Spanish dialects and varieties

Spanish dialects and varieties are the regional variants of the Spanish language, some of which are quite divergent from one another, especially in pronunciation and vocabulary, and less so in grammar. While all Spanish dialects use the same written standard, all spoken varieties differ from the written variety, in different degrees. There are differences between European Spanish (also called Peninsular Spanish) and the Spanish of the Americas, as well as many different dialect areas both within Spain and within Spanish America.

Prominent differences of pronunciation among dialects of Spanish include (1) the maintenance vs. loss of distinction between the phonemes and (distinción vs. seseo); (2) the maintenance or loss of distinction between phonemes represented orthographically by ll and y (yeísmo); (3) the maintenance of syllable-final vs. its weakening to (called aspiration, or the more precise term debuccalization), or its loss; and (4) the tendency, in areas of central Mexico and of the Andean highlands, to reduction (especially devoicing), or loss, of unstressed vowels, mainly when they are in contact with voiceless consonants.Lope Blanch, Juan M. (1972) En torno a las vocales caedizas del español mexicano, pp.53 a 73, Estudios sobre el español de México, editorial Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México .Delforge, Ann Marie (2008), , in Selected Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on......
Read More