Pronouncing letters 's' and 'z'?

Question

At the moment, I'm listening to a song called "Siempre me quedará" performed by Bebe. I noticed she's not pronouncing 's'. Example, 'eres' becomes 'ere'; 'de este' becomes 'dete'. Why? Is this some accent or what?

'Una vez más no por favor' is pronounced like: 'Una ve ma no por favor'

I'm lil bit confused. Thx

Answer 1

So it's a dialect. I often notice in songs how the same things sometimes can be pronounced incredibly different! Of course I don't have such a big experience to understand where the singer is from, but it'll come with the time, i guess. Good luck listening songs, it's my favourite way to learn.

It's my favourite way to learn too, aswell as reading the Spanish version of Glamour ;) - chicasabrosa, MAR 17, 2010

Answer 2

Some places in Bolivia they drop all the final Ss.

"Más o menos" becomes "ma o meno"

Answer 3

Hi there,

I understood Bebe is from the South of Spain and that it is more or less the way spanish is pronounced over there. I used to listen to her lyrics a lot and found that she also says "la mujere" instead of "las mujeres".

She also uses a lot of metaphors... it took me ages to understand the lyrics of "Revolvio".

Saludos, Chica

Answer 4

All languages have regional pronunciation differences, some of which may be quite marked and striking. It happens a lot in English, so why shouldn't it happen in Spanish, as well?

A native New Yorker from the Bronx will pronounce differently from even a New Yorker from Brooklyn, and probably even more so than a native from Texas or South Carolina. They will all speak differently from a regular Londoner, an Irish or a Scott, and they'll all speak differently from a Cockney! Then again Indians and Africans have very different ways of pronouncing their version of English. But they all claim to speak the same language. Try getting in youtube, and listen to videos from different regions of Spain, from the Caribbean, from South America... You'll hear very different accents, and none need to be particularly surprising. It's all part of the wonderful diversity that makes up this world!

Answer 5

Turning the "s" (especially final "s") into an aspiration (or omitting it entirely) is fairly common in much of southern Spain and the practice spread to many parts of the New World with the conquistadores.

Answer 6

I read on wikipedia that she's Valenciana.. But I also read that people from around there talk without accent.. That's I'm confused about..