What Is "Español Neutro"?
Questions This Article Answers
What is español neutro?
Why is español neutro used?
Who created español neutro?
Where is español neutro spoken?
Which Spanish settings can you find on devices?
How does español neutro deal with profanity?
The Spanish Language
Español(Spanish), or castellano(Spanish), is spoken by more than 450 million native speakers in the following countries:
- Argentina(Argentina)
- Bolivia(Bolivia)
- Chile(Chile)
- Colombia(Colombia)
- Costa Rica(Costa Rica)
- Cuba(Cuba)
- Ecuador(Ecuador)
- El Salvador(El Salvador)
- España(Spain)
- Estados Unidos(United States)
- Filipinas(Philipines)
- Guatemala(Guatemala)
- Guinea Ecuatorial(Equatorial Guinea)
- Honduras(Honduras)
- México(Mexico)
- Nicaragua(Nicaragua)
- Panamá(Panama)
- Paraguay(Paraguay)
- Perú(Peru)
- República Dominicana(Dominican Republic)
- Uruguay(Uruguay)
- Venezuela(Venezuela)
Regionalisms
The diversity of countries, regions, history, and influences in the Spanish-speaking countries have provided the language with a rich vocabulary. At the same time, this extraordinary variety of vocabulary may create communication obstacles.
Look at the following example of how many words hispanohablantes have for the same term.
If you're talking to people from a specific country, you can use their regionalisms. But what if you want to address a wider audience?
Español Neutro
Español neutro, also known as castellano neutro and español internacional, is an artificial variety of Spanish created with the purpose of being understood by the majority of Spanish speakers.
Español neutro is devoid of regionalisms and accents, chooses vocabulary based on popularity and geographical extension, and avoids using words that have different meanings in different regions. It should be noted that español neutro was created by the audiovisual industry and not linguists, so there are no standardized rules or guidelines.
Español neutro is mostly used in the entertainment industry, such as cine(cinema), televisión(television), servicios de streaming(streaming services), as well as other audiovisual productions and the communication industry. Español neutro offers the advantage of creating a single translation that can be understood in every Spanish-speaking country, as opposed to having to translate and adapt the content to different regions.
Given that a large proportion of the dubbing and subtitling industry is located in México, and Mexican Spanish is the variety with the most native speakers, Mexican Spanish is used as a basis for español neutro.
Some of the characteristics of español neutro include the use of seseo (pronunciation of the letters "c" and "z" in Spanish like "s"), yeísmo(pronunciation of Spanish "ll" as "y"), and vocabulario(vocabulary) that can be understood by the majority of Spanish speakers. For example, the word banana may be translated as bananaor plátano, which are more widespread than the translations camburor guineo.
Spanish Pronunciation
Learn more about seseo and yeísmo in the following articles:
Two Audio and Subtitles Settings
Although español neutro can be understood in España, the regionalisms and pronunciation differences between español neutro and Spain Spanish are greater compared to español neutro and Latin American Spanish. For that reason, many Spanish viewers prefer to watch audiovisual content that uses their variety of Spanish.
When you go to the subtitles or dubbing settings on a device, you will usually find the following options:
- Español [España] (Spanish, Spain)
- Español [Latinoamérica] (Spanish, Latin America)
In this context, Español [Latinoamérica] can be understood as a synonym of español neutro.
Where is Español Neutro Spoken?
Since true neutrality is subjective and may be impossible to achieve, there are no proper español neutro speakers. It is an artificial variety of Spanish used mostly in audiovisual productions.
We can therefore say that español neutro is spoken nowhere, but it can be understood everywhere.
Profanity in Español Neutro
In an attempt to reach an even wider audience, español neutro also tones down the load of profanity and vulgarity. Audiovisual productions that use español neutro will typically use mild, family-friendly swearwords suitable for all audiences. Many of these words are not commonly used by Spanish speakers, but they can be understood by everyone. Let’s look at some examples.
| Español Neutro | English equivalent |
|---|---|
| maldito, maldita | damn |
| ¡Maldición! | Damn it!, Damn! |
| ¡Maldita sea! | Damn it!, Damn! |
| ¡Demonios! | Damn it!, Hell! |
| ¡Rayos! | Damn it!, Damn! |
| examples |
|---|
Learn more about Spanish grammar and regional varieties with these articles:
