History UsefulNotes / SpanishAccentsAndDialects

The variety of Spanish spoken in the capital Madrid and its surroundings. It is considered the standard form of the language on the peninsula(although perhaps that honour goes to Valladolid or Salamanca), yet there are variations. The older accent and dialect of the city has largely died out.

Use of intervocalic constonant clusters ns. ''Paso'' becomes ''panso.''

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Northern Galician]]
!!Galician Language
There was a time when there was little to no difference between languages on Northwestern Spain; that time was immediately following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the specific vulgar Latin that was spoken in the area eventually would evolve into both Spanish and Galician languages, as well as UsefulNotes/PortugueseLanguage.

During the Middle Ages, Portuguese and Galician were the same language known as Galaico-Portuguese, with, along with Occitan, saw great attention as a ''lingua franca'' for chilvalric poetry and wandering minstrels. Also, medieval castilian bore no great differences with Galaico-Portuguese, sharing many features such as sibilant structures.

It is by the 12th Century, when the Portus Callae county gets independence from the Kingdom of Leon, eventually becoming the Kingdom of Portugal, that Galician and Portuguese start its divergence. Portuguese develops from Galician as its territory was growing under the Portuguese Reconquista, while Galician gets confined to the mountains of North-Western Spain and lose relevancy over Castillian Spanish, which would itself shape different over the next century both from Galician and Portuguese.

Galician Language gets an upgrade on the 19th Century with a quite a few renamed poets and it's one of the four official languages of the Spanish nation, but this is all about ''dialects'' and ''accents'' and we'll talk about how Galician affects speakers when talking ''Castilian'' Spanish, and not about the language itself, which is neither an accent nor a dialect.

Website/TheOtherWiki has an entry about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language Galician language]] if you want to expand your knowledge about it.

!!Galician accents

Galician accent is notoriously rhythmical with a very distinctive, slightly high, pitch and idiosyncratic intonation which is often regarded as a very smooth form of Spanish. Its pronounciation has very close vowels at the end of words, most notably the O vowel, which is pronounced in standard Spanish as an open-mid back rounded vowel (ɔ), while in the Galician dialect, it is pronounced as a closed-mid back rounded vowel (o). For example, ''castro'', a kind of fortification for Celtic pre-Roman tribes which is a common landmark and a surname for Galician Spaniards, would be [kastro̞] in standard Spanish and [kastro] in Galician Spanish. Meanwhile, the E vowel (e̞) may get closer to the I vowel (e) in some instances.

The ''gheada'' or debbuccalization of the phoneme /g/ may exist, but it is not very common nowadays and it is most often not protrayed (or even known about) by media.

Also, it is common the simplification of consonant clusters by skipping weaker phonemes on these instances, for example ''concepto'' (concept) would be [konˈθep.to] in standard spanish but may become [konˈθeto] in galician spanish. ''Repugnante'' (Disgusting) may be shortened from [re.puɣˈnan.te] to [re.punan.te], an ''acto'' (an act) [ˈak.to] may be an ['ato] and so on.

Grammatically, as is common in all northern dialects, galicians will never use compound tenses, always preterite: ''Supe'' (I knew) instead of ''He sabido''. It is safe to say you can identify somebody who as a northerner (from Galicia to the french border through the Cantabrian Mountains) because they will use preterite like a Latino while speaking with a Spaniard-ish pronounciation; in the rest of Spain, the present perfect is almost universally used for speaking in past tense (e.g. ''He dicho'' instead of ''Dije'' for "I said").

At last, Galicians are very high on localisms and crosswords between galician and spanish languages, which would be too extensive to list here, but the most common feature is the diminutive ''-Iño, -Iña'' instead the more standard ''-Ito, -Ita'' (e.g. ''futboliño'' instead of ''futbolito'' for a foosball table). (This is a cognate of the neighboring Portuguese diminutive suffix ''-inho, -inha'' -- compare ''futboliño'' with its Portuguese cognate ''futébolzinho'')

The stereotype for the galician dialect traditionally it's not a very positive one. Galicians were (and, often, are) regarded as rustic, backwards simpletons with [[BestialityIsDepraved odd sex partners]] who live in the mountains and are often stuck fifty years or ''a century'' ago; in Latin America, they are the butt of dumb people jokes. In media, this is invariably the accent for the KindheartedSimpleton (In recent times), the FishOutOfWater (When regarding townsfolk in a big city), TheFool, the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and TooDumbToFool. Think [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] for the kind of character.

!!Examples in fiction:
* Ramón Sampedro (Played by Creator/JavierBardem) pretty much ''destroys'' the stereotype for soul-wrenching drama in ''Film/MarAdentro''.
* Xoan from Pedro Almodovar's ''Julieta'' gives this trope a positive twist and makes him a handsome, badass Galician fisherman.

%%[[folder:Northern Asturian-Leonese]]
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%%[[folder:Northern Basque-Navarran]]
%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Plains -- Aragonese]]

The reduction of constonant clusters frequent in rural Spanish dialects. For example, ''perfecto'' would become ''perfeto'' and ''repugnante'' could become ''repunante''.

[[folder:The Plains - North Castilian]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Plains - Madrid]]
The variety of Spanish spoken in the capital Madrid and its surroundings. It is considered the standard form of the language on the peninsula(although perhaps that honour goes to Valladolid or Salamanca), yet there are variations. The older accent and dialect of the city has largely died out.

The exchange of /d/ for /z/ at the end of words. For example ''Madrid'' becomes ''Madriz''

The loss of /d/ from the past participle. For example ''abandonado'' becomes ''abandonao''.

Yeísmo, which is the phenomena of pronouncing /ll/ and /y/ the exact same way. For example ''yover'' and not ''llover''.

Leísmo which referes to using the indirect object pronouns le and les in place of the direct object pronouns lo, la, los, and las.

The use of ''ejque'' instead of ''es que''

The aspiration of the first constonant. ''Doctor'' becomes ''Dohtor'' etc.

Among older speakers, the aspiration of the /s/ is frequent.

[[folder:The Plains - South Castilian]]

[[folder:Eastern Peninsular]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Easter Insular]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Southern Peninsular]]
!!Andalusian accents and dialects
The dialect in southern Spain with the largest number of speakers. The Castillian language arrived fairly late to Andalusia in about the Thirteenth Century. However, its use was not overly extensive until the Reconquista in 1492. There are competing theories on the development of the Andalusian dialect. Although the Arabic language had some influence on the language there, many of those who spoke Arabic languages were exiled, killed or forced to convert during La Reconquista. Most of the Arabisms in Castillian actually entered the language through the Christian Mozarabic population in central Spanish cities such as Toledo. Upon their reconquest, these bilingual individuals were then sent to adminster cities such as Sevilla, and so codified and spread the language in those parts.


The dialect could have also developed further without much interference due to the large barrier of the Sierra Madre, and the general disinterest shown by the Castillan kingdom and the rest of Spain. Many of the immigrants to South America came from here, and the dialect would later serve as a base for the Latin American dialects. Within Spain, the dialect was often socially stigmatized. One reason was for being considered a corruption of pure Spanish, the other because the speakers were often economic immigrants and considered ignorant, poor and bad mannered.

This dialect can be found in Sevilla, Cordóba, Ceuta etc. Depending on the cultural background of the speaker, features can commonly include:

Seseo, which is the use of /s/ in place of /z/ or /c/. Cena becomes sena etc. This is more popular in Sevilla and Cordóba and other urban centres, while Ceceo is more popular in the rest of Andalusia.

Ceceo, which refers to the use of /z/ instead of /s/. e.g ''Zeguro'' instead of ''seguro''. This is considered a less cultured feature than Seseo and is more common in Malaga and Cadíz(but not the city).

Aspiration of the intervocalic constonant /j/.

Loss of intervocalic /d/, /g/, /l/ and /r/. ''Quemaura'' in place of ''Quemadura'' etc. ''Pesao'' instead of ''pesado''. These can also be outright lost at the end of words.

Neutralisation of l, r, and b. This means l can become r, r becomes l and b becomes g. Therefore, ''alto'' becomes ''arto'', ''beber'' comes ''bebel'' and ''abuelo'' becomes ''agüelo''.

The dropping of /s/ at the end of words. This means it can frequently be hard to distinguish if someone is talking about plurals or not e.g ''Casa'' instead of ''casas''. The /s/ can also be aspirated. For example ''libertá'' instead of ''libertad''.

The pronounciation of /ch/ in a similar way to the English /sh/. For example,''musho'' instead of ''mucho''. ''mushasho'' instead of the standard ''muchacho''.

Reductions of frequent words. This can include ''mu'' for ''muy'', ''pa'' for ''para'' etc.

Use of the verb ''ser'' in place of ''haber''.

The substitution of ''Vosotros'' for ''Ustedes''. Similar to Latin America and the Canary Islands.

A large stock of dialect specific words. This includes many archaic words like ''escarpín'' instead of ''calcetin'' and ''fario'' instead of ''destino.''

No laísmo or leísmo.

[[folder:Southern Insular]]

There was a time when there was little to no difference between languages on North-Western Spain, that time was immediately following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the specific, vulgar latin that was spoken in the area which eventually would evolve into both Spanish and Galician languages, as well as UsefulNotes/PortugueseLanguage.

During the middle ages Portuguese and Galician were the same language known as Galaico-Portuguese, with, along with Occitan, saw great attention as a ''Lingua Franca'' for chilvalric poetry and wandering minstrels. Also, medieval castilian bore no great differences with galaico-portuguese, sharing many features such as sibilant structures.

It is by the 12th Century, when the Portus Callae county gets independence from the Kingdom of Leon, eventually becoming the Kingdom of Portugal, that Galician and Portuguese start its divergence. Portuguese develops from Galician as its territory was growing under the Portuguese Reconquista while Galician gets confined to the mountains of North-Western Spain and lose relevancy over castillian spanish, which would itself shape different over the next century both from Galician and Portuguese.

Galician Language gets an upgrade on the 19th Century with a quite a few renamed poets and it's one of the four official languages of the spanish nation, but this is all about ''dialects'' and ''accents'' and we'll talk about how Galician affects speakers when talking ''castilian'' spanish, and not about the language itself which is neither an accent nor a dialect.

Website/TheOtherWiki has an entry about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language galician language]] if you want to expand your knowledge about it.

Galician accent is notoriously rhythmical with a very distinctive, slightly high, pitch and idiosyncratic intonation which is often regarded as a very smooth form of spanish. Its pronounciation has very close vowels at the end of words, most notably the O vowel, which is pronounced in standard spanish as an open-mid back rounded vowel (ɔ) while in the galician dialect it is pronounced as a closed-mid back rounded vowel (O), as ''Castro'' (A kind of fortification for celtic pre-roman tribes which is a common landmark and a surname for galician spaniards) would be [kastro̞] in standard spanish and [kastro] in galician spanish, and the E vowel (e̞) which may get closer to the I vowel (e) in some instances.

The ''gheada'' or debbuccalization of the phoneme /g/ may exist but it is not very common nowadays and it is most often not protrayed (or even known about) by media.

Also, it is common the simplification of consonant clusters by skipping weaker phonemes on these instances, for example ''concepto'' (concept) would be [konˈθep.to ] in standard spanish but may become [konˈθeto ] in galician spanish. ''Repugnante'' (Disgusting) may be shortened from [re.puɣˈnan.te] to [re.punan.te], an ''acto'' (an act) [ˈak.to] may be an ['ato] and so on.

At last, Galicians are very high on localisms and crosswords between galician and spanish languages, which would be too extensive to list here, but the most common feature is the diminutive ''-Iño, -Iña'' instead the more standard ''-Ito, -Ita'' (e.g. ''futboliño'' instead of ''futbolito'' for a foosball table). (This is a cognate of the neighboring Portuguese diminutive suffix ''-inho, -inha'' - compare ''futboliño'' with its Portuguese cognate ''futébolzinho'')

!!Examples in fiction.

* Ramón Sampedro (Played by Creator/JavierBardem) pretty much ''destroys'' the stereotype for soul-wrenching drama in ''Film/MarAdentro''

[[folder:Northern Asturian-Leonese]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Northern Basque-Navarran]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Plains - Aragonese]]

!!Caribbean Spanish Variants

[[folder:Cuban]]
Más despacio, por favor -- but Communist

[[folder:Dominican (Dominican Republic)]]
Más despacio, por favor -- but baseball flavored.

[[folder:Puerto Rican (USA)]]
Más despacio, por favor -- but gasolina flavored with an American passport.

!!Central American Spanish Variants

[[folder:Guatemalan]]

[[folder:Honduran]]

[[folder:Costa Rican]]

[[folder:Panamanian]]

[[folder:Nicaraguan]]

[[folder:Salvadoran]]

* Pistear [[note]]emborrachar in regular Spanish[[/note]]: To get drunk

* Paro [[note]]por favor in regular Spanish[[/note]]: A favor. "Tírame un paro" can be more or less translated as "do me a solid".

Guadalajaran, or Tapatio, is the Mexican equivalent of the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents United States of Amarica's Midwestern accent]]: when exaggerated it makes you sound like a hayseed, but when played normally it's basically "standard Mexican" (or as a Tapatio would say, ''¡Jalisco '''es''' México!''). It ranks next to Northern and Mexico City Spanish in media popularity, thanks in good part to Guadalajara being the second city in the country and the birth place of many world-famous Mexican symbols such as tequila[[note]]Tequila, Jalisco lies a half hour drive away from Guadalajara[[/note]], mariachi and the charro outfit.

The Colombian dialect, especially the one used in the capital, Bogota, has a very interesting quirk: Unlike other dialects, the second person pronoun "usted", which is normally used in formal speech in other countries, is used almost exclusively in daily speech, regardless the social standing of the person which the talker is addressing to. That means that, no matter if that person is your own parents, your siblings, your best friend from childhood or even your girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband, etc, you would normally use "usted" instead of "tu" to address other people. For non-Colombians, that would be the equivalent of using the Spanish equivalent of the Japanese {{Keigo}}. (Or, you know, French people always using ''vous'' or Germans always using ''Sie''.)

The UsefulNotes/SpanishLanguage is the second most widely spoken native language in the world, being the native language of 6% of the world, the de facto [[CommonTongue lingua franca]] of the Americas, the national language of 20 countries, and a major secondary language of another 4 countries including the United States. As a result, the Spanish language is an extremely diverse language full of regional interpretations, local words and a few local grammatical quirks. While all regional dialects of Spanish are deep down the same language, their local variations are more than enough to make them at the same time entirely different ways of expressing one's thoughts and feelings; therefore, the purpose of this page is to document all the different ways the language of Cervantes is spoken around the world.

!!Central American Spanish Variants

[[folder:Guatemalan]]

[[folder:Honduran]]

[[folder:Costa Rican]]

[[folder:Panamanian]]

[[folder:Nicaraguan]]

[[folder:Salvadoran]]

!!Caribbean Spanish Variants

[[folder:Cuban]]
Más despacio, por favor -- but Communist

[[folder:Dominican (Dominican Republic)]]
Más despacio, por favor -- but baseball flavored.

[[folder:Puerto Rican (USA)]]
Más despacio, por favor -- but gasolina flavored with an American passport.

At last, Galicians are very high on localisms and crosswords between galician and spanish languages, which would be too extensive to list here, but the most common feature is the diminutive ''-Iño, -Iña'' instead the more standard ''-Ito, -Ita'' (e.g. ''futboliño'' instead of ''futbolito'' for a foosball table). (This is similar to Portuguese, where ''-inho, -inha'' is the standard suffix for diminutive - compare ''futboliño'' with its Portuguese cognate ''futébolzinho'')

Guadalajaran, or Tapatio, is the Mexican equivalent of the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents United States of Amarica's Midwestern accent]]: when exaggerated it makes you sound like a hayseed, but when played normally it's basically "standard Mexican". It ranks next to Northern and Mexico City Spanish in media popularity, thanks in good part to Guadalajara being the second city in the country and the birth place of many world-famous Mexican symbols such as tequila[[note]]Tequila, Jalisco lies a half hour drive away from Guadalajara[[/note]], mariachi and the charro outfit.

At last, Galicians are very high on localisms and crosswords between galician and spanish languages, which would be too extensive to list here, but the most common feature is the diminutive ''-Iño, -Iña'' instead the more standard ''-Ito, -Ita'' (e.g. ''perriño'' instead of ''perrito'' for "little dog"). (This is similar to Portuguese, where ''-inho, -inha'' is the standard suffix for diminutive)