Is it hard for Spanish (Spain) speakers to understand Latin American Spanish and vice versa?
Item
issuer
Quora
Language
English
Date Accepted
11/29/19
Title
Is it hard for Spanish (Spain) speakers to understand Latin American Spanish and vice versa?
list of contributors
Miguel Camba Gamazo
content
Not at all. It’s not any harder than for people from the United States to understand British or Australian English.
If the person is using an educated registry, like the one you’d use to give a speech in front of an audience, the differences are very subtle, only the accent and perhaps the use of “ustedes” instead of “vosotros” here and there.
The educated registry of any Spanish-speaking country is essentially the same everywhere.
If we go to a more informal registry, speaking fast, with local slang it might get trickier, but again, not any harder than for a Texan to understand the cockney slang of south east London.
The main characteristic that makes all variants of Spanish easy to understand compared to variants of English, is that no matter how strong your accent is, there is something we ALL respect and English-speakers do not: Vowels.
Unlike dialects of English, in which the same word can sound very different, the same word read by any spanish speaker might change the “z” sound for an “s” sound in some countries or regions, but every other letter, specially vowels, will be pronounced exactly the same, so all differences between dialects boil down to essentially differences in local expressions, z/s sound differences and the use of “vos”/“ustedes” instead of “tu”/”vosotros” (which we all know but it’s kind of archaic for Spaniards). All the rest is the same.
If I had to name the spanish accent and slang that would give an Spaniard more problems, I’d vote for the porteño slang from Buenos Aires. They speak VERY fast, with a strong Italian influence in their vocabulary and loads of localisms.
If the person is using an educated registry, like the one you’d use to give a speech in front of an audience, the differences are very subtle, only the accent and perhaps the use of “ustedes” instead of “vosotros” here and there.
The educated registry of any Spanish-speaking country is essentially the same everywhere.
If we go to a more informal registry, speaking fast, with local slang it might get trickier, but again, not any harder than for a Texan to understand the cockney slang of south east London.
The main characteristic that makes all variants of Spanish easy to understand compared to variants of English, is that no matter how strong your accent is, there is something we ALL respect and English-speakers do not: Vowels.
Unlike dialects of English, in which the same word can sound very different, the same word read by any spanish speaker might change the “z” sound for an “s” sound in some countries or regions, but every other letter, specially vowels, will be pronounced exactly the same, so all differences between dialects boil down to essentially differences in local expressions, z/s sound differences and the use of “vos”/“ustedes” instead of “tu”/”vosotros” (which we all know but it’s kind of archaic for Spaniards). All the rest is the same.
If I had to name the spanish accent and slang that would give an Spaniard more problems, I’d vote for the porteño slang from Buenos Aires. They speak VERY fast, with a strong Italian influence in their vocabulary and loads of localisms.