Quote:
Originally Posted by Perikles
Actually, there must be many more than that. Apart from the various dialects within mainland Spain, there is a very marked dialect here in Tenerife. I am told that each Canarian Island dialect differs from each other, but I doubt the differences are so great.
It is fairly easy to imitate the dialect, you stuff a sock in your mouth and supress all word endings, and refrain from moving your lips altogether. So where another would say "más o menos" in Tenerife you hear "a o e-o".
The vocabulary is quite different to mainland Spain, having lots of words more often heard in Latin America.
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Mexico must have at least 28 different dialects also. Much of the time I can tell which state a Mexican speaker comes from by the accent. Even in Cuba which is a fairly small island there is a very marked difference from the way they talk. I was in Manzanillo, Cuba for a few weeks and then went to La Habana which is about 500 miles away. It was sorprendente the difference of how the two sound from each other. They say even on the small island of Puerto Rico there are differences. One time I was in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico and I asked a Mexican where the best Spanish was spoken and he said it was from there. He said he couldn't stand the way the Mexicans from Guadalajara and Guanajuato speak. Among native Spanish speakers it's well known that people from Argentina speak with an Italian accent yet supposedly there are parts of Argentina where they don't have an Italian accent. Personally I haven't heard them yet. In the coasts of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela they speak very similar to the Cubans. But then again not all Cubans speak alike.
My neighbors across the street from where I live are from Yucatan, Mexico. They speak and are somewhat different than other Mexicans. Besides speech they also eat different Mexican food. They make their tamales with banana leaves for example. They speak algo como los central Americanos.
Anyway the Spanish of California is mostly Mexican dialect. But then again which Mexican dialect since there are Mexicans here from all over Mexico. Even in the U.S. the Mexican dialects are prevalent. 65% of all Spanish speakers in the U.S. come from Mexico. In California it must be 90%.