Spanish language

The Spanish language developed (from mostly Latin origins) in the Iberian Peninsula and ultimately came to mean the language spoken in Spain. Typical features of Spanish phonology include lenition? (Latin vita, Spanish vida) and palatalization? (Latin annum, Spanish año); both can however be found in most Romance languages.

In Spain four languages are spoken: Spanish, Catalan, Galician (Galaico-Portuguese) and Basque. Catalan is a distinct language spoken by 7-9 million people in Catalonia, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Island, that includes Barcelone, Valence and Majorca. Galician is spoken in Galicia.

The Spanish name of the language is a political issue. Spaniards speaking Spanish call their language español. Spaniards speaking other languages call Spanish castellano? (Castilian). On the other hand, in some Latin American countries people prefer the word castellano because español is heard more as a nationality than the name of a language. In English Spanish is the name of the language and Castilian is the dialect spoken in Castile (the region around Spain's capital, Madrid).

There are regional variations among the various regions of Spain and Spanish America. In Spain Castilian is commonly taken as the national standard.

In the Americas, the first Spaniards to settle brought some of their regionalisms with them. Today you can find distinct accents in different nations of Spanish speaking America. Typical of the Americas is the pronunciation of <ll> as /j/ instead of /l_j/. In Spain, too, <ll> is now pronounced as /j/ rather than /l_j/. This phenomenon is called yeismo. In Argentina, /j/ is generally pronounced as /Z/ as in French 'jour'. This phenomenon is called z<caron>eismo. Also typical of Latin America is seseo. The European Castilian phoneme /T/ (as in ciento, caza) does not exist in American Castilian, it fell together with /s/ (as in ser, casa).

Many people think that Spanish is regulated by the RAE (Real Academia Española). Actually, languages are not regulated.

Phonemes of European Spanish

Plosive?s

/p, b/

/t, d/

/k, g/ /g/ has two allophones in European Spanish, namely [G] and [g]. [g] appears only at the beginnings of words (word-initially).

Fricatives

/f, T, s, x/

In South American Spanish, there is no /T/. /x/ has allophones [h], [ç], [x] in South America.

Affricate?

/tS/ (is pronounced as a plosive in European Spanish, something like [t_j]. In South American Spanish, on the other hand, there are mainly [tS] or [S] pronunciations - like French /S/ that has also developed from /tS/.)

Nasals?

/m, n, n_j/

Laterals?

/l, l_j/ /l_j/ is now almost extinct; it certainly is in American Spanish, creating a new /j/ phoneme: <guerrilla> /ge'Rija/.

Vibrants?

/r, R/ /R/ is a flap or tap. Minimal pair: pero /'pero/ - perro /'peRo/

Vowels

/a/ - /e/ - /i/ - /o/ - /u/ ???

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See Common phrases in different languages