Dialects in language and communication

Dialects

The Spanish Dialect: Spain Compared to Other Countries

Many people think of Spanish as being "uniform," but that is not the case. There are all types of different dialects, and what a person hears in Spain will not be the same thing heard in Mexico or in other countries where Spanish is spoken. Written Spanish uses the same standards, but spoken Spanish can be very different. There are local dialects, and then larger differences between Spain and Mexico. One of the biggest differences is in the phonemes, where there is maintenance of them in some dialects and loss of them in others. Some final syllables are weakened, as well, and central Mexico and the highlands of the Andes will show a loss of many of the unstressed vowel sounds - especially when these vowels come into contact with consonants that are also voiceless. It is not just the way things are pronounced, though. It is also some of the actual grammar. For example, the second-person pronouns vary between Spanish America and Spain.

Spain uses a second-person pronoun that is informal and one that is formal, while Spanish America uses a second-person pronoun that is the same no matter the level of formality. Some dialects also differentiate on second-person singular familiar, too, while others do not. Where a person comes from and/or where he or she learned to speak Spanish often determines whether that person will speak with a particular dialect. The vocabulary that is used in Spanish is very different depending on where the person learned to speak the language and what country he or she is in. Regional varieties and dialects of Spanish are very different from one another, and the differences can be highly significant. Clothing, everyday common objects, and different kinds of foods are among areas where there are major, obvious differences. Native American languages strongly influenced the Spanish that is spoken in Latin America, as well, and that adds to the differences.

There are a total of five different sets of variants in American Spanish. That alone can be confusing, and when it is added to the Spanish that is spoken in other countries or areas of the world it can be easy to see why so many people have trouble with Spanish even if they "know" the language. It is not like some other languages, where people do not have enough changes in the dialect from one region to another to have any real trouble speaking a language correctly. English, for example, can cause some confusion if a person from the U.S. is exposed to the UK. Many of the phrases and words for common items are different. The same is true for Spanish, with the added confusion of having some differences of grammar and syntax that go beyond what word is being used. When there are different kinds of formal and informal pronouns that are also used, confusion can easily result. Children who learn Spanish from a very young age or as their first language often do better than people who learn Spanish later in life, because younger people tend to learn faster than older people.