Why this pronunciation?

Question

I wonder, what kind of Spanish accent is the one, that Paralee is speaking. Is it from Latin America? She pronounces Z like Z instead of English TH, the same thing with C, V like W instead of somehing between V and B etc. I was taught the rules above every time I started my adventure with Spanish - the pure one: Castilian. So is it just "US-Spanish" or her pronunciation is more typical for Latin America's language?

There is no such thing as "US Spanish" unless you are referring to that abomination called "spanglish" - 005faa61, Feb 5, 2012

I was taught ... - samdie, Feb 5, 2012

Answer 1

Paralee uses a seseo accent, which is the typical accent from the Americas. The soft C and the Z are pronounced like an English S. That's really the only significant difference between Spain and everywhere else.

V is pronounced somewhere between an English B and V, but some people refer to it as sounding like a very hard English W.

Bear in mind that Paralee is giving lessons to people who are beginners. Her pronunciation will be slightly different than if she were having a conversation with another Spanish-speaking person.

As is my English :) - ian-hill, Feb 5, 2012

Answer 2

The story goes that after the foundation of the American colonies, a Spanish king spoke with a pronounced lisp. His courtiers followed suit out of politeness, although some would call it impertinence. In time, the general population, not wanting to seem common, also developed the lisp. And that is why Castilian or mainland traditional Spanish has the different pronunciation to American Spanish.

Great story but not true. - pescador1, Feb 5, 2012

Of course it is not true! The real reason is that American SPanish developed from the Andalucian dialect. - juanito11, Feb 5, 2012

I like your real reason best. The lisp story falls apart when you notice that distinción does not pronounce the S like a theta. - KevinB, Feb 5, 2012

Answer 3

The story goes

---

Great story but not true

Actually it's a stupid story and it's untrue. Languages and pronunciation do not develop that way! The story is usually told about some (poorly identified) king in the 10th century (or so). In those days the only people in the country that would have heard the king speak were some 200 nobles and courtiers. 90% of the population would have had absolutely no idea what the king sounded like.

Did the citizens of the U.S start speaking with a Massachusetts accent after Kennedy was elected, or a Texas accent after Johnson or a Georgia accent because of Carter (and all of thees had the advantage of radio and television so that many citizens did know how they spoke)? Did the Beatles speech even remotely resemble that of Queen Elizabeth?

In the court of England French was the dominant language for several hundred years and later German for a couple of generations but the general population kept muddling on with their watered down Anglo-Saxon language.

The greatest stupidity of the myth is that it completely misunderstands the pronunciation of the northern half of Spain. The have absolutely no problem pronouncing the /s/ and do so hundreds of times every day.

P.S. If you want to "fix" the story so that it actually describes the pronunciation in question then you need to change it to --- The king had a lisp which only affected his pronunciation of /s/ when it represented the pronunciation of 'c' and 'z' but he produced the /s/ sound without any problem when it represented the letter 's'. This, of course is total nonsense! as there is no such kind of speech defect and, if there, were it wouldn't really be a "lisp".