grammar, we can also see differences that are more known as we can see it faster when we read something in Spanish.
Diminutives
The diminutives indicate the size of something, and they are formed by adding suffixes to words.
In America, these suffixes are -ito, -ita, -ico and -ica. They are very used, more than in Spain, especially in Andalucía where they use -illo. As an example, the word “mesa” in America and a big part of Spain will be said as “mesita” and in Andalucía and other regions of the south of Spain will be said as “mesilla”.
Voseo
“Voseo” refers to the use of the pronoun “vos” instead of “tú” when we talk about the second person of the singular. In America, “vos” is very used in an informal context, but in Spain “tú” is the common option. For example, to force someone to do their homework, in America we will say “vos tienes que hacer los deberes” and in Spain “tú tienes que hacer los deberes”.
Other differences
The most common difference in grammar is the use of the pronouns “vosotros” and “ustedes”. In America, “ustedes” is very used to talk to everyone in the second person of the plural, but in Spain “vosotros” is the basic option. “Ustedes” is also used in Spain but in a formal environment. Then we must apply the verbs according to the correct grammar rule. For example, to ask to a group of people where are they going to go, in Spain we will say “¿vosotros dónde vais a ir?” and in America we will say “¿ustedes dónde van a ir?”.
As you can see, even if we speak the same language, Spanish has a lot of variations depending on the continent, the country, or even the region. That makes this language even more entertaining!
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Author: Maria Pilar Casabán
Photo: Marina Leonova