Spanish in the Yucatan

Spanish in the Yucatan
 

My college's most affordable Spanish study-abroad program is to Merida, Mexico, so that's probably where I'll be going for Spanish immersion in a year and a half. I was wondering, what is the Yucatan Spanish accent/dialect like? I can't find much information on it, other than that it's distinct from the rest of Mexico, and according to an advisor from my college it's fairly slow and clear, so it's easy for learners to understand.

The only sound clips I can find are these: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jcmichno/yucatanspanish1.html

I can't say they sound different from most other Spanish I've heard, but I still have an untrained ear.

Correct. That's why you shouldn't be even concerned about it. If anything, you'll get accustomed to it, and that's that.

;)

I'm not concerned about it, I'm just curious how it contrasts to other accents.

Again, I understood what you said, but if you cannot even differentiate between accents....

Think about Am E and Br E etc...

It's mostly just a matter of accent as are all Mexican dialects different mostly for the accent. I say dialects in the sense of a change in a language that still permits understanding.

I had Yucatan neighbors living right across the street from my house for 7 years. Never had trouble understanding them. Their culture is a little different than main stream Mexican culture(Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Zacatecas etc. etc). Yucatan is a cross between Central America and Mexico since it is in southern Mexico and has the Mayan influence. Also there is a Caribbean influence there because of the location of Yucatan. They said they could see the lights of Cuba at night. There was a reason they got along great with their Cuban neighbors.
Look at the map below and you can see how close Yucatan is to Cuba and that Yucatan is in
the Caribbean Sea/Gulf of Mexico as Cuba also is.

http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.45780...7&rs=1&pid=1.7