Which Spanish accent do you prefer?

[Premium]

As the title says, i'd like to know what Spanish accent do you guys prefer?
Some people told me, that Castellano from Spain is the sexiest accent. Many people say, though, that the Mexican Spanish is more audio-pleasant.

So, what do you guys think?

EDIT: Unfortunately i can't change the topic, sorry if you get this wrong. I actually mean, what accent do you like. Bear with me, English isn't my mother tongue.

[JPablo]

This is a totally subjective matter... and to tell you the truth, I believe it is irrelevant.

What is important is the "resulting communication", i.e., a person from the Canary islands with perfect "diction", is totally understandable by any of the 400 or 500 million people who speaks Spanish.

A guy from the coast of Colombia, talking without saying clearly a single consonant, may sound very nice, but totally unintelligible...

So, while some people may like or not like some specific accents, my viewpoint is that the important is not the accent, but the resulting communication...

It's like talking about about what color of hair you prefer... what I'd like is not to lose it!

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Premium

As the title says, i'd like to know what Spanish accent do you guys prefer?
Some people told me, that Castellano from Spain is the sexiest accent. Many people say, though, that the Mexican Spanish is more audio-pleasant.

So, what do you guys think?

I must say Premium this is a great idea for a thread. How did you ever think of it? Very creative on your part. Any way it is probably my favorite subject of all.

La respuesta corta es el acento mexicano pero la version larga es abajo.

As you know Premium I listen to four Mexican novelas a day. Starting at 7 o'clock and not ending to 11 o'clock at night. I live in California near the Mexican border and I live near Los Angeles that has the largest population of Mexicans in the U.S. and largest population of Mexicans outside of Mexico. (Sometimes I feel like I'm living in Mexico even though I'm in the U.S. and I like it that way.) For many many years I have been associating with Mexicans and speaking Spanish with them. The Spanish TV programs I watch are most produced by people who speak with the Mexican accent. Also I went to school in Mexico and lived with a Mexican family. I have been to Cuba two times and while there people would ask me if I were Mexican because they said I spoke like a Mexican. One time after coming back from an extended stay in Mexico a Mexican national made the comment to me that he was trying to figure out what part of Mexico I was from because of my Mexican accent. That was of course for me the greatest compliment I have ever received. While in Mexico I took a class in Spanish on Mexican History that I just loved. The teacher was from a northern part of Mexico but had lived for 10 years in central Mexico and his accent was a combo of both parts. I recorded all his classes. The whole history of Mexico. I listen to those tapes of his over and over again in my car, in my bed, while I was working, while I was asleep and every where I went. I could talk and sound just like him. People would tell me I sounded just like a university Spanish speaking teacher.

Now I must say, I can also speak with a Cuban accent because I speak Spanish every day to my Cuban wife and enjoy the Cuban accent. Also I have a very good friend from Ecuador and her accent is just as nice as any Spanish accent I have ever heard.

When speaking of accents whether it be Mexican or Cuban or Ecuadorian or Spanish from Spain you have to consider the amount of education or schooling a person has. A person from Mexican that is highly educated speaks very different from a person from say a rural background. And this is exactly why I like watching Mexican or anyother novelas because these novelas always and I mean always have people from different social classes and I hear these differences every day. However that being said I also enjoy hearing people talk that are rural people. They represent the most of folkloric culture of a country.

[Premium]

Originally Posted by JPablo

This is a totally subjective matter... and to tell you the truth, I believe it is irrelevant.

What is important is the "resulting communication", i.e., a person from the Canary islands with perfect "diction", is totally understandable by any of the 400 or 500 million people who speaks Spanish.

A guy from the coast of Colombia, talking without saying clearly a single consonant, may sound very nice, but totally unintelligible...

So, while some people may like or not like some specific accents, my viewpoint is that the important is not the accent, but the resulting communication...

It's like talking about about what color of hair you prefer... what I'd like is not to lose it!

Wow.

This topic isn't supposed to be of importance. It's like asking what languages do you like.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by JPablo

This is a totally subjective matter... and to tell you the truth, I believe it is irrelevant.

What is important is the "resulting communication", i.e., a person from the Canary islands with perfect "diction", is totally understandable by any of the 400 or 500 million people who speaks Spanish.

A guy from the coast of Colombia, talking without saying clearly a single consonant, may sound very nice, but totally unintelligible...

So, while some people may like or not like some specific accents, my viewpoint is that the important is not the accent, but the resulting communication...

It's like talking about about what color of hair you prefer... what I'd like is not to lose it!

"As the title says, i'd like to know what Spanish accent do you guys prefer?"
"Some people told me, that Castellano from Spain is the sexiest accent. Many people say, though, that the Mexican Spanish is more audio-pleasant."

"So, what do you guys think?"

J.P. I agree with you but I think the question or part of the question is what accent do you prefer and not what is the best accent.
Personally I really do think the best accent is the accent you are most use to. That being said just imagine me where I live in a Mexican accent enviornment while living with a Cuban accented wife and then on top of that I spend a lot of time with my Ecuadorian friends.

I would like to also add that for us living in the U.S., Central and South America the general accent from Spain sounds so different with the lisp sound.
However there are parts of Spain that do not have that lisp sound. Had a neighbor from southern Spain that did not talk that way. I have read and heard that the reason Spanish speakers of the Americas don't have that lisp sound is because most of the immigrants from Spain to America were from southern Spain. (English "th" sound like Spanish from Spain letter Z sound.) It use to be that in Spanish classes in the U.S. they would try to teach the Spanish lisp Spanish accent sound. Not anymore. Maybe in some places. Not California. Why would anybody living in California for example try to speak like somebody from Spain when 90+% of the people are speaking with a Mexican accent.

[JPablo]

I understand... in the process of learning (whatever subject), it is important to determine what is important and what it isn't.

That's why I talk about "importances". Sometimes as I said here and there, you can use a subject such as "sports" (unimportant for many people) and practice your Spanish or your English with it.

That said, (or written), any topic, from the weather to the last fashion can be used as a "pretext" to practice. Nothing wrong with that. My intention posting before was not meant to "invalidate" your thread or your question.

I just gave my opinion on the matter, prefixing it with the fact that it is a totally subjective matter... like Italian and Spanish say, "Para gustos, los colores". But again, nothing wrong with it. (Don't take offense at my words, as no offense is intended at all...)

As far as the "lisp" is going, the truth of the matter is that no "lisp" exists. None at all in the "Castilian" (let's say, a guy from Valladolid or Salamanca.)

What is true and does exist is the "seseo" in the South of Spain, Canary Islands, most of Latin America... which is what someone living there should learn.

But one must be aware that the "seseo" will present problems of homophony, such as

"casa/caza"

A guy from Venezuela will pronounce "casa" for both (casa = house) and "caza" (hunt, hunting, game).

A guy from Salamanca will pronounce differently "casa" and "caza".

One cannot and should not call "caza" (katha) "lisp" (ceceo).

If (as in some parts of the South of Spain, and specific areas in South America) the guy pronounces "casa" with the "lisp" then yes, that is a lisp, or "ceceo".

I believe we already have discussions and threads on this matter, so I will not extend much on the topic... (not too bad for being an "unimportant" one...)

Then again, as I said, the "accent" or rather the "diction" is important and/or crucial to the degree that enhances or impairs the communication of concepts...

If my written English is full of typos and grammatical anomalies, nobody will understand me... By the same token, if my accent is "so thick" or so "alien" that makes you laugh, that will be a barrier to understand what I say.

As the saying goes, "donde fueres haz lo que vieres", i.e., "when in Rome, do as Romans do"... and like the old pirate in the Asterix books used to quote, "Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas" (Vanity of vanities; all is vanity)...

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by JPablo

One cannot and should not call "caza" (katha) "lisp" (ceceo).

Is there a word for it? Or did the "prestige" speakers just consider it "talking properly" and incapable of needing a name?

[JPablo]

Not really, it's proper name is talking properly Castilian Spanish, just differenciating "z" from "s".

When some one says "casa" pronouncing with a "lisp" then, yes, that is "ceceo" or "lisping".

When you say "thunder" you are NOT lisping, i.e., that is not "ceceo". Would you say you are "lisping"? (I don't think so.)

If you said "sunder" that would be "seseo".

If you thaid thomeshing like thith, that would be "lipsing", right?

If you say "thumbs up", you are not lisping... (in English.)

The analogy for Latin American accent, is "sumbs up"... the "th" sound has become "s"... that is the "seseo".

Nothing against "seseo" (it it the most common "accent")

Nothing against the Castilian accent that differenciate "s" and "z" (and "c").

Am I making some sense here?

[poli]

The word gracias a lesson in itself when spoken by someone from central Spain.


As for which accent sounds best: that depends upon the speaker. Premium, you mentioned a Spanish and Mexican accent. Be aware that there many Mexican and Spanish accents.

Personally, when using generalities (which is a faulty way to make value judgements), I like the way the rioplatense accent sounds.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by JPablo

I understand... in the process of learning (whatever subject), it is important to determine what is important and what it isn't.

That's why I talk about "importances". Sometimes as I said here and there, you can use a subject such as "sports" (unimportant for many people) and practice your Spanish or your English with it.

That said, (or written), any topic, from the weather to the last fashion can be used as a "pretext" to practice. Nothing wrong with that. My intention posting before was not meant to "invalidate" your thread or your question.

I just gave my opinion on the matter, prefixing it with the fact that it is a totally subjective matter... like Italian and Spanish say, "Para gustos, los colores". But again, nothing wrong with it. (Don't take offense at my words, as no offense is intended at all...)

As far as the "lisp" is going, the truth of the matter is that no "lisp" exists. None at all in the "Castilian" (let's say, a guy from Valladolid or Salamanca.)

What is true and does exist is the "seseo" in the South of Spain, Canary Islands, most of Latin America... which is what someone living there should learn.

But one must be aware that the "seseo" will present problems of homophony, such as

"casa/caza"

A guy from Venezuela will pronounce "casa" for both (casa = house) and "caza" (hunt, hunting, game).

A guy from Salamanca will pronounce differently "casa" and "caza".

One cannot and should not call "caza" (katha) "lisp" (ceceo).

If (as in some parts of the South of Spain, and specific areas in South America) the guy pronounces "casa" with the "lisp" then yes, that is a lisp, or "ceceo".

I believe we already have discussions and threads on this matter, so I will not extend much on the topic... (not too bad for being an "unimportant" one...)

Then again, as I said, the "accent" or rather the "diction" is important and/or crucial to the degree that enhances or impairs the communication of concepts...

If my written English is full of typos and grammatical anomalies, nobody will understand me... By the same token, if my accent is "so thick" or so "alien" that makes you laugh, that will be a barrier to understand what I say.

As the saying goes, "donde fueres haz lo que vieres", i.e., "when in Rome, do as Romans do"... and like the old pirate in the Asterix books used to quote, "Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas" (Vanity of vanities; all is vanity)...

Your English is good J.P. Click on the quote button though so we'll know exactly who you are talking to.

English has many words that sound the same but have different meanings.
Homophones are words that sound the same when you pronounce them, but have different meanings.
Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. bare bear, wood would,
bait bate, ball bawl, Oh Dios mio! The list is endless.

English is much worse than Spanish in this respect. It's a matter of context. So a few words in American Spanish like casa and caza aren't a problem para mi.

By chance last night I was flipping through the TV channels and came across a Colombian novela. I was undestanding perfectly what they were saying but their accent sounded so different. One guy really was off the wall with the way he was speaking. Sounded like he had a frog in his throat. I've watched Colombian novelas before and have been around Colombian people before. My neighbors for years were Colombian. Even have that Colombian novela series El Capo on DVD. This was a little different than that though.