Spanish

The Spanish language spoken in the Americas is distinct from Peninsular Spanish
 and Spanish spoken elsewhere, such as in Africa and Asia.
Linguistically, this grouping is somewhat arbitrary, akin to having a
term for "overseas English" encompassing variants spoken in the United
States, Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, but not the
Island of Britain. There is great diversity among the various Latin
American vernaculars, and it would be hard to point to one trait shared
by all of them which is not also in existence in one or more of the
variants of Spanish used in Spain. Of the more than 469 million people who speak Spanish as their native language, more than 418 million are in Latin America and the United States.[1]

There are numerous regional particularities and idiomatic expressions within Spanish. In Latin American Spanish, loanwords
 directly from English are relatively more frequent, and often foreign
spellings are left intact. One notable trend is the higher abundance of
loan words taken from English in Latin America as well as words derived
from English. The Latin American Spanish word for "computer" is *computadora*, whereas the word used in Spain is *ordenador*,
 and each word sounds foreign in the region where it is not used. Some
differences are due to Iberian Spanish having a stronger French
influence than Latin America, where, for geopolitical reasons, the
United States influence has been predominant throughout the twentieth
century.

## Main Features

Pronunciation varies from country to country and from region to
region, just as English pronunciation varies from one place to another.
In general terms, the speech of the Americas shows many common features
akin to southern Spanish variants, especially to western Andalusia
(Seville, Cádiz) and the Canary Islands.
 Coastal language vernaculars throughout Hispanic America show
particularly strong similarities to Atlantic-Andalusian speech patterns
while inland regions in Mexico and Andean countries are not similar to
any particular dialect in Spain.

* Most Spaniards pronounce ⟨z⟩ and ⟨c⟩ (before /e/ and /i/) as [θ] (called *distinción*). Conversely, most Hispanic Americans have *seseo*, lacking a distinction between this phoneme and /s/. However, *seseo* is also typical of the speech of many Andalusians and all Canary islanders.

 Andalusia's and the Canary Islands' predominant position in the
conquest and subsequent immigration to Hispanic America from Spain is
thought to be the reason for the absence of this distinction in most
American Spanish dialects.

* Most of Spain, particularly the regions that have a distinctive /θ/ phoneme, realize /s/ with the tip of tongue against the alveolar ridge. Phonetically this is an "apico-alveolar" "grave" sibilant [s̺], with a weak "hushing" sound reminiscent of retroflex fricatives. To a Hispanic American speaker, the /s/ in Spanish dialects from northern Spain might sound close to [ʃ] like English ⟨sh⟩ as in *she*. However, this apico-alveolar realization of /s/ is not uncommon in some Latin American Spanish dialects which lack [θ]; some inland Colombian Spanish (particularly Antioquia) and Andean regions of Peru and Bolivia also have an apico-alveolar /s/.
* As mentioned, Anglicisms are far more common in Hispanic America

than in Spain, due to the stronger and more direct US influence.

* Equally, indigenous languages

 have left their mark on Hispanic American Spanish, a fact which is
particularly evident in vocabulary to do with flora, fauna and cultural
habits. Nevertheless, European Spanish has also absorbed numerous words
of Amerindian origin, although for historical reasons, the vast majority
 of these are taken from Nahuatl and various Caribbean languages.

* Arabic-derived words with Latinate doublets are common in Hispanic American Spanish, being influenced by Andalusian Spanish, such as *alcoba* ("bedroom") instead of standard *cuarto*, *recámara*, and many others and *alhaja* ("jewel") instead of standard *joya*. In this sense Hispanic American Spanish is closer to the dialects spoken in the south of Spain.[*citation needed*]
* See List of words having different meanings in Spain and Hispanic America.
* Most Hispanic American Spanish usually features *yeísmo*:

 there is no distinction between ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨y⟩. However realization
varies greatly from region to region. Chileans pronounce these 2
graphemes as ⟨j⟩, for example. However, yeísmo is an expanding and now
dominant feature of European Spanish, particularly in urban speech (Madrid, Toledo) and especially in Andalusia and the Canary Islands, though in some rural areas [ʎ] has not completely disappeared. Speakers of Rioplatense Spanish pronounce both ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨y⟩ as [ʒ] or [ʃ]. The traditional pronunciation of the digraph ⟨ll⟩ as [ʎ] is preserved in some dialects along the Andes range, especially in inland Peru and the Colombia highlands (Santander), northern Argentina, all Bolivia and Paraguay.

* Most speakers of coastal dialects may debuccalize or aspirate syllable-final /s/ to [h], or drop it entirely, so that *está* [esˈta] ("s/he is") sounds like [ehˈta] or [eˈta], as in southern Spain (Andalusia, Extremadura, Murcia, Castile–La Mancha (except the northeast), Madrid, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla).
* ⟨g⟩ (before /e/ or /i/) and ⟨j⟩ are usually aspirated to [h]

 in Caribbean and other coastal language vernaculars, as well as in all
of Colombia and southern Mexico, as in much of southern Spain. In other
American dialects the sound is closer to [x], and often firmly strong (rough) in Peruvian Spanish dialect.[*citation needed*] Very often, especially in Argentina and Chile, [x] becomes fronter [ç] when preceding high vowels /e, i/ (these speakers approach [x] to the realization of German ⟨ch⟩ in *ich*); in other phonological environments it is pronounced either [x] or [h].

* In many Caribbean varieties the phonemes /l/ and /r/ at the end of a syllable sound alike or can be exchanged: *caldo* > *ca[r]do*, *cardo* > *ca[l]do*; in the situation of /r/ in word-final position, it becomes silent, giving Caribbean dialects of Spanish a partial non-rhoticity. This happens at a reduced level in Ecuador and Chile[*citation needed*] as well. It is a feature brought from Extremadura and westernmost Andalusia.
* In many Andean regions the alveolar trill of *rata* and *carro* is realized as an alveolar approximant [ɹ] or even as a voiced apico-alveolar [z].

 The alveolar approximant realization is particularly associated with an
 indigenous substrate and it is quite common in Andean regions,
especially in inland Ecuador, Peru, most of Bolivia and in parts of
northern Argentina and Paraguay.

* In Belize, Puerto Rico, and Colombian islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, aside from [ɾ], [r], and [l], syllable-final /r/ can be realized as [ɹ], an influence of American English to Puerto Rican dialect and British English

 to Belizean dialect and Colombian dialect of Archipelago of San Andrés,
 Providencia and Santa Catalina (in the case of the latter three, it is
not exclusive to Colombians whose ancestors traced back to Spanish
period before British invasion, under British territorial rule, and
recovery of Spanish control, but is also used by Raizals, whites of British descent, and descendants of mainland Colombians); *"verso"'* (verse) becomes [ˈbeɹso], aside from [ˈbeɾso], [ˈberso], or [ˈbelso], "*invierno*" (winter) becomes [imˈbjeɹno], aside from [imˈbjeɾno], [imˈbjerno], or [imˈbjelno], and "*escarlata*" (scarlet) becomes [ehkaɹˈlata], aside from [ehkaɾˈlata], [ehkarˈlata], or [ehkaˈlata]. In word-final position, /r/ will usually be one of these:

* + a trill, a tap, approximant, [l], or elided when followed by a consonant or a pause, as in *amo*[r ~ ɾ ~ ɹ ~ l] *paterno* 'paternal love', *amor* [aˈmo],
	+ a tap, approximant, or [l] when the followed by a vowel-initial word, as in *amo*[ɾ ~ ɹ ~ l] *eterno* 'eternal love').
* The voiced consonants /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are pronounced as plosives after and sometimes before any consonant in most of Colombian Spanish dialects (rather than the fricative or approximant that is characteristic of most other dialects): *pardo* [ˈpaɾ**d**o], *barba* [ˈbaɾ**b**a], *algo* [ˈal**ɡ**o], *peligro* [peˈli**ɡ**ɾo], *desde* [ˈdez**d**e/ˈdeh**d**e]—rather than the [ˈpaɾ**ð**o], [ˈbaɾ**β**a], [ˈal**ɣ**o], [peˈli**ɣ**ɾo], [ˈdez**ð**e/ˈdeh**ð**e] of Spain and the rest of Spanish America. A notable exception is the Department of Nariño and most *Costeño* speech (Atlantic coastal dialects) which feature the soft, fricative realizations common to all other Hispanic American and European dialects.
* Word-final /n/ is velar [ŋ] in much Latin American Spanish speech; this means a word like *pan* (bread) is often articulated ['paŋ]. To an English-speaker, those speakers that have a velar nasal for word-final /n/ make *pan* sound like *pang*. Velarization of word-final /n/ is so widespread in the Americas that it is easier to mention those regions that maintain an alveolar /n/:

 most of Mexico, Colombia (except for coastal dialects) and Argentina
(except for some northern regions). Elsewhere, velarization is common,
although alveolar word-final /n/ can appear among some educated speakers, especially in the media or in singing. Velar word-final /ŋ/
 is also frequent in Spain, especially in southern Spanish dialects
(Andalusia and the Canary Islands) and in the Northwest: Galicia,
Asturias and León.

## Local Variations

### North America

* Mexican Spanish
	+ Chicano Calo
* Spanish language in the United States
	+ New Mexican Spanish
	+ Puerto Rican Spanish

### Central America

* Belizean Spanish
* Costa Rican Spanish
* Guatemalan Spanish
* Honduran Spanish
* Nicaraguan Spanish
* Panamanian Spanish
* Salvadoran Spanish
	+ Caliche slang

### The Caribbean

* Cuban Spanish
* Dominican Spanish
* Puerto Rican Spanish

### South America

* Amazonic Spanish
* Andean Spanish
* Bolivian Spanish
* Chilean Spanish
	+ Chilote Spanish
* Colombian Spanish
* Ecuadorian Spanish
* Paraguayan Spanish
* Peruvian Spanish
	+ Peruvian Coast Spanish
* Rioplatense Spanish (spoken in Uruguay and most of Argentina)
* Venezuelan Spanish