Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2012 December 21

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December 21

Difference between Spanish language in Europe and America

How big is the difference between Spanish spoken in Spain and Latin America compared to difference between British and American English? British and American English seem to only have few differences in pronouncing and some words. In Spanish quite many words seem to have totally different meanings in Europe and America. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.251.114.132 (talk) 08:00, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

The differences are largely analogous. In both cases there are numerous regional dialects, each with some distinct features of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. (see Spanish dialects and varieties, Regional accents of English, and List of dialects of the English language). ----Mattmatt1987 (talk) 16:56, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure there's any single grammatical difference between British and American English that is as striking as the disappearance of vosotros from Latin American Spanish. --Trovatore (talk) 01:39, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

An important word which has very different connotations in European and American Spanish is coger. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 23:27, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

Certain people won't use coger themselves, but I have never had anyone bat an eye when I have used it. People in NYC pretty much know you are going to run into different usages. μηδείς (talk) 01:20, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

I lived in the Canary Islands as a kid, and found the local accent to be quite different from Castillian. I was told it's because it's closer to South American Spanish (even though it was North Africa). Final 's', for example, was never pronounced. A 'd' before 'i' (between vowels) became a 'y' or occasionally 'th'. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 07:34, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

It's very close to the Caribbean Spanish accent. 109.99.71.97 (talk) 16:55, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

• Mattmatt's point needs to be emphasized, though: Latin American Spanish is not nearly as monolithic as American English or even North American English (i.e. American English + Canadian English). The differences between, say, Argentine Spanish and Mexican Spanish are probably as great as between either of them and Castilian. Angr (talk) 12:35, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

But of course you are ignoring Gullah, Cajun English, Jamaican English, Hawaiian Creole, and so on. μηδείς (talk) 22:13, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Those are varieties of speech which have been pidginized or significantly influenced by pidgins, not "dialects" in the normal sense. You might as well mention Saramaccan, which has the majority of its vocabulary taken from English, but which is completely and utterly mutually incomprehensible with any form of standard or semi-standard English... AnonMoos (talk) 07:12, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

And many other variations, like black English, Glaswegian and other Scottish accents. Spanish speakers normally understand each other quite well, no matter where they come from. But I doubt that all normal English speakers would understand the varieties I cited before. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.155.46.8 (talk) 02:37, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Absolutely agree about the relationship between Glaswegian and standard English speakers - I used to have to watch Rab C Nesbitt with the subtitles on! --TammyMoet (talk) 10:44, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

I think I have mentioned the Daly's before. Mr Daly was from Glasgow, and although his wife from Edinburgh and his American-born family could understand him, I never met anyone else who could. μηδείς (talk) 18:32, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Differences even within American English can interfere with mutual intelligibility. I am from the urban Northeast (originally greater New York). Once during my wild youth, I was hitchhiking to far western North Carolina by way of eastern Tennessee. I got picked up by two brothers from a rural part of eastern Tennessee, and I really struggled to comprehend them. At some points, I failed to comprehend them. They didn't seem to have trouble understanding me probably because my accent is close to General American, which is the effective broadcasting standard in the United States. I also cannot fully comprehend some varieties of English from Scotland or Northern Ireland. I don't think I've ever heard of such barriers to mutual intelligibility within Spanish. Marco polo (talk) 02:23, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

I think the biggest difference is that while Castilian Spanish forms a dialect continuum with the rest of Western Romance, English is insular, and is no longer part of a dialect continuum with the Frisian language, which is its closest continental neighbour within the West Germanic languages. I find the Galician language relatively easy to comprehend as well as the Catalan language, while I have heard various dialects of Latin American Spanish (especially Argentinian) and thought at first that they were Italian or Romanian. Nevertheless, once you identify the latter as Spanish, you can adapt. But no amount of flexibility will allow you to pretend certain Scottish dialects are standard English. As for regional American dialects, I once met a kid at Summer camp whom I could barely understand. (I grew up in South Jersey.) I asked him where he was from, and he said, "Bayonne." Oh, Bayonne, France I asked? No, Bayonne, New Jersey, he answered. μηδείς (talk) 04:33, 24 December 2012 (UTC)