How does Andalusian Spanish sound to other Spanish speakers?
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English See all items with this value
Date Accepted
11/29/19 See all items with this value
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Jesús Alatriste See all items with this value
Title
How does Andalusian Spanish sound to other Spanish speakers? See all items with this value
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Some people think that the best Spanish in terms of neutral and clear accent is spoken in some Castillian cities such as Valladolid or Salamanca (a bit like Oxford accent if we were to compare it to English)
At the other end of the scale, foreign students tend to be afraid of Andalucian accent as the hardest to understand.
I personally encourage students to feel totally relaxed about accents and think that ALL of them are perfectly fine and representative of a part of Spain and the Hispanic world.
It’s true that West Analusians as a rule don’t pronounce the letters “c” or “z” as the Castillians do (Castillians pronounce these letters like “th”while Andalusians pronounce them like “s”, so “abrazo” (hug) becomes “abraso” in Seville)
Another thing is that the Andalusians have a tendency to shorten or omit some word endings such as the letter “s” (“Qué haces” becomes “”Qué hase”) or the -ado -ada ending which becomes -ao -á (pescado = pescao; patada = patá)
They also like to use the diminutive form, so instead of pescado, they tend to say “pescaito”.
I struggled to understand a waiter in Malaga once when I asked for the speciality dish and he said that his suggestion was swordfish: “Lo mejó aquí e el pespá” ( pez espada = pes espá = pespá)
As a Castillian myself, let me say that generally speaking, Castillians don’t have any issue with Andalusian accent. Most of us find it stimulating, different, lively (don’t forget that their musicality is more pronounced than ours), although some small minority of Castillians and for this matter Northeners (Basques, Asturians, Catalans etc) might find a strong Andalucian accent quite irritating. The general sentiment however is that all accents are welcome in any part of Spain and that these regional differences are part of the beauty of our language.
In the same way, an Andalusian might dislike the ton of a person from a Valladolid professor, and see it as too affected or patronizing, but in general they accept it as different and are curious about it (a friend of mine told me once that while he was staying in Seville someone refered to his accent as “it’s amazing, you speak like the King”)
One thing to be noted too is the speed of speech, Spaniards in general have a tendency to run when they speak, but Andalusians are the fastest, specially when they’re telling jokes in groups at the local bar ;) See all items with this value
At the other end of the scale, foreign students tend to be afraid of Andalucian accent as the hardest to understand.
I personally encourage students to feel totally relaxed about accents and think that ALL of them are perfectly fine and representative of a part of Spain and the Hispanic world.
It’s true that West Analusians as a rule don’t pronounce the letters “c” or “z” as the Castillians do (Castillians pronounce these letters like “th”while Andalusians pronounce them like “s”, so “abrazo” (hug) becomes “abraso” in Seville)
Another thing is that the Andalusians have a tendency to shorten or omit some word endings such as the letter “s” (“Qué haces” becomes “”Qué hase”) or the -ado -ada ending which becomes -ao -á (pescado = pescao; patada = patá)
They also like to use the diminutive form, so instead of pescado, they tend to say “pescaito”.
I struggled to understand a waiter in Malaga once when I asked for the speciality dish and he said that his suggestion was swordfish: “Lo mejó aquí e el pespá” ( pez espada = pes espá = pespá)
As a Castillian myself, let me say that generally speaking, Castillians don’t have any issue with Andalusian accent. Most of us find it stimulating, different, lively (don’t forget that their musicality is more pronounced than ours), although some small minority of Castillians and for this matter Northeners (Basques, Asturians, Catalans etc) might find a strong Andalucian accent quite irritating. The general sentiment however is that all accents are welcome in any part of Spain and that these regional differences are part of the beauty of our language.
In the same way, an Andalusian might dislike the ton of a person from a Valladolid professor, and see it as too affected or patronizing, but in general they accept it as different and are curious about it (a friend of mine told me once that while he was staying in Seville someone refered to his accent as “it’s amazing, you speak like the King”)
One thing to be noted too is the speed of speech, Spaniards in general have a tendency to run when they speak, but Andalusians are the fastest, specially when they’re telling jokes in groups at the local bar ;) See all items with this value