Cita:
Escrito originalmente por ckc777
While I'm at it, is there much difference between Spanish in Mexico and Spanish in Central America and South America? How about Spain? I'm sure each country and continent have certain differences and dialects, but overall is the Spanish about the same?
|
Just like English is spoken differently in different parts of the United States, so is Spanish spoken differently in different parts of Mexico. Don't forget that Mexico is a rather large country!
The Spanish of the south-western United States is basically a northern Mexican dialect with a lot of English interference. The biggest change you'll notice in Mexico itself is the vocabulary, and to a smaller extent the grammar. If you learn "proper" Spanish, though, in other words what they'll teach you in evening classes or at college, you'll be able to understand and be understood by Mexicans without any problem. I'd also speculate that the biggest problem you'll have with "American" Spanish is that it's different to what you were taught, not that it's difficult in itself!
The Spanish of southern Mexico bleeds into Guatemalan Spanish. The main difference with "proper" Spanish is again the vocabulary. If you already speak some Spanish you'll just start noticing differences here and there. You won't have any problem with understanding or being understood, it's just a case of learning a few more words. One idiomatic difference I seem to remember is that in southern Mexico and at least Guatemala a common greeting is ¡Buenas! (or ¡Buenos! in the morning), rather than the usual form you'll find in books.
Parts of Central America at least are in the same dialect zone as the Caribbean countries (Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic). As well as yet more differences in vocabulary there's a significantly different accent which I at least found as a bit of a shock when I first encountered it! It was like hearing a completely different language at first, not helped by the fact that they speak more quickly than in Mexico. The letter "s" in particular either becomes like the English "h" or is even dropped completely, and the letters "y" and "ll" are pronounced like English "j" or "dy" (as in "Who d'you think you're talking to?"). In particularly "careless" speech the letter "n" is also sometimes dropped in certain circumstances. I can't remember more than that off-hand. Anyway, by way of (a slightly contrived) example, compare the pronunciation and vocabulary of these two questions:
Standard Spanish:
¿Dónde está la estación de autobúses?
Puerto Rican Spanish, respelled [and with "h" as in English]:
¿Dondehtá la etayó de wawah?
That's from memory of quite a few years ago, so I might have it a bit garbled; but you hopefully get the idea!
In the Southern Cone countries of South America the accent is different again. Here the letters "y" and "ll" are pronounced like the "zh" in "Doctor Zhivago", and the letter "s" can also be reduced to "h" or dropped altogether. I found the accent in Entre Ríos to be almost impenetrable even after a few days in Uruguay beforehand. In Buenos Aires you'll even hear Spanish spoken with something of an Italian rhythm, which is rather wonderful thing to hear. In these countries you'll also encounter "vos" used for "tú", and probably used with different verb endings than you'll find in your grammar book (I think only the Argentinians tend to use it in the written language, though).
As for European Spanish compared with the Latin American variety, the best analogy is between British and American English. Lots of little vocabulary differences (Latin American Spanish is a bit closer to English than the European version), a few grammatical differences, and the accent is different again. From experience I'd say the biggest problem is that Spaniards speak the language very quickly, even when asked to speak more slowly!
Hope I haven't put you off! Overall I'd say that the differences between the various varieties of Spanish are less sharp than those between the major varieties of English. And when you have to deal with a new variety it might take a little while for your ear to re-atune itself, but at least they should have no difficulty in understanding you. Remember also that most parts of the Spanish-speaking world are reasonably used to films and television from the other Spanish-speaking countries, so people are often used to the differences.
¡Suerte!
