Some of the regional varieties of the Spanish language are quite divergent from one another, especially in pronunciation and vocabulary, and less so in grammar.
While all Spanish dialects use the same written standard, all spoken varieties differ from the written variety, in different degrees. There are differences between European Spanish (also called Peninsular Spanish) and theSpanish of the Americas, as well as many different dialect areas both within Spain and within Spanish America.
Prominent differences of pronunciation among dialects of Spanish include:
- the maintenance vs. loss of distinction between the phonemes /θ/ and /s/ (distinción vs. seseo);
- the maintenance or loss of distinction between phonemes represented orthographically by ll and y (yeísmo);
- the maintenance of syllable-final [s] vs. its weakening to [h] (called aspiration, or the more precise term debuccalization), or its loss; and
- the tendency, in areas of central Mexico and of the Andean highlands, to reduction (especially devoicing), or loss, of unstressed vowels, mainly when they are in contact with voiceless consonants.[1][2][3]
Among grammatical features, the most prominent variation among dialects is in the use of the second-person pronouns. In most of Spain, the informal second-person plural pronoun is vosotros, while in Spanish America the only second-person plural pronoun, for both formal and informal registers, is ustedes. And for the second-person singular familiar pronoun, some dialects use tú (and its associated verb forms), while others use either vos (seevoseo) or both tú and vos (which, together with usted, can make for a possible three-tiered distinction of formalities).
There are significant differences in vocabulary among regional varieties of Spanish, particularly in the domains of food products, everyday objects, and clothes; and many Latin American varieties show considerable lexical influence from Native American languages.
In a broad sense, American Spanish can be grouped into:
- Mexican
- Caribbean (Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, northern Colombia and Caribbean Mexico).
- Andean-Pacific (Peru, Ecuador, western Bolivia, Colombia and western Venezuela).
- Rioplantense (Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay)
- Chilean (Chiloé, Cuyo)
- Central American
Old World varieties are:
- Northern Peninsular (Asturias, Castilla-León, Cantabria, Basque country, Navarre, Aragón, Rioja, Provinces of Guadalajara and Cuenca)
- Central-Southern Peninsular (Madrid, Toledo, La Mancha)
- Southern Peninsular (Andalusia, Extremadura, and Murcia)
- Canarian (Canary Islands)
