Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Although the Latin American and Peninsular varieties of Spanish are mutu-

ally comprehensible, they differ in several important respects. It also needs

to be borne in mind that significant variation exists within Latin American

Spanish itself. For example, in the Spanish that can be heard on the

Caribbean and the Pacific coasts there is a tendency to pronounce the letter

‘s’, when it occurs before a consonant, like the ‘h’ of English ‘hat’, resulting

in pronunciations such as ehtofor estoor ehpañafor España. By contrast,

the traditional Spanish relationship between letters and sounds is fairly well

preserved in the Spanish spoken in the mountainous interior of both

Mexico and South America, giving these varieties a more ‘Castilian’

quality. Nevertheless, despite differences of this kind it is possible to high-

light several key features that distinguish Latin American Spanish as a

whole from its Peninsular counterpart.

In preceding chapters, instances of Latin American usage have been iden-

tified and illustrated [LA], as have practices and vocabulary that are

considered to be largely Peninsular [SP]. This final chapter collates and

expands coverage of American usage to offer a unified overview of its prin-

cipal characteristics.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation of ‘z’

In the Spanish spoken in most of the Iberian Peninsula, with the notable

exception of Andalusia, the letter z(and also cbefore ior e) is pronounced

like ‘th’ of English ‘think’. This sound is not used in the Spanish of Latin

America where it is replaced by the ‘s’ of ‘six’.

Accordingly, in Latin American Spanish word pairs such as the following

have an identical pronunciation:

30.1.1

30.1

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111 305

Chapter 30

Differences between

Latin American and

Peninsular Spanish