Differences between Spanish, and American Spanish

RagingBarbarian · Jun 19, 2004

I have been studying Spanish for three years now, and it isn't clear which dilect I'm learning. My teacher seem to be clueless on what "vareity" of spanish there teaching. What are the differences between spanish spoken in spain, and spanish spoken in the Americas? Is it accurate to say it has a similar relationship as English in America, and English in England.

pomsa · Jun 19, 2004

More or less, yeah.

Knight-Dragon · Jun 19, 2004

Moderator Action: More of an OT thread.

Marla_Singer · Jun 19, 2004

According to Huntington, the great neo-fasc... neo-cons thinker, Spaniards belong to the western civilization and latin Americans don't.

That same Huntington compares the illegal immigrations on the Southern border to the Barbarian invasions that have lead to the Fall of Rome. I won't tell you what he recommends to get rid of it. :rolleyes:

Sanaz · Jun 19, 2004

I'd guess it's from Spain, Brazil, or Ecuador. If I remember correctly, they seem to have less harsh accents and slang use, and use more formal Spanish. I could never understand Spanish as spoken in Mexico or Puerto Rico, but it's been a while. But I'm sure someone here has a way that you can find out if they ask you a few regionally specific questions, and you may be learning a variant just spoken in a very specific region, depending on who's teaching. My teacher was from a small island, and even though she tried to teach "formal" Spanish, it was naturally always slanted towards her native accent and cadence.

luiz · Jun 19, 2004

Sanaz said:
I'd guess it's from Spain, Brazil, or Ecuador

Eh, Brazil speaks portuguese.

Sanaz · Jun 19, 2004

luiz said:
Eh, Brazil speaks portuguese.

You'll know a whole lot better than I will.

My memory must be fading, I'm getting old. I shouldn't have answered...

NeoDemocrat · Jun 19, 2004

The accents are quite different. In spain, lisps are common on c's and z's. so in New World Spanish you would express "movie theater" (Cine) as:

See-nay but in Spain it would be Thee-Nay. Same with Gozar.

NW- Go-sar. Spain Go-thar. Actually it's worth explaining how the difference came about but I won't do it now. Basically, they also speak slower and a few letters are pronounced differently. Although it is accurate to compare Spain's Spanish and Latin America's Spanish to British English and American English, the difference is slightly bigger as the slang can be quite different at times.

Hope I helped

yaroslav · Jun 19, 2004

RagingBarbarian said:
I have been studying Spanish for three years now, and it isn't clear which dilect I'm learning. My teacher seem to be clueless on what "vareity" of spanish there teaching. What are the differences between spanish spoken in spain, and spanish spoken in the Americas? Is it accurate to say it has a similar relationship as English in America, and English in England.

I don't know good enought the differences between these two kinds of English (besides civilization against civilisation, color against colour and the like), but for Spanish there is a brief summary:

*Slang is different from country to country.
*American Spanish-speakers doesn't pronounce some letters (s,z,c mainly) as people of Castille in Spain (although some parts of Andalucia in Spain sounds a lot like America).
*The rythm of speakings is very different (but also it's very different from one country to other in America. It's very different in Argentina, in Mexico, in Colombia and so on).
*The main influence of other languages, until very recent in Spain has been French, but in Argentina it was italian, in Mexico it was English, etc.
*The people of America use words that are not common anymore in Spain.

That are a few examples. But all we speak Spanish, and, unless very uneducated, we can communicate between us.

Hope it was useful.

yaroslav · Jun 19, 2004

Marla_Singer said:
According to Huntington, the great neo-fasc... neo-cons thinker, Spaniards belong to the western civilization and latin Americans don't.

That same Huntington compares the illegal immigrations on the Southern border to the Barbarian invasions that have lead to the Fall of Rome. I won't tell you what he recommends to get rid of it.

Although I agree with you, I don't understand how that is related to thread...

NeoDemocrat · Jun 19, 2004

yaroslav said:
I don't know good enought the differences between these two kinds of English (besides civilization against civilisation, color against colour and the like), but for Spanish there is a brief summary:

*Slang is different from country to country.
*American Spanish-speakers doesn't pronounce some letters (s,z,c mainly) as people of Castille in Spain (although some parts of Andalucia in Spain sounds a lot like America).
*The rythm of speakings is very different (but also it's very different from one country to other in America. It's very different in Argentina, in Mexico, in Colombia and so on).
*The main influence of other languages, until very recent in Spain has been French, but in Argentina it was italian, in Mexico it was English, etc.
*The people of America use words that are not common anymore in Spain.

That are a few examples. But all we speak Spanish, and, unless very uneducated, we can communicate between us.

Hope it was useful.

Don't you all also use the Vosotros form in a lot of cases and places, while in Latin America no one uses it except when reading literature.

yaroslav · Jun 19, 2004

It depends on the South American country, but yes, Vosotros is not common in many countries. That's because the way the ways of showing respect evoluted in America and Spain after the XIX century.

NeoDemocrat · Jun 19, 2004

So it isn't used in Spain either? I have spent time studying Spanish in Mexico, so I have no clue about Spain's usage of it.

Archer 007 · Jun 19, 2004

I was told Vosotros was only common in one part of Spain.

yaroslav · Jun 19, 2004

Sorry for not wording it correctly. Spain is one of the few countries where vosotros is common use, except in some parts of Andalucia, where "ustedes" is used many times instead of "vosotros"

Rik Meleet · Jun 19, 2004

Just out of interest, what is "vosotros" and "ustedes" ??
Sounds like some way of writing letters; like æ, ü, ç ñ etc.

yaroslav · Jun 19, 2004

Vosotros is you, in the "you" sense used in english to refer more than one person.

You (bunch of people) should know that...

"Ustedes" is much more difficult to explain, at least in English. In Spanish (as in German, and other languages), there is a different pronoun to use if you want to show respect. To a groups of friends you say

Can you (vosotros) borrow me some milk?

But to a bunch of people you don't know you say

Can you (ustedes) borrow me some link?

The use of ustedes (usted for one single person) is to show respect.

At least, it's how it works in Spain. In other Spanish-speaking countries it works differentely.

Thorgalaeg · Jun 19, 2004

Sounds like some way of writing letters; like æ, ü, ç ñ etc.

æ and ç are not spanish.

Archer 007 · Jun 19, 2004

yaroslav said:
At least, it's how it works in Spain. In other Spanish-speaking countries it works differentely.

I was trained to always use "ustedes" to be on the safe site.

Bozo Erectus · Jun 19, 2004

Quick guide to the Spanish spoken around here: Puerto Ricans dont pronounce the 'R', Cubans dont pronounce the 'S', South Americans say 'usted' alot, instead of 'tu'.

Differences between Spanish, and American Spanish

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