EA4, C2006-07/ The pronunciation of the E.A. Dr.

Eva M0Bravo

THEME 4

The pronunciation of American Spanish.

1. Most widespread phonetic-phonological features.

The Hispanic American consonantism is very polymorphic in its realizations. This

polymorphism is logical if we think about the quantity and variety of factors that have
participated in the development of the Spanish language in the various American territories
since the 16th century.

Modern dialectal research is demonstrating that very few are

exclusive allophones of certain regions and what characterizes it is the value that
They acquire the allophones in each variety, according to their frequency and acceptance.

1.1. The seseo.

The /s/ of seseo is polymorphic and Canfield already recorded four variants in 1962.
the most widespread of which was the convex labiodental, articulated with the predorsum of
the tongue against the lower alveoli. This 's' is the typical Andalusian one, widespread in the South
peninsular with the prestige of Seville.
In the Caribbean, there are two major variants: one dental, with the tip of the tongue at level
of the upper incisors; another convex predorsal.
In Argentina, the seseo has a convex voiceless fricative dental sound. There is
traces of rural ceceo, in retreat, in the province of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and territories
next.
In Chile, post-dental conspiracy.

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In Colombia, the cultured language tends to voice the 's' in any position. In some
coastal regions have interdental timbre, regardless of age or levels and in regions
Of Antioquia, a Castilian-type accent is heard.
In Ecuador, the predorsal-alveolar convexity is more tense in the highlands than on the coast.
The Mexican is predorsoalveodental, especially tense in the highland where the
tension is stronger in implosive position.
Lope Blanch ('Physiognomy...', p.69): the so-called seseo presents solutions
divergent, ciceant, in some areas of America --El Salvador, Honduras, coast of
Venezuela, Nicaragua, and even in some locations in Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Mexico--,
while the confusion of the two series of sibilants results in either hissing or not
cicadas, it is general in America, with the exception of isolated stylistic uses.
* Zamora Vicente indicated in 1967 that there were remnants of distinction /s-θ/ in speech.
Peruvian, where it is pronounced for example [dóθe] and is distinguished, as in the modality
central-northern peninsula between [twelve o'clock] (twelve) and [two o'clock] (two); but the
Zamora Vicente himself says that this distinction is only maintained in some vocabulary.
According to Zamora Munné and J. Guitart, there is no known American dialect.
that generally practiced the distinction.

* It should be noted that in some American dialects, such as those from the City of
In Mexico and La Paz, [θ] exists as an allophone of /d/ in postnuclear position, just as it occurs in
the Madrilenian, and thus pronunciations such as [bondáθ], [aθmósfera], etc.

* In some American dialects, such as Salvadoran and Puerto Rican Spanish,

etc., a type of "ceceo" is recorded, although milder and less widespread than the one that is
registers in Andalusia. In the dialects where it does not exist, it is considered a speech defect.
Tomás Navarro has observed that the hissing articulation can be the same
dental that is interdental, but what is common to all realizations is the narrowness
created by the tongue and teeth, which is notched like that of /θ/ and not grooved like that of /s/,

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hence the similarity of timbre.

* The realizations of /s/ basically coincide with those of Southern Spanish and the
The typical apical /s/ of Castilian speech is mainly recorded in the speech of Antioquia.
(Colombia) and has a very different timbre from the non-apical realizations.
* In some dialects, the voicing of /s/ intervocalically occurs in the interior of
word and is documented at least sporadically in Costa Rican Spanish and
you speak Colombian. A curious case is that of the Ecuadorian sierra, in which the /s/ ese
it becomes sonorous when it is at the end of the word and the next one begins with a vowel
I love friends, but it does not occur in non-final position among the same speakers.

1.2. Yeísmo and Rehilamiento.

The conservation of the lateral palatal: eastern mountain range of the Colombian Andes,
provinces of Loja, Azuay, and Cañar in Ecuador, almost all of Peru, Bolivia (excluding Tarija)
Paraguay, north and south of Chile, Corrientes, Misiones and La Rioja in Argentina.
In Paraguay, the preservation of [_,l] is not only characteristic, but [y] is also
it is realized as a tense and strident voiced palatal affricate phoneme, very similar to the j
from English (/j/) and whose phonetic realization corresponds to the sequence [d' In the Paraguayan
they contrast [and,you] of to fall and [ka_,lo] of to be silent.

Semi-vocalization [º,i] or open articulation of /y/: El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,

Guatemala, Costa Rica, Argentina (San Luis), Atlantic coast of Colombia, northern coast of
Peru, New Mexico, Yucatan, Arizona, and northern Mexico.
It is a process of de-consonantization of /y/, that is, a decrease of
the articulatory tension that occurs mainly in the intervocalic context, which makes
that the friction distinguishing [y] from [º,i] does not occur, as in [maº,io] may.

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In some dialects, the intervocalic [y] weakens to such an extent that it comes to not
to pronounce oneself, as happens in Chicano speech or Mexican dialects of the Southwest
the U.S.

* Raising of /y/: Argentina and Uruguay. With less force, the raising occurs.
in Puerto Rico, Antioquia (Colombia) and some Mexican states like Oaxaca, Puebla
and Veracruz.
Rehilamiento can be defined as the presence of a fricative segment.
prepalatal (alveolopalatal) voiced tense and sibilant /ž/.
Regarding the relationship of the rehilamiento with the other palatal phonemes, in
At least four situations have been described in America:
a) /l/- y > [ž] - [y]
There are dialects that have [y] where others have /y/ but they have [ž] where the
lateral palatal system, lacking this last phoneme. Thus, they distinguish between [kayó] of
to fall and [ká or to be silent.
It is the case of Santiago del Estero and central Colombia.

b) /l/ - /y/ > [ž], except hie- [y]

There are dialects you are that have [ instead of both /y/ and /_,l/, with the exception
of the words that start with hie- in writing, which have /y/, and so for example:
[se by seal
[ that for plaster, but
for ice
Like in the porteño or Castilian of Buenos Aires.

c) /l/ - /y/ > [ž]

There are dialects you are in the one where neither /_,l/ nor /y/ exist and are pronounced with [ all
the words, I include [ élo] for ice.

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Like in Montevideo (Uruguay).

/l/ - /y/ > [l] - [ž]

There are Zeist dialects that are also Lleist but do not have /y/, being present in them
the contrast between calló (lateral sound) and cayó (fricative [ž]).
This phenomenon has been witnessed in Argentine, Chilean, and Bolivian dialects, among
others. In some of these languages, this distinction is fading and some authors
They talk about a process of lateral re-shedding. It may be that the lateral realization
it appears more in careful and self-regulated speech where there is more influence of the language

writing and that the realization [žamé] by the same word occurs more in speech
spontaneous.
It should be noted that [ can appear as an allophone of /y/ after /s/ in the
nožiest dialects where /s/ is not weakened in post-nuclear position and is, on the contrary,
rather tense, with what apparently is pronounced des[ž]elo by assimilation of tension,
for my keys and even that Perissinotto registers in the City of
Mexico.

Deafening of [ž].
Both in the žeist pronunciations that preserve the articulation [_,l] and in the
that they do not conserve it, the appearance of the voiceless allophone [š] occurs, a fricative realization

alveolopalatal or prepalatal tense and strident, but articulated without vibration of the
vocal cords (deaf). This deafening is a variable phenomenon and is not
conditioned by the phonetic context. Appears after pause [šo] I, [kanáša] scoundrel, etc. The
deafness is related to sociolinguistic factors such as social class, gender,
age and speech register (formal, colloquial, informal): it appears more in Montevideo among
women who among men and in other cases is more characteristic of colloquial speech. It is
very peculiar to Bahía Blanca, favored by young women.

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1.3. The realization of the phonemes /l/ and /r/.

The assibilation:
The assibilated realization mainly affects the multiple vibrant, although it also
give in the simple.
It is a split fricative, tenser and more strident than the [r] and with alveolar articulation.
the postalveolar (prepalatal). It has a voiceless variant whose timbre is very close
to the Castilian 's' (the concave alveolar apical).
The voiceless fricative appears as an allophone of [r] in the groups [tr] and [r]. In some
In dialects, the aspiration is a variable phenomenon, alternating with the vibratory realization.
In Chilean Spanish, the sibilant realization acts as a sociolinguistic marker, already
what is typical of the less educated classes.
In Chilean, as in other dialects that assibilate and rehilate the vibrants, the
The voiceless sibilant is the most frequent allophone of the multiple vibrante. In the dialects
sibilants, the voiced sibilant can also appear in final position as an allophone of
/r/ (simple vibrante).
There are also articulatory variants of the /r/, with solutions that even reach to the
Palatalization. The retracted sibilation of the vibrants is a phenomenon that occurs in
numerous American dialects (see Resnick) and that many others do not appear, therefore
which serves as an important feature of intradialectal differentiation.

A lesser-known dialectal phenomenon is the velarization or posteriorization of the

vibrant multiple that manifests mainly in Puerto Rico without being general on the island,
according to Humberto López Morales's studies. It has been proven to be a phenomenon
variable related to sociolinguistic factors, appearing more in speech
spontaneous rather than the careful. It can consist of a voiced post-dorsal articulation or
uvular and vary in tension, reaching in some cases to fricativize and to 'sound' like an r

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French.
In its voiceless realization, it can be confused by the ear with the realization.
Castilian of /x/: [xamón] by Ramón. It is very characteristic of the speech of Puerto Rico and the
López Morales' studies demonstrated an attitude of rejection based on rural character.
that is attributed to him.

1.4. The aspiration and/or loss of the /-s/.

The relaxation of /-s/, which can consist of aspiration or loss, occurs in the
Caribbean, Central America, Venezuela, coasts of Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru (coast
north), Chile, Argentina (port region and part of the interior). In other parts also
register, but with less frequency.
Rice with fish is a phrase used by those from central Mexico.
they greet the people of Veracruz, according to Fco. Castillo Nájera.
There is absolutely no conservation of the old medieval phoneme [h], what exists is the
weakening of a sound in an implosive position that becomes aspirated or is lost, this to
it can also cause other alterations in the spoken chain: opening of the vowel
precedent or alteration of the preceding or following consonantal sounds. This
the phenomenon occurs throughout Andalusia, but not with the same result, rather varied in
solution and intensity according to the areas and the speakers.

Aspiration produces changes that occur in other areas of the south:

it deafens the consonant with which the following word begins, if it is voiced (the
goals > [lo xóle], the cows > [laφáka], etc. with all the intermediate steps.
The aspiration of the /-s/, when it closes a syllable within a word, can provoke
the same process: trait > [râxo]
Assimilations and aspirations also occur if the following consonant is voiceless.
three possibilities:

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a) reduplication: [ákReduplication produces a kind of gemination of the sound.

consonantal (preserving or not remnants of the aspirated): [áhko].
b) aspiration: disgust > [áhThe aspiration is deaf.
c) loss: [áko]. Total elimination of the preceding phoneme.

Regarding the sociolinguistic factors, it has been observed that in certain

You speak American, like in Panama and Chile, aspiration marks the layer of lower level.
cultural: women and young people and individuals who arrived in the capital between childhood and
adolescence; while elision is characteristic of the lower socioeconomic classes:
the old people, and the men born outside the capital.
However, in Puerto Rico and Cuba, aspiration is common and elision is frequent.
in final position, while in R.Do the elision indices in all contexts are
very significant in the high sociolects, alongside very high frequency in the low ones.

* In Jalisco and surrounding areas, the final /-s/ is nasalized: [adjósn], [pwésn].

In Oaxaca, there are palatalizations of /p, t, k/: [kášpa], [apéšta], phenomenon

documented in Spanish in the XVI.
* The velarization of the intermediate s exists in the regions of Veracruz and Tabasco.
egg ladder, lapiger, etc.

* It is common in Santo Domingo to aspirate the /-s/ intervocalic, both in

interior of the word as in phonotaxis: [nohótro], [sinko hentábo].

2. Other consonantal characteristics.

Within the American dialects, there are consonantal realizations that deserve

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attention:

2.1. The palatal affricate / /.

It can have different realizations, up to the loss of the occlusive element,

as happens in languages from very distant geographical areas, such as the Caribbean and the
You speak Chilean. It is a very widespread phenomenon. In Panama City, the fricative allophone is
the only achievement.
In some cases, these articulations can be sociolinguistic indicators:
María Vaquero confirmed that the affricate realization was the predominant one among speakers.
cultured Puerto Ricans, but they also had fricative realizations.
At other times, it seems to be contextual issues that determine their
appearance: in the speech of Panama, Cedergren documented that the fricative realization is
partially conditioned by the phonetic context, being more frequent in position
intervocalic [mušašo] that occurs after a consonant, where the affricate [pin o] usually appears.

According to Cedergren, moreover, the fricative realization is more frequent among young speakers.
which indicates that it is an ongoing diachronic process.

2.2. The final nasal.

At the end of a syllable, the place of articulation of nasals is not relevant in

Spanish, and precisely in this implosive position, phonological neutralization takes place.
which favors all dialectal realizations.
Traditional studies of dialectology have always noted the velar realization.
from the final nasal at the end of a word and implosive interior even when it is not followed by a consonant

velar: [jabóη], [caηtaηdo], [eηfrente], where other dialects have a different solution.
frequent assimilation ([singing], [in front]).

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The tendency towards velarization, of Andalusian origin, represents a stage of progress.

in the process of articulatory wear of the implosive nasal, in innovative speech,
this process, conditioned by various linguistic and social factors, reaches its
culmination with the total loss of the nasal. The velarization of /-n/ occurs in Colombia,
Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, México (Oaxaca, Yucatán), Nicaragua, Perú, Puerto Rico,
Dominican Republic, El Salvador.

Additionally, cases of nasal consonant deletion have been recorded, with

nasalization of the preceding vowel ([etose] for 'entonces') and total elision, without nasalization
from the vowel.
The theory of the progressive weakening of post-nuclear vowels assumes that the
velarization of the nasal is an intermediate stage between assimilation and nasalization of
the previous vowel
[ónse] > [óηse] > [ṍnse] > [óse]

In the Antilles, velarization has become frequent in some territories.

Navarro Tomás registered it in 1948 as a characteristic of the island and in 1980, H. López.
Morales demonstrated how it dramatically increased at the end of the word, while it decreased its

frequency in internal position. In La R.Do. the most frequent solution is elision with
nasalization of the preceding vowel, followed by velarization. This phenomenon is
extends from the Venezuelan coasts to the south, along the Colombian and Ecuadorian coasts
and in terms of general acceptance and in all contexts, it is a more advanced phenomenon
on the coasts of Peru than in the Caribbean.

2.3. The aspirated velar.

In American Spanish, there is a velar /x/ with the same distribution as in the
peninsular central-northern modality, although it is never as vibrant and strident as in

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some areas of the Peninsula.

In certain dialects (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, regions of Bolivia, Peru,
Ecuador and Mexico) and characteristically in the Spanish of Chile, the articulation of /x/
the palatal vowel is very anterior, so that the speaker from another area finds it
listen [xiente] for 'people'.
Aside from this peculiarity, it is traditional in Hispanic American dialectology.
establish a distinction between speeches that perform [x] and those that have a realization
laryngeal fricative or simple aspirated [h]. There are different "intensities" of aspirations and
in talking about Colombia, Costa Rica, and Yucatán, for example, a sound can be perceived
intermediate velar.

2.4. The phoneme /f/.

Present three variants with different degrees of polymorphism:

a) the voiceless labiodental fricative allophone [f], general and normative, with more variations
less weakened.
b) a fricative bilabial allophone [φ]
c) an aspirated allophone [h].

* The coexistence of the bilabial and labiodental allophones is general, without being able to

specific distributions; in some cases the bilabial seems favored over the diphthong
/ué/
This bilabial allophone predominates in some regions, such as Panama and Paraguay.
while in others there seems to be a geographical distribution: in Ecuador the bilabial is
typical of the East, in contrast to the polymorphism present in the rest of the country. In Peru it is typical.

from Amazonian Spanish, where it can become labiovelar [enφwérmo] and at the same
time produces the opposite phenomenon: the labialization [f] of the voiceless velar phoneme in

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initial of word: [fán] 'Juan'.

* The aspirated [h] is present in Colombian dialects, with a labio-velar variant:
'easy'. It appears in Chile after a nasal and in Venezuela it is generated, even in
post-nuclear position: [nahtalína].
* The velarization of /f-/ exists in rural Uruguayan speech and in uncultured sociolects.

2.5. Treatment of voiceless and voiced stop consonants.

Vocalization of the deaf /p, t, k/.

The voicing of these voiceless phonemes has been recorded extensively in America.
and vitality not very well known:
In Cuba, center and west: bizarre for slate.
- Ecuador, coast and highlands: trombo for 'trompo'; bolumpio, etc.
Panama: sabátos 'shoes'
- Peru, popular coastal speech: [catholic], [book]
Yucatán, nasalized, rare: [lo kómbro]'I buy it.'

2) weakening and strengthening of the voiced sounds /b, d, g/.

Although in some regions they have occlusive allophones in contexts where the
standard Spanish performs fricatives, the most frequent realizations of these phonemes
they follow the trend of the system towards the corresponding weakening.
In the Antilles:
In Cuba, after [l, r] there is a tendency to produce an occlusive sound, especially in the part
western Cuba. In other cases, the trend is weakening, especially
affects dental health. Currently, in San Juan there is a variety that ranges from the
fricative realization, weakened to the phonetic zero degree.
In RDo, the intervocalic weakening of [d] is significantly advancing, with elisions.

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el tipo [ló] 'lodo', [maúro] 'maduro'.

Despite the advance of this phenomenon, it is stigmatized in the Caribbean, which is why the
forms in -ado, with frication, are preserved in cultured speech.
In Chile, the cultured family speech loses the sonorous dental in -ado; popular speech extends
the elision to other contexts and weakens the velar extremely. It is characteristic of Chile
fricative prepalatal articulation of the voiced velar /g/, common in literary language, both in
initial position erra 'war', as in interior siyénte 'next', paye 'pay'.
In Colombia, while on the coast the general weakening can lead to elision:
[ uásko] 'sudden downpour'; in inland areas occlusive and fricative allophones coexist in
cultured levels.
In Ecuador, the conservation of -ado is typical of the highland regions and the loss of the
it costs, but in other contexts there isn't such a clear geographical distribution. The same
it happens in Peru, where in the Amazon region an occlusive is made in the initial position of
the life
In Panama, it seems that the weakening of the voiced sounds /b, d, g/ in intervocalic position
has increased in recent years (data from Quilis and Graell, 1992), with various
solutions:
a) elisions of the phoneme /b/: [taurete] 'stool'.
[taula] 'table'.
c) Elisions of [d] in -ado.
d) Velar fricative after a pause.
e) Elisions of [g]: [áwa] 'water'.

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3.Vocalic characteristics.

There is no vocal phenomenon that characterizes the American modality in

general compared to other modalities, nor any phenomenon that serves to
characterize large dialectal areas within American Spanish.
There are alterations in the pronunciation of the vowels that solely obey a
sociolinguistic marker of low cultural level, and that occurs throughout the
domain: they are joints of the type [besíta] for visit.
1.-Change in the tone of unstressed and stressed vowels:

a) Closed vowels where the standard has half:

after
swing
b) mid vowels where the standard has closed ones:
[i] > [e]: [to write]
justice
2.- Tendency to suppress hiatuses:
a) Cambios acentuales: [bául], [máiz]
b) Full vowels where the standard has semivowels or semiconsonants: [kambé-o]
for change.
c) Development of epenthetic consonants: [basído] for 'vacío'.

3.- Tendency to suppress or create diphthongs:

a) Simple vowels where the standard has diphthongs: [kébra] for quiebra.
Diphthongs where the standard has medium vowels: 'dientista' instead of 'dentista'.

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3.1. The phonological vowel splitting.

This is a debated issue, as in the opinion of some authors, like H.

López Morales, there is not enough data to speak of a splitting.
phonological that the American dialects similar to that produced in Eastern Andalusia by the
loss of the /-s/:
earl6to eat6kóm, eh6[kóm_,e]
This phenomenon suggests that the open phonemes /a, e, o/ oppose the closed ones /a, e, o/
transmitting differences in meaning: [kóm_,e] 'come' versus [kóm_,e] 'comes'.
It has been documented in Puerto Rico, Chile, and Buenos Aires, but it is more established.
and demonstrated in Antillean Spanish, where it has been observed:
a) that the opening of the final vowel due to the loss of final /-s/ is not systematic;
b) that in cases of loss of final /-s/, singulars and plurals are not distinguished by the
closed/open timbre of the final vowel;
c) the cause must lie in other factors of a syntactic or semantic nature
d) that the duration of the vowel seems to be more important than the timbre.

3.2. Reduction of the vowel inventory.

In the territories in contact with Quechua, speakers appear to have

in Spanish, three vowel phonemes /a, i, u/, due to the influence of this indigenous language that
it only has those three. For those speakers, [e, o] are allophonic variants of /i, u/
respectively and they pronounce not only /e, o/ as [i, u]:
[misa] for table, [siguro] for sure,
but also in reverse:
[checas] for girls, [eglesia] for church, etc.

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3.3. The 'falling' vowels of the Mexican highlands.

The extreme relaxation and muffling of the vowels, to the point of reaching
sometimes to the elision, it is a characteristic but not exclusive phenomenon of the highlands
Mexican, as it has also been documented in El Salvador, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador,
Colombia and Argentina.
Traditionally, this phenomenon has been explained by substratist reasons, for
influence of Nahuatl vocalism. But this influence is not only unproven, but not
It seems reasonable. Nahuatl distinguishes quantity in the vowels and has a clear aversion.
by the consonant clusters. The loss of vowels that would give rise to clusters
consonantal would go against its syllabic trend.
Other authors, such as P. Henríquez Ureña and A. Alonso, talk about an 'influence'
indirect sutratistics": Mexican Spanish has very tense ones influenced by Nahuatl.
and the tense articulation of the Mexican one causes the weakening of the vowel.
Nonetheless, this phenomenon is not exclusive to areas with Nahuatl substrate.

This phenomenon obeys the following behavior:

1) The relaxation of the vowels does not depend on how close or far the unstressed vowel is.
regarding the tone, but rather the consonant with which it is in contact, being
the one that most frequently induces relaxation: [p'set's].
2) The relaxation of/is the least frequent. This process can even affect...
diphthongs [p's] 'well'.
3) The deafening of the vowel is frequent in the context/s/ vowel /s/: [weights],
[then].

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4) Secondly, the consonants that most favor loss are the voiceless ones.
between voiceless consonant and /s/. In these contexts, the loss is not so frequent.
total of the vowel.
Boyd-Bowman points to a "marked tendency to disappear between s and the occlusives
deaf p, t, k especially at the end of a word.
5) The weakening is more frequent during a pause:
It is more common in 'They came all'os." that in "They all cameoand friends.
6) Grouped with another consonant it may end up disappearing, dragged by the
weakening of the corresponding vowel: [p'sisaménte] 'precisely'.

* Thanks to the research of J.M. LOPE BLANCHY and G. PERISSINOTTO, it is known

that these phenomena are variable in nature and that elision is not as common as it
had been assumed in studies of an impressionistic nature. According to Lope Blanchen Mexico

11) There are fewer speakers in whom the phenomenon is relatively pronounced (42.2%)
that those in which it only occurs occasionally or with low frequency (57.8)".
21) The total loss, or elision, of the unstressed vowel represents 17.5%. If we discount
well and then, the percentage is reduced to 4.5%.

There is polymorphism in the realization of these vowels that ranges from relaxation and
weakening of the vowel, the perception of an undifferentiated vocal element, until
reach total loss.
Lope Blanch also concludes that the phenomenon is not socially conditioned.
and that can appear in men and women of all ages and social groups.

3.4. Vocalization of liquids.

It is the realization of both /l/ and /r/ by a similar vocal segment in its

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realization to the palatal [º,i]: [káº,ita]. The vocalization is characteristic, but not exclusive, to
the Dominican region of Cibao.
This vocalization has certain restrictions:
it does not occur in the final syllable of a word if it is unstressed: [asúka]

it does not occur if the vowel before the liquid is /i/, being the norm in this case
the elision: [fíme]
it does not apply to the article the or to the contractions al and del, nor to the preposition por, if
the following word that starts with a vowel: [eº,i summer], [the friend], [poº,i outside], [over there], etc.

3.5. Other vocal issues.

1) Labialization of vowels.
The labialization of the syllabic vowels of descending diphthongs in /we/ is a
phenomenon that has been detected since the last century in peninsular regions. Navarro
Tomáslo considered characteristic of the speech of Madrid: [bwoéno] and with a tendency
after the monophtongization: [we] > [wo] > [o]: [pwés] > [pwós] > [pós].
It was documented in New Mexico in 1930 A.M. Espinosa and occurs in others
regions like Chile, Ecuador, or Peru. In Chile, Silva Fuenzalida studied in 1953 at the
case of the vowels /i, e/ and mention the case of 'sí', whose labialized vowel may have.
different situations emphatic, doubtful, and even negative.

Closure of final /-e/ /-o/.

The closure of vowels at the end of a word is a general phenomenon in Spanish,
normal due to the logical weakening of articulation at the end of the word, but this process is
it is fulfilled with special intensity in Hispanic American peasant dialects (Navarro
Tomáslo points out in Puerto Rico), sometimes favored by the presence of the
anterior palatal consonant: [léxhi], [nóchi], [múchu]

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Lope Blanchlo has studied in Michoacán, where it is also common to

contact with other consonants.

Vocal elongation.
The vowel lengthening of the stressed vowel acquires curious dialectal values in
some American dialects.

* In the Antilles, in Cuba, the lengthening of stressed vowels is a phonetic feature.

sporadic and characteristic of colloquial speech, also occurring sometimes when one loses a
/-s/.
It also characterizes the Puerto Rican accent, where there seems to be a
compensation within the word between the protic and tonic syllable: if the protic is
reduce the tonic, increases its duration, and if the pro tonic is elongated, the tonic is shortened.

abbreviate.
Lengthening is one of the most outstanding features of Dominican Spanish.
particularly from Cibao, where it is used for expressive purposes.

* In Chile, according to Silva Fuenzalida, they have vowel lengthening in syllables.

open, especially before palatal: [mú:ĉo].

* In Mexico, it has stylistic functions, as in all Spanish, but in Yucatan the

elongation is conditioned by the substratum influence of the Maya (they elongate
conditioned after the glottal strike.

Nasalization of vowels.
In Caribbean Spanish, nasalization appears with more intensity and frequency than
in the rest of the Hispanic world. In the Caribbean, it can affect all the vowels of a
word with nasal and even if they are not in direct contact with the nasal:

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[sãηhwãη], [ẽmpẽsãr].
In Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish, the nasal can even disappear.
implosive, strongly nasalizing the front vowel.
In the northern states of Mexico, this phenomenon also occurs, but the
loss and nasalization of the vowel is attributed to individuals of low culture.

4. Intonational issues.

It is a perceptible reality that within the same country each dialect has its
"tonillo" or characteristic melody, a fact that the speakers themselves are aware of. The
intonation differences never lead to misunderstandings and it is a phenomenon
very important for its pragmatic values that is often closely related to the
syntactic structures.
Intonation studies have encountered both technical and
of the lack of a linguistic theoretical framework.
Starting from the fact that there are no systematic studies on intonation, it seems that the

The subjective observation made by Navarro Tomás in his day has some basis: the intonation.
The northern central peninsula accent is more severe than that of certain Hispanic American dialects.

Recent studies on the speech of Puerto Rico or Chile indicate that speakers
they have a medium higher pitch.
Mostly, intonational studies of American speech have examined
geographical dialectical differences but there are surely social differences and
stylistic elements conveyed by intonation. Significant in this sense is the work of
D'Intorno and Sosa (1979) on the speech of Caracas, where they observe that the intonation
Acute is more typical of low speakers and has less social prestige.

* The indigenous origin of some intonational characteristics has been pointed out.

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by some authors, although without solid studies to support it, rather in a manner
intuitive. For example,
-HENRÍQUEZ UREÑA, Pedro, (introd. to) Spanish in Mexico, the United States and the
Central America, BDH, IV, 1938, page XIV:
In the popular speech of central Mexico, the indigenous intonation dominates: some
the melodic curves with which Spanish and Nahuatl are spoken are the same, with their
curious final cadence. [...] And from Nahuatl there remain, in the Spanish of Mexico, phonemes.
peculiar, like the tl, the sh (š), sometimes the / tz, which are pronounced without effort.

Aloys R. NYKL("Notes on the Spanish of Yucatán, Veracruz, and Tlaxcala", The Spanish in
Mexico, the United States, and Central America, BDH, IV, Buenos Aires, Institute of Philology,
1938, pp. 207-225) it also points out for the Spanish of Yucatán:
The most interesting aspect of the Mayan influence on the Spanish spoken by the
"Indigenous people manifest in phonetics and intonation." (p. 215)
And it concludes for the Spanish of Tlaxcala: 'The intonation is entirely Nahuatl.'

FLÓREZ, Luis, ("Indigenous influences in the Spanish of America", The Spanish Language,
Bogotá, ICC, 1953, pages 124-125:
The popular intonation in the Spanish of the Mexican highlands is similar to the
that is used when speaking Nahuatl. [...] The Hispanic intonation varies from
region by region and is generally very different from Castilian. The former tends to
stay around a sustained and balanced note, while the American
varies greatly, has big melodic rises and falls that give the impression of
a chant. Such modulations are considered of indigenous origin, although this does not
has checked.

Real difficulty in knowing if we are listening to Nahuatl with Spanish intonation or

Spanish with Nahuatl intonation.

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5. The 'American Spelling'.

The reformist tradition of Spanish orthography begins with Alfonso X and

has been uninterrupted to this day; the unifying principle of this tradition is the
phoneticism, also called the principle of Quintilian. This is how Nebrija, one of his
defenders, it was announced in the early 16th century:
"thus we have to write as we pronounce: and pronounce as we write: for "
that in another way the letters were found in vain.
Nebrija tries to establish an orthographic system in which each sound has
correspond to a sign, that is, a phonetic alphabet. This proposal does not receive official support
at the time, but it initiates a long series of orthographic debates in the 16th and 17th centuries,
debates that also take place in other countries such as France, Italy, and England,
driven by the humanist current.

The most radical reform of Spanish orthography was proposed in 1630 by the
Master Gonzalo Correas, professor of classical languages at the University of Salamanca,
in his work New and Perfect Spanish Orthography. His system is a rigorous alphabet
phonetic of 25 letters, designed "so that orthography escapes the slavery in which they have it
that studied Latin." Correas removes the c and the q, replacing them with the k, and eliminates the y
(write io), the j (in favor of the x) and the h. Keep the g only for the voiced sound of cat and
it follows the popular pronunciation in the case of Latin consonant groups, which remain
thus simplified.
However, individual initiatives in favor of reform fail to achieve
success, until in the 18th century they become institutional projects with the
Academia. Another reason why the phonetic spellings of authors like Mateo
Alemán and Gonzalo Correas are not spread because of the fierce opposition of the traditionalists.
Discarding the overly radical proposals, the reformist trajectory of the Academy
in its first century of life consists of the adoption of small gradual changes, but

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sometimes guided by opposing ideas.

Starting in 1815, academic reforms come to a standstill, despite the insistence of
important linguists and writers (among others, Bello, Unamuno, Casares) in the need to
to achieve a spelling closer to pronunciation. Even some Academies of the
American languages have defended this option: in 1960, the Cuban Academy, in 1964 the
from the Philippines, they propose a simplification of writing, but their suggestions do not reach
to be adopted.

Chilean spelling.
The reformist ideas of Andrés Bello were implemented in Chile thanks to
the work of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. In the atmosphere of violent anti-Spanish sentiment
imposing in Spanish American countries in the early 19th century, Sarmiento defended
a spelling reform based exclusively on American pronunciation, adopting
thus a much more radical position than that of Bello himself, who was interested in
maintain the cultural unity of Spanish-speaking countries.
After heated public debates, a Chilean university commission has
he spoke in favor of a reform, but not as radical as the one defended by Sarmiento,
more similar to the one proposed by Bello; in a short time the new system became
national spelling. However, it faced strong resistance from the beginning and
lacked the official support it needed; despite the fact that some features of the new
spelling, such as the use of j for the voiceless /x/ sound (jeneral), spread to other
in countries, the "Chilean spelling" had to compete with the officialization of writing
academic in Spain in 1844; this meant the orthographic unity of Spain and the adoption
of the Academy system, little by little, in Spanish-speaking countries, with the
consequent isolation of Chile. After a new stage of controversies, a decree
The presidential decree of 1927 also imposed academic spelling in Chile, in order to restore
the unity of the writing system in the entire Spanish-speaking world, and this meant the end of the
called 'Chilean writing'.

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