'seseo', 'ceceo' and lisp
This has been discussed many times, but a lot of people still don't have these concepts clear, or they are unaware of some facts.
Note:I will use the IPA phonetic transcriptions for accuracy.
The Medieval sounds evolved a lot between the 14th and 16th century. For example, /?/ (like S in measure) and /?/ (like SH in ship) combined to form /x/, a sound that nowadays is written with a J in Spanish.
One of the reasons for these changes was that there were four sounds (/z/, /d?z/, /s/, /t?s/) that often caused misunderstandings, because they were too close to one another, so eventually the system became simplified.
The Medieval sounds /z/ (like in zoo) and /s/ merged into a single /s/, so that /z/ does not exist in Spanish any more. However, the sounds /d?z/ (similar to a z in Japanese) and /t?s/ (like TS in tsunami) resulted in /?/ (like TH in thin) in the northern parts of Spain, and /s/ in Andalusia (south of Spain). In other words, the north simplified 4 sounds into two (/s/ and /?/), and in the south they simplified 4 sounds into one (/s/). This last simplification was named "seseo" for obvious reasons.
Seseo was originally a perfectly accepted way of speak among educated people in Spain, but later, the government tried to impose the distinction between /s/ and /?/ to everyone in Spain, and those accustomed to just one sound, probably found it difficult. The seseo still persists in many parts of Andalusia, but maybe some speakers got a bit confused when forced into making the distinction (see next paragraph).
Some speakers in the south of Spain, especially in some rural areas, only use the /?/ sound (the opposite of seseo)? and others mix /s/ and /?/ in a seemingly random fashion? pronouncing some S correctly, others like /?/? sometimes pronouncing the Z like /?/ (like in the north of Spain), and sometimes like /s/. I remember hearing a person read "El sol y los zapatos" like /E? ?o? i loh sapato/ ("sol" pronounced with /?/ and "zapatos" with /s/; the opposite of people in the north of Spain)
While the simplification of the system could have theoretically happened simultaneously in Latin America and the south of Spain, it is worth noticing that all ships going to America after the "discovery" from Columbus left from Sevilla, where "seseo" was the norm, and that the records suggest that most of the people who travelled to the Americas were form Sevilla or lived there for a long time, so it is to be expected that "seseo" is the norm over there too.
Summing up:
No seseo, or differentiation between Z and S: The standard pronunciation in the north and centre of Spain, where these two letters are pronounced as /?/ and /s/ respectively.
Seseo, or no differentiation between Z and S: The standard pronunciation in the south of Spain, Canary Islands and Latin America. Both Z and S are pronounced as /s/.
Ceceo, or pronouncing the S like a Z in the north of Spain, or lisp: It only happens in the south of Spain, and it is stigmatised as incorrect pronunciation or a defect of speech. Spanish words like "sin" are pronounced almost like "thin" in English in these cases. Some speakers mix the /s/ and /?/ pronunciation for both S and Z almost randomly.
4 Answers
Nice explanation. To go a bit farther, I have read that the reason Latin America uses seseo is that many/most of the conquistadores that conquered Latin America were from Andalucia and Southern Spain, so they brought their pronunciation with them.
The way I remember the difference is to think about how most people in Spain would pronounce seseo and ceceo, and what distinción means.
In English, lisp refers to a physical inability (or the lack of knowledge of how) to produce the /s/ sound. People with a lisp say /?/ whenever they attempt to pronounce /s/. They simply can't or don't know how to say /s/. However, throughout their lives, they will likely wish they could say the true /s/ sound as they will be well aware that they sound odd to everyone including their own parents.
A common joke is about a man with a lisp who drowned in a lake. He could have been saved, but, as he was going under, he shouted, "I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" So no one knew he needed help.
In other words, in English, a lisp is not a regional thing, but an individual thing—a developmental issue of some sort...sometimes correctable...sometimes not (depending on the mental ability, physical ability, and desire to learn how to make the correct sound).
Your ceceo sounds more like a confusion in the general development of the Spanish language in certain areas...they can make both the /s/ sound and the /?/ sound but they never seem to know which one goes where.
Why is ceceo and cecear trnaslated as lisp and to lisp respectively when it was considered a regular speech pattern? Was it stigmatized?
This is very interesting stuff. It shows that there are reasons why Spanish is the way it is. Thanks for your efforts.
