[phil-s]

Hi -- I'm brand new here. I found the forum while trying to answer one of many questions I've had about differences between English and Spanish, the two languages I speak comfortably. Seems to me that in English most of the differences between dialects (e.g., Southern US, downeast, Australian, the various Great Britain accents) revolve more around vowels than consonants. Yes, the Scots are unusual in rolling their rrrrs. And in "Ne Hampsha", the "w" "r" bite the dust. But IMO mose often it's the vowels that bear most of the responsibility for defining a dialect.

Not true in Spanish, I think. E.g., Caribbean (Andalucian) spanish hates the "s" and "d" and drop them at every chance. And Boricuas convert the "r" final to an "l" -- "Me gusta el mal", por ejemplo. But the vowels seem to me stay more or less constant across dialects.

So - do you folks out there, many of whom I realize have been part of this community for years, agree with my analysis? Disagree? Has it been discussed already? If so some links would be much appreciated.

And if my analysis seems more or less correct, what if anything does it tell us about Spanish vs. English? Why, "en relacion al desarrollo de los dos idiomas" might we have contrasts in this trend of modifying vowels vs consonants?

It's "medianoche" here so I won't see any replies for quite a while.

"Saludos" and thanks in advance for any insights you folks might bring me,

Phil