Editing Spanish dialects and varieties

{{Short description|Dialects of Spanish}}
{{IPA notice}}
{{Spanish language}}
{{cleanup lang|date=April 2021}}
[[File:Variedades principales del español.png|thumb|right|300px|Primary dialects of Spanish]]
[[File:Español Mexicano.svg|thumb|250px|'''10 varieties of Mexican Spanish.'''
{{legend|#FFBA00|Norteño del (Nor-)este (eastern northern variant)}}
{{legend|#0047AB|Norteño del (Nor-)oeste (western northern variant)}}
{{legend|#FF7028|Bajacaliforniense (peninsular northern variant)}}
{{legend|#44944A|Occidental (western variant)}}
{{legend|#00FF80|Bajío (lowlands variant)}}
{{legend|#FF0000|Altiplano (central variant)}}
{{legend|#FFCBDB|Sureño Central (central southern variant)}}
{{legend|#1E90FF|Costeño  (coastal variant)}}
{{legend|#660099|Chiapaneco (south-eastern variant, similar to [[Central American Spanish]])}}
{{legend|#A8E61D|Yucateco (eastern variant)}}]]
[[File:Spanish dialects in Spain-en.png|thumb|right|250px|In purple, the major variations and dialects of [[Names given to the Spanish language|Castilian/Spanish]] in Spain.<br> In other colors, the extent of the other [[languages of Spain]] in the bilingual areas.]]
[[File:Dialectos del idioma español en Argentina.png|thumb|right|200px|Dialects of Spanish spoken in Argentina.]]
[[File:Dialectos_español_de_Perú.png|thumb|right|200px|5 varieties of Spanish spoken in Peru.]]
[[file:Dialectos Colombia.png|thumb|right|300px|Spanish dialects in Colombia.]]
[[file:Dialectos de venezuela.png|thumb|right|300px|Spanish dialects spoken in Venezuela.]]
Some of the regional '''varieties of the Spanish language''' are quite divergent from one another, especially in pronunciation and vocabulary, and less so in grammar.

While all [[Spanish language|Spanish]] dialects adhere to approximately the same written standard, all spoken varieties differ from the written variety, to different degrees. There are differences between European Spanish (also called [[Peninsular Spanish]]) and the [[Spanish language in the Americas|Spanish of the Americas]], as well as many different dialect areas both within Spain and within the Americas. [[Chilean Spanish|Chilean]] and [[Honduran Spanish|Honduran]] Spanish have been identified by various linguists as the most divergent varieties.<ref>{{Cite news |title=El español de Chile: la gran olla a presión del idioma |url=https://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2021/11/30/61a4a36321efa013518b4571.html |last=Alemany |first=Luis |date=2021-11-30 |access-date=2022-06-01 |work=[[El Mundo (Spain)|El Mundo]] |language=Spanish}}</ref>

Prominent differences in pronunciation among dialects of Spanish include:
# the maintenance or lack of distinction between the phonemes {{IPA|/θ/}} and {{IPA|/s/}} ({{Lang|es|[[distinción]]}} vs. {{Lang|es|[[seseo]]}} and {{Lang|es|[[ceceo]]}});
# the maintenance or loss of distinction between phonemes represented orthographically by ''ll'' and ''y'' ({{Lang|es|[[yeísmo]]}});
# the maintenance of syllable-final {{IPA|[s]}} vs. its weakening to {{IPA|[h]}} (called aspiration, or more precisely [[debuccalization]]), or its loss; and
# the tendency, in areas of central Mexico and of the Andean highlands, to [[Vowel reduction|reduction]] (especially [[Voice (phonetics)|devoicing]]), or loss, of [[unstressed vowel]]s, mainly when they are in contact with [[Voice (phonetics)|voiceless]] consonants.<ref name="Cotton-Sharp">{{Harvcoltxt|Cotton|Sharp|1988}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lope Blanch|1972|p=222}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Delforge|2008}}</ref>
Among grammatical features, the most prominent variation among dialects is in the use of the second-person [[Spanish pronouns|pronouns]]. In Hispanic America, the only second-person plural pronoun, for both [[T–V distinction|formal and informal]] treatment, is {{wikt-lang|es|ustedes}}, while in most of Spain the [[T–V distinction|informal]] second-person plural pronoun is {{wikt-lang|es|vosotros}} with {{wikt-lang|es|ustedes}} used only in the formal treatment. For the second-person singular familiar pronoun, some American dialects use {{wikt-lang|es|tú}} (and its associated [[Spanish verbs|verb forms]]), while others use either {{wikt-lang|es|vos}} (see ''[[voseo]]'') or both ''tú'' and {{wikt-lang|es|vos}} {{Citation needed|date=February 2016}} (which, together with {{Lang|es|usted}}, can make for a possible three-tiered [[T–V distinction|distinction of formalities]]).

There are significant differences in vocabulary among regional varieties of Spanish, particularly in the domains of food products, everyday objects, and clothes; and many American varieties show considerable lexical influence from [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Native American languages]].

==Sets of variants==
While there is no broad consensus on how Latin American Spanish dialects should be classified, the following scheme which takes into account phonological, grammatical, socio-historical, and [[language contact]] data provides a reasonable approximation of Latin American dialect variation:<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lipski|2012|p=3}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lipski|2018|p=502}}</ref>

* [[Mexican Spanish|Mexican]] (except coastal areas) and southwestern US (including [[New Mexican Spanish|New Mexican]]).
* [[Central American Spanish|Central American]], including southeastern Mexico.
* [[Caribbean Spanish|Caribbean]] ([[Cuban Spanish|Cuba]], [[Venezuelan Spanish|Venezuela]], [[Puerto Rican Spanish|Puerto Rico]], [[Dominican Spanish|Dominican Republic]], [[Panamanian Spanish|Panama]], [[Caribbean region of Colombia|Caribbean Colombia]], [[Trinidadian Spanish|Trinidad]] and Caribbean and Pacific Coasts of Mexico).
* Inland [[Colombian Spanish|Colombia]] and the speech of neighboring areas of Venezuela.
* Pacific coast of [[Equatorial Spanish|Colombia, Ecuador]], and [[Peruvian Ribereño Spanish|Peru]]
* Andean regions of [[Ecuadorian Spanish|Ecuador]], [[Peruvian Spanish|Peru]], [[Bolivian Spanish|Bolivia]], southwestern Colombia, northwestern Argentina, and northeastern Chile.
* [[Chilean Spanish|Chilean]], including western Argentina.
* [[Paraguayan Spanish|Paraguayan]], including northeastern Argentina, and eastern Bolivia.
* [[Rioplatense Spanish|Rioplatense]] (central-west Argentina and Uruguay).

While there are other types of regional variation in Peninsular Spanish, and the Spanish of bilingual regions shows influence from other languages, the greatest division in Old World varieties is from north to south, with a central-northern dialect north of Madrid, an [[Andalusian Spanish|Andalusian dialect]] to the south, and an intermediary region between the two most important dialect zones. Meanwhile, the Canary Islands constitute their own dialect cluster, whose speech is most closely related to that of western Andalusia.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lipski|2012|p=2}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lipski|2018|p=501}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hualde |first1=José Ignacio |title=Introducción a la lingüística hispánica |last2=Olarrea |first2=Antxon |last3=Escobar |first3=Anna María |last4=Travis |first4=Catherine E. |last5=Sanz |first5=Cristina |date=2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108770293 |edition=3rd |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |pages=380–432 |language=es |chapter=Variación lingüística en español |author1-link=José Ignacio Hualde |author2-link=Antxon Olarrea}}</ref>

The non-native Spanish in [[Equatorial Guinea]] and [[Western Sahara]] (formerly [[Spanish Sahara]]) has been influenced mainly by varieties from Spain. Spanish is also an official language in Equatorial Guinea, and many people speak it fluently.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lipski|first=John|date=2004|title=The Spanish Language of Equatorial Guinea|url=https://johnlipski.github.io/eg-az.pdf|journal=Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies|volume=8|issue=1|pages=115–130|doi=10.1353/hcs.2011.0376|s2cid=144501371|issn=1934-9009}}</ref>

Though no longer an official language in the [[Philippines]], [[Philippine Spanish]] has had a tremendous influence on the native tongues of the archipelago, including [[Filipino language|Filipino]].

The Spanish spoken in [[Gibraltar]] is essentially not different from the neighboring areas in Spain, except for [[code-switching]] with English and some unique vocabulary items. It is frequently blended with English as a sort of [[Spanglish]] known as [[Llanito]].

[[Judaeo-Spanish]], a "[[Jewish language]]", encompasses a number of linguistic varieties based mostly on 15th-century Spanish; it is still spoken in a few small communities, mainly in Israel, but also in Turkey and a number of other countries.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Şaul|first1=Mahir|last2=Hualde|first2=José Ignacio|date=April 2011|title=Istanbul Judeo-Spanish|journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association|volume=41|issue=1|pages=89–110|doi=10.1017/S0025100310000277|issn=1475-3502|doi-access=free}}</ref> As Jews have migrated since their expulsion from Iberia, the language has picked up several loan words from other languages and developed unique forms of spelling, grammar, and syntax. It can be considered either a very divergent dialect of Spanish, retaining features from Old Spanish,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=HARRIS|first=TRACY K.|date=2009|title=Reasons for the decline of Judeo-Spanish|journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language|volume=1982|issue=37|pages=71–98|doi=10.1515/ijsl.1982.37.71|s2cid=143255709|issn=1613-3668}}</ref> or a separate language.

==Pronunciation==

===Distinción vs. seseo and ceceo===
[[File:Seseo-ceceo-distinción en el español.png|thumb|left|250px|Spanish-speaking areas with ''distinción'', ''seseo'', and ''ceceo''.]]
{{Main|Phonological history of Spanish coronal fricatives}}
The distinction between {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/θ/}} is maintained in northern Spain (in all positions) and in south-central Spain (only in syllable onset),{{citation needed|date=April 2018}} while the two phonemes are not distinguished in the Americas, the Canary Islands, the Philippines and much of Andalusia. The maintenance of phonemic contrast is called ''distinción'' in Spanish. In areas that do not distinguish them, they are typically realized as {{IPA|[s]}}, though in parts of southern Andalusia the realization is closer to {{IPA|[θ]}}; in Spain uniform use of {{IPA|[θ]}} is called {{Lang|es|[[ceceo]]}} and uniform use of [s] ''{{Lang|es|[[seseo]]}}''.

In dialects with {{Lang|es|seseo}} the words {{wikt-lang|es|casa}} ('house') and {{wikt-lang|es|caza}} ('hunt') are pronounced as [[homophones]] (generally {{IPA|[ˈkasa]}}), whereas in dialects with {{Lang|es|distinción}} they are pronounced differently (as {{IPA|[ˈkasa]}} and {{IPA|[ˈkaθa]}} respectively). The symbol {{IPA|[s]}} stands for a voiceless sibilant like the ''s'' of English ''sick'', while {{IPA|[θ]}} represents a voiceless interdental fricative like the ''th'' of English ''think''.

In some cases where the phonemic merger would render words [[Homophone|homophonic]] in the Americas, one member of the pair is frequently replaced by a [[synonym]] or derived form—e.g. {{Lang|es|caza}} replaced by {{wikt-lang|es|cacería}}, or {{wikt-lang|es|cocer}} ('to boil'), homophonic with {{wikt-lang|es|coser}} ('to sew'), replaced by {{wikt-lang|es|cocinar}}. For more on ''seseo'', see González-Bueno.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|González Bueno|1993}}</ref>

===Yeísmo===
[[File:Yeismo en Países de Habla Hispana.png|thumb|left|250px|Spanish-speaking areas with ''yeísmo'': pink indicates areas without ''yeísmo''; blue indicates areas with ''yeísmo''.{{image reference needed|date=December 2022}}]]
{{Main|Yeísmo}}
Traditionally Spanish had a phonemic distinction between {{IPA|/ʎ/}} (a [[palatal lateral approximant]], written ''ll'') and {{IPA|/ʝ/}} (a [[palatal approximant]], written ''y''). But for most speakers in Spain and the Americas, these two phonemes have been merged in the phoneme {{IPA|/ʝ/}}. This merger results in the words {{wikt-lang|es|calló}} ('silenced') and {{wikt-lang|es|cayó}} ('fell') being pronounced the same, whereas they remain distinct in dialects that have not undergone the merger. The use of the merged phoneme is called "[[yeísmo]]".

In Spain, the distinction is preserved in some rural areas and smaller cities of the north, while in South America the contrast is characteristic of bilingual areas where [[Quechua languages]] and other [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|indigenous languages]] that have the {{IPA|/ʎ/}} sound in their inventories are spoken (this is the case of inland Peru and Bolivia), and in Paraguay.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Whitley|2002|p=26}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Hualde|2005|p=298}}</ref>

The phoneme {{IPA|/ʝ/}} can be pronounced in a variety of ways, depending on the dialect. In most of the area where ''yeísmo'' is present, the merged phoneme {{IPA|/ʝ/}} is pronounced as the [[Approximant consonant|approximant]] {{IPAblink|ʝ˕|ʝ}}, and also, in word-initial positions, an [[affricate]] {{IPAblink|ɟʝ}}. In the area around the [[Rioplatense Spanish|Río de la Plata]] ([[Argentina]], [[Uruguay]]), this phoneme is pronounced as a [[Palatoalveolar consonant|palatoalveolar]] [[Sibilant consonant|sibilant]] fricative, either as voiced {{IPAblink|ʒ}} or, especially by young speakers, as voiceless {{IPAblink|ʃ}}.

===Variants of {{IPA|/s/}}===
One of the most distinctive features of the Spanish variants is the pronunciation of {{IPA|/s/}} when it is not ''aspirated'' to {{IPA|[h]}} or elided. In northern and central Spain, and in the [[Paisa Region]] of [[Colombia]], as well as in some other, isolated dialects (e.g. some inland areas of Peru and Bolivia), the sibilant realization of {{IPA|/s/}} is an [[Voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant|apico-alveolar retracted]] fricative {{IPAblink|s̺}}, a sound transitional between [[Laminal consonant|laminodental]] {{IPAblink|s}} and [[Palatal consonant|palatal]] {{IPAblink|ʃ}}. However, in most of Andalusia, in a few other areas in southern Spain, and in most of Latin America it is instead pronounced as a [[laminal consonant|lamino-alveolar]] or [[dental consonant|dental]] sibilant. The phoneme {{IPA|/s/}} is realized as {{IPAblink|z}} or {{IPAblink|z̺}} before voiced consonants when it is not aspirated to {{IPA|[h]}} or elided; {{IPAblink|z̺}} is a sound transitional between {{IPA|[z]}} and {{IPAblink|ʒ}}. Before voiced consonants, [{{IPA|z}} ~ {{IPA|z̺}}] is more common in natural and colloquial speech and oratorical pronunciation, [s ~ {{IPA|s̺}}] is mostly pronounced in emphatic and slower speech.

In the rest of the article, the distinction is ignored and the symbols {{angbr IPA|s z}} are used for all alveolar fricatives.

===Debuccalization of coda {{IPA|/s/}}===
[[File:S aspiration in Spanish.png|thumb|left|250px|Spanish-speaking areas that present aspiration of syllable-final and word-final -s: Green indicates areas with aspiration, while blue indicates areas without aspiration.]]
In much of Latin America—especially in the Caribbean and in coastal and lowland areas of Central and South America—and in the southern half of Spain, [[syllable coda|syllable-final]] {{IPA|/s/}} is either pronounced as a [[voiceless glottal fricative]], {{IPA|[h]}} ([[debuccalization]], also frequently called "aspiration"), or not pronounced at all. In some varieties of Latin American Spanish (notably Honduran and Salvadoran Spanish and [[Llanero Spanish]] in between Colombia and Venezuela), this may also occur intervocalically within an individual word—as with {{wikt-lang|es|nosotros}}, which may be pronounced as {{IPA|[noˈhotɾoh]}}—or even in initial position. In southeastern Spain (eastern [[Andalusia]], [[Region of Murcia|Murcia]] and part of [[La Mancha]]), the distinction between syllables with a now-silent ''s'' and those originally without ''s'' is preserved by pronouncing the syllables ending in ''s'' with {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|æ}}, {{IPAplink|ɛ}}, {{IPAplink|ɔ}}]}} (that is, the open/closed syllable contrast has been turned into a tense/lax vowel contrast); this typically affects the vowels {{IPA|/a/}}, {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}}, but in some areas even {{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/u/}} are affected, turning into {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ɪ}}, {{IPAplink|ʊ}}]}}. For instance, ''{{wt|es|todos los cisnes son blancos}}'' ('all the swans are white'), can be pronounced {{IPA|[ˈtoðoh loh ˈθihne(s) som ˈblaŋkoh]}}, or even {{IPA|[ˈtɔðɔ lɔ ˈθɪɣnɛ som ˈblæŋkɔ]}} (Standard Peninsular Spanish: {{IPA|[ˈtoðoz los ˈθizne(s) som ˈblaŋkos]}}, <!-- General -->Latin American Spanish: {{IPA|[ˈtoðoz lo(s) ˈsizne(s) som ˈblaŋkos]}}). This vowel contrast is sometimes reinforced by [[vowel harmony]], so that ''casas'' {{IPA|[ˈkæsæ]}} 'houses' differs from ''casa'' {{IPA|[ˈkasa]}} not only by the lack of the final {{IPA|[s]}} in the former word but also in the quality of both of the vowels. For those areas of southeastern Spain where the deletion of final {{IPA|/s/}} is complete, and where the distinction between singular and plural of nouns depends entirely on vowel quality, it has been argued that a set of [[phonemic split]]s has occurred, resulting in a system with eight vowel phonemes in place of the standard five.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Navarro Tomás|1939}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Alonso|Canellada|Zamora Vicente|1950}}</ref>

In the dialects that feature ''s-aspiration'', it works as a [[Variation (linguistics)#Sociolinguistic variables|sociolinguistic variable]], [h] being more common in natural and colloquial speech, whereas [s] tends to be pronounced in emphatic and slower speech. In oratorical pronunciation, it depends on the country and speaker; if the Spanish speaker chooses to pronounces all or most of syllable-final [s], it is mostly voiced to [{{IPA|z}}] before voiced consonants.

===Vowel reduction===
Although the vowels of Spanish are relatively stable from one dialect to another, the phenomenon of vowel reduction—devoicing or even loss—of unstressed vowels in contact with voiceless consonants, especially {{IPA|/s/}}, can be observed in the speech of central Mexico (including Mexico City).{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} For example, it can be the case that the words {{wikt-lang|es|pesos}} ('pesos [money]'), {{wikt-lang|es|pesas}} ('weights'), and {{wikt-lang|es|peces}} ('fish [pl.]') sound nearly the same, as {{IPA|[ˈpesː]}}. One may hear {{wikt-lang|es|pues}} ('well (then)') pronounced {{IPA|[ps̩]}}. Some efforts to explain this vowel reduction link it to the strong influence of [[Nahuatl]] and other [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Native American languages]] in Mexican Spanish.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}

===Pronunciation of ''j''===
{{anchor|j variation}}
In the 16th century, as the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas]] was beginning, the phoneme now represented by the letter ''j'' had begun to change its place of articulation from palato-alveolar {{IPA|[ʃ]}} to palatal {{IPA|[ç]}} and to velar {{IPA|[x]}}, like German ''ch'' in ''Bach'' (see [[History of Spanish#Modern development of the Old Spanish sibilants|History of Spanish]] and [[Old Spanish language]]). In southern Spanish dialects and in those Hispanic American dialects strongly influenced by southern settlers (e.g. [[Caribbean Spanish]]), rather than the velar fricative {{IPA|[x]}}, the sound was backed all the way to {{IPA|[h]}}, like English ''h'' in ''hope''. Glottal {{IPA|[h]}} is nowadays the standard pronunciation for ''j'' in Caribbean dialects (Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican) as well as in mainland Venezuela, in most [[Colombia]]n dialects excepting Pastuso dialect that belongs to a continuum with [[Ecuadorian Spanish]], much of Central America, southern Mexico,<ref name="Canfield">{{Harvcoltxt|Canfield|1981}}</ref> the Canary Islands, Extremadura and western Andalusia in Spain. In the rest of Spain, {{IPA|[x]}} alternates with a uvular fricative allophone {{IPA|[χ]}}, which may also be trilled {{IPAblink|ʀ̥}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Voices of the Hispanic World - Feature Descriptions |url=https://dialectos.osu.edu/feature-descriptions/ |website=dialectos.osu.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Garrido Domínguez |first1=Antonio |title=Los orígenes del español de América |date=1992 |publisher=Ed. MAPFRE |location=Madrid |isbn=84-7100-253-1 |page=64 |language=es}}</ref> In the rest of the Americas, the velar fricative {{IPA|[x]}} is prevalent. In Chile, {{IPA|/x/}} is fronted to {{IPAblink|ç}} (like German ''ch'' in ''ich'') when it precedes the front vowels {{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/e/}}: {{wikt-lang|es|gente}} {{IPA|[ˈçente]}}, {{wikt-lang|es|jinete}} {{IPA|[çiˈnete]}}; in other phonological environments it is pronounced {{IPA|[x]}} or [h].

For the sake of simplicity, these are given a broad transcription {{angbr IPA|x}} in the rest of the article.

===Word-final ''-n''===
In standard European Spanish, as well as in many dialects in the Americas (e.g. standard Argentine or Rioplatense, inland Colombian, and Mexican), word-final {{IPA|/n/}} is, by default (i.e. when followed by a pause or by an initial vowel in the following word), alveolar, like English {{IPA|[n]}} in ''pen''. When followed by a consonant, it assimilates to that consonant's place of articulation, becoming dental, interdental, palatal, or velar. In some dialects, however, word-final {{IPA|/n/}} without a following consonant is pronounced as a velar nasal {{IPA|[ŋ]}} (like the ''-ng'' of English ''long''), and may produce vowel nasalization. In these dialects, words such as {{wikt-lang|es|pan}} ('bread') and {{wikt-lang|es|bien}} ('well') may sound like ''pang'' and ''byeng'' to English-speakers. Velar ''-n'' is common in many parts of Spain (Galicia, León, Asturias, Murcia, Extremadura, Andalusia, and Canary Islands). In the Americas, velar ''-n'' is prevalent in all Caribbean dialects, Central American dialects, the coastal areas of Colombia, Venezuela, much of Ecuador, Peru, and northern Chile.<ref name="Canfield" />
This velar ''-n'' likely originated in the northwest of Spain, and from there spread to Andalusia and then the Americas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Penny |first1=Ralph |title=El origen asturleonés de algunos fenómenos andaluces y americanos |journal=Lletres asturianes: Boletín Oficial de l'Academia de la Llingua Asturiana |date=1991 |volume=39 |pages=33–40 |url=http://www.academiadelallingua.com/lletresasturianes/pdf/Art%C3%ADculu%204-Ralph%20John%20Penny-El%20origen%20asturleon%C3%A9s%20de%20algunos%20fen%C3%B3menos%20andaluces%20y%20americanos.pdf |access-date=20 November 2022 |language=es |issn=0212-0534 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622122925/http://www.academiadelallingua.com/lletresasturianes/pdf/Art%C3%ADculu%204-Ralph%20John%20Penny-El%20origen%20asturleon%C3%A9s%20de%20algunos%20fen%C3%B3menos%20andaluces%20y%20americanos.pdf |archive-date=22 June 2013}}</ref>
Loss of final ''-n'' with strong nasalization of the preceding vowel is not infrequent in all those dialects where velar ''-n'' exists. In much of Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela (except for the Andean region) and Dominican Spanish, any pre-consonantal nasal can be realized {{IPA|[ŋ]}}; thus, a word like ''ambientación'' can be pronounced {{IPA|[aŋbjeŋtaˈsjoŋ]}}.

===''R'' sounds===
All varieties of Spanish distinguish between a "single-R" and a "double-R" phoneme. The single-R phoneme corresponds to the letter ''r'' written once (except when word-initial or following ''l'', ''n'', or ''s'') and is pronounced as {{IPA|[ɾ]}}, an alveolar [[Flap consonant|flap]]—like American English ''tt'' in ''better''—in virtually all dialects. The single-R/double-R contrast is [[Phoneme#Neutralization and archiphonemes|neutralized]] in syllable-final position, and in some dialects these phonemes also lose their contrast with {{IPA|/l/}}, so a word such as {{wikt-lang|es|artesanía}} may sound like ''altesanía''. This neutralization or "leveling" of coda {{IPA|/r/}} and {{IPA|/l/}} is frequent in dialects of southern Spain, the Caribbean, Venezuela and coastal Colombia.<ref name="Canfield" />

The double-R phoneme is spelled ''rr'' between vowels (as in ''ca'''rr'''o'' 'car') and ''r'' word-initially (e.g. '''''r'''ey'' 'king', '''''r'''opa'' 'clothes') or following ''l'', ''n'', or ''s'' (e.g. ''al'''r'''ededor'' 'around', ''en'''r'''iquecer'' 'enrich', ''en'''r'''ollar'' 'roll up', ''en'''r'''olar'' 'enroll', ''hon'''r'''a'' 'honor', ''Con'''r'''ado'' 'Conrad', ''Is'''r'''ael'' 'Israel'). In most varieties it is pronounced as an alveolar [[Trill consonant|trill]] {{IPA|[r]}}, and that is considered the prestige pronunciation. Two notable variants occur additionally: one [[Sibilant consonant|sibilant]] and the other [[Velar consonant|velar]] or [[Uvular consonant|uvular]]. The trill is also found in lexical derivations (morpheme-initial positions), and prefixation with ''sub'' and ''ab'': ''abrogado'' {{IPA|[aβroˈɣa(ð)o]}}, 'abrogated', ''subrayar'' {{IPA|[suβraˈʝar]}}, 'to underline'. The same goes for the compound word ''ciudad'''r'''ealeño'' (from ''Ciudad Real''). However, after vowels, the initial ''r'' of the root becomes ''rr'' in prefixed or compound words: ''prorrogar, infrarrojo, autorretrato, arriesgar, puertorriqueño, Monterrey.'' In syllable-final position, inside a word, the tap is more frequent, but the trill can also occur (especially in emphatic<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|D'Introno|Del Teso|Weston|1995|p=294}}</ref> or oratorical<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Canfield|1981|p=13}}</ref> style) with no semantic difference, especially before ''l'', ''m'', ''n'', ''s'', ''t'', or ''d''—thus ''arma'' ('weapon') may be either {{IPA|[ˈaɾma]}} (tap) or {{IPA|[ˈarma]}} (trill), ''perla'' ('pearl') may be either {{IPA|[ˈpeɾla]}} or {{IPA|[ˈperla]}}, ''invierno'' ('winter') may be {{IPA|[imˈbjeɾno]}} or {{IPA|[imˈbjerno]}}, ''verso'' ('verse') may be {{IPA|[ˈbeɾso]}} or {{IPA|[ˈberso]}}, and ''verde'' ('green') {{IPA|[ˈbeɾðe]}} or {{IPA|[ˈberðe]}}. In ''word''-final position the rhotic will usually be: either a trill or a tap when followed by a consonant or a pause, as in ''amo''{{IPA|[r ~ ɾ]}} ''paterno'' 'paternal love') and ''amo''{{IPA|[r ~ ɾ]}}, with the tap being more frequent and the trill before ''l'', ''m'', ''n'', ''s'', ''t'', ''d'', or sometimes a pause; or a tap when followed by a vowel-initial word, as in ''amo''{{IPA|[ɾ]}} ''eterno'' 'eternal love') (Can be a trill or tap with a temporary glottal stop in emphatic speech: ''amo''{{IPA|[rʔ ~ ɾʔ]}} ''eterno'', with trill being more common). Morphologically, a word-final rhotic always corresponds to the tapped {{IPA|[ɾ]}} in related words. Thus, the word ''olor'' 'smell' is related to ''olores, oloroso'' 'smells, smelly' and not to ''*olorres, *olorroso'', and the word ''taller'' 'workshop' is related to ''talleres'' 'workshops' and not to ''*tallerres''.<ref name="HualdeQuasiPhonemic">{{cite conference |last1=Hualde |first1=José Ignacio |author1-link=José Ignacio Hualde |title=Quasi-phonemic contrasts in Spanish |book-title=WCCFL 23: Proceedings of the 23rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics |date=2005 |pages=374–398 |publisher=Cascadilla Press |location=Somerville, MA |url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/37519174/quasi-phonemic-contrasts-in-spanish-speech-prosody-university- |ref=none}}</ref> When two rhotics occur consecutively across a word or prefix boundary, they result in one trill, so that ''da rosas'' ('s/he gives roses') and ''dar rosas'' ('give roses') are either neutralized, or distinguished by a longer trill in the latter phrase, which may be transcribed as {{IPA|[rr]}} or {{IPA|[rː]}} (although this is transcribed with {{angbr IPA|ɾr}} in [[Help:IPA/Spanish]], even though it differs from {{IPA|[r]}} purely by length); ''da rosas'' and ''dar rosas'' may be distinguished as {{IPA|[da ˈrosas]}} vs. {{IPA|[darˈrosas]}}, or they may fall together as the former.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Hualde|2005|p=184}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation
|last=Lipski
|first=John M.
|year=1990
|title=Spanish Taps and Trills: Phonological Structure of an Isolated Position
|url=https://johnlipski.github.io/rr.pdf
}}</ref>

The pronunciation of the double-R phoneme as a voiced strident (or sibilant) [[Apical consonant|apical]] [[Fricative consonant|fricative]] is common in New Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Paraguay; in western and northern Argentina; and among older speakers in highland areas of Colombia.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Canfield|1981|pp=7–8}}</ref> 
Some linguists have attempted to explain the [[Assibilation|assibilated]] ''rr'' (written in IPA as [{{IPA link|r̝}}]) as a result of influence from [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Native American languages]], and it is true that in the Andean regions mentioned an important part of the population is bilingual in Spanish and one or another indigenous language. Nonetheless, other researchers have pointed out that sibilant ''rr'' in the Americas may not be an autonomous innovation, but rather a pronunciation that originated in some northern Spanish dialects and then was exported to the Americas. Spanish dialects spoken in the Basque Country, Navarre, La Rioja, and northern Aragon<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Penny|2000|p=157}}</ref> (regions that contributed substantially to Spanish-American colonization) show the fricative or [[Postalveolar consonant|postalveolar]] variant for ''rr'' (especially for the word-initial ''rr'' sound, as in ''Roma'' or ''rey''). This is also pronounced voiceless when the consonants after the trill are voiceless and speaking in emphatic speech; it is written as [{{IPA|r̝̊}}], it sounds like a simultaneous {{IPA|[r]}} and {{IPA|[ʃ]}}. In Andean regions, the alveolar trill is realized as an [[alveolar approximant]] {{IPA|[ɹ]}} or even as a voiced apico-alveolar {{IPAblink|ɹ̝}}, and it is quite common in inland Ecuador, Peru, most of Bolivia and in parts of northern Argentina and Paraguay. The alveolar approximant realization is particularly associated with the substrate of Native American languages, as is the assibilation of {{IPA|/ɾ/}} to  {{IPAblink|ɾ̞}} in Ecuador and Bolivia. Assibilated trill is also found in dialects in the /sr/ sequence wherein /s/ is unaspirated, example: ''las rosas'' {{IPA|[la ˈr̝osas]}} ('the roses'), ''Is'''r'''ael'' {{IPA|[iˈr̝ael]}}. The assibilated trill in this example is sometimes pronounced voiceless in emphatic and slower speech: ''las rosas'' {{IPA|[la ˈr̝̊osas]}} ('the roses'), ''Is'''r'''ael'' {{IPA|[iˈr̝̊ael]}}.
The other major variant for the ''rr'' phoneme—common in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic—is articulated at the back of the mouth, either as a glottal {{IPA|[h]}} followed by a voiceless apical trill [{{IPA link|r̥}}] or, especially in Puerto Rico, with a posterior articulation that ranges variously from a velar fricative {{IPAblink|x}} to a uvular trill {{IPAblink|ʀ}}.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lipski|1994|p=333}}</ref> Canfield describes it as a voiceless uvular trill {{IPAblink|ʀ̥}}.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Canfield|1981|p=78}}</ref> These realizations for ''rr'' maintain their contrast with the phoneme {{IPA|/x/}}, as the latter tends to be realized as a soft glottal {{IPA|[h]}}: compare ''Ramón'' {{IPA|[xaˈmoŋ] ~ [ʀ̥aˈmoŋ]}} ('Raymond') with ''jamón'' {{IPA|[haˈmoŋ]}} ('ham').

In Puerto Rico, syllable-final {{IPA|/r/}} can be realized as {{IPAblink|ɹ}} (probably an influence of [[American English]]), aside from {{IPA|[ɾ]}}, {{IPA|[r]}}, and {{IPA|[l]}}, so that ''verso'' ('verse') becomes {{IPA|[ˈbeɹso]}}, alongside {{IPA|[ˈbeɾso]}}, {{IPA|[ˈberso]}}, or {{IPA|[ˈbelso]}}; ''invierno'' ('winter') becomes {{IPA|[imˈbjeɹno]}}, alongside {{IPA|[imˈbjeɾno]}}, {{IPA|[imˈbjerno]}}, or {{IPA|[imˈbjelno]}}; and ''parlamento'' (parliament) becomes {{IPA|[paɹlaˈmento]}}, alongside {{IPA|[paɾlaˈmento]}}, {{IPA|[parlaˈmento]}}, or {{IPA|[palaˈmento]}}. In word-final position, the realization of {{IPA|/r/}} depends on whether it is followed by a consonant-initial word or a pause, on the one hand, or by a vowel-initial word, on the other:

* Before a consonant or pause: a trill, a tap, an approximant, the lateral {{IPA|[l]}}, or elided, as in ''amo''{{IPA|[r ~ ɾ ~ ɹ ~ l ~ ∅]}} ''paterno'' ('paternal love').
* Before a vowel: a tap, an approximant, or the lateral {{IPA|[l]}}, as in ''amo''{{IPA|[ɾ ~ ɹ ~ l]}} ''eterno'' ('eternal love').

The same situation happens in [[Belize]] and the [[Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina]], in these cases an influence of British English.

Although in most Spanish-speaking territories and regions, [[guttural]] or uvular [[Guttural R|realizations of /r/]] are considered a [[speech defect]], back variants for {{IPA|/r/}} ({{IPA|[ʀ]}}, {{IPA|[x]}} or {{IPA|[χ]}}) are widespread in rural [[Puerto Rican Spanish]] and in the dialect of [[Ponce, Puerto Rico|Ponce]],<ref>Navarro-Tomás, T. (1948). "El español en Puerto Rico". ''Contribución a la geografía lingüística latinoamericana''. Río Piedras: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, pp. 91-93.</ref> whereas they are heavily stigmatized in the dialect of the capital [[San Juan, Puerto Rico|San Juan]].<ref>López-Morales, H. (1983). ''Estratificación social del español de San Juan de Puerto Rico''. México: UNAM.</ref> To a lesser extent, velar variants of {{IPA|/r/}} are found in some rural [[Cuban Spanish|Cuban]] ([[Yateras]], [[Guantánamo Province]])<ref>López-Morales, H. (1992). ''El español del Caribe''. Madrid: MAPFRE, p. 61.</ref> and [[Dominican Spanish|Dominican]] vernaculars ([[Cibao]], eastern rural regions of the country).<ref>Jiménez-Sabater, M. (1984). ''Más datos sobre el español de la República Dominicana''. Santo Domingo: Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, p. 87.</ref>

In Paraguay, syllable-final {{IPA|/r/}} is pronounced as {{IPAblink|ɹ}} before ''l'' or ''s'' and word-final position, influenced by a substrate from Native American languages.

In Chile, as in [[Andalusia]], the archiphoneme {{IPA|/r/}} in the sequence {{IPA|/rn/}} is sometimes assimilated to {{IPA|[nn]}} in lower-class speakers, and sometimes in educated speakers. Thus, ''jornada'' {{IPA|/xorˈnada/}} 'workday' may be pronounced {{IPA|[xonˈnaː]}}.

Additionally, in the [[Southern Basque Country|Basque-speaking areas of Spain]], the uvular articulation for {{IPA|/r/}}, {{IPA|[ʁ]}}, has a higher prevalence among bilinguals than among Spanish monolinguals.<ref>[[José Ignacio Hualde]], [[Jon Ortiz De Urbina]] (2003). ''Grammar of Basque''. [[Walter de Gruyter]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=Kss999lxKm0C&pg=PA30 p. 30].</ref>

===Pronunciation of ''x''===
The letter ''x'' usually represents the phoneme sequence {{IPA|/ɡs/}}. An exception to this is the pronunciation of the ''x'' in some place names, especially in Mexico, such as {{wikt-lang|es|Oaxaca}} and the name {{wikt-lang|es|México}} itself, reflecting an older spelling (see [[Name of Mexico#Phonetic evolution|"Name of Mexico"]]). Some personal names, such as ''Javier'', ''Jiménez'', ''Rojas'', etc., also are occasionally spelled with ''X'':  ''Xavier'', ''Ximénez'', ''Roxas'', etc., where the letter is pronounced {{IPA|/x/}}. A small number of words in Mexican Spanish retain the historical {{IPA|/ʃ/}} pronunciation, e.g. {{wikt-lang|es|mexica}}.

There are two possible pronunciations of {{IPA|/ɡs/}} in standard speech: the first one is {{IPA|[ks]}}, with a voiceless plosive, but it is commonly realized as {{IPA|[ɣs]}} instead (hence the phonemic transcription {{IPA|/ɡs/}}). Voicing is not contrastive in the syllable coda, so these different pronunciations do not change the meanings of words.{{sfnp|Navarro Tomás|2004|loc=Sections 98, 125}}

In dialects with ''[[seseo]]'', ''c'' following ''x'' pronounced {{IPA|/ɡs/}} is deleted, yielding pronunciations such as {{IPA|[eɣseˈlente, ek-]}} for {{wikt-lang|es|excelente}}.

===Adoption of the affricates ''tz'' and ''tl''===
[[Mexican Spanish]] and some other Latin American dialects have adopted from the [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|native languages]] the [[voiceless alveolar affricate]] {{IPA|[ts]}} and many words with the cluster {{IPA|[tl]}} (originally an affricate {{IPA|[tɬ]}}) represented by the respective digraphs {{angbr|tz}} and {{angbr|tl}}, as in the names [[Azcapotzalco]] and [[Tlaxcala]]. {{IPA|/tl/}} is a valid onset cluster in Latin America, with the exception of Puerto Rico, in the Canary Islands, and in the northwest of Spain, including Bilbao and Galicia. In these dialects, words of Greek and Latin origin with {{angbr|tl}}, such as {{wikt-lang|es|Atlántico}} and {{wikt-lang|es|atleta}}, are also pronounced with onset {{IPA|/tl/}}: {{IPA|[aˈtlantiko]}}, {{IPA|[aˈtleta]}}. In other dialects, the corresponding phonemic sequence is {{IPA|/dl/}} (where {{IPA|/l/}} is the onset), with the coda {{IPA|/d/}} realized variously as {{IPAblink|t}} and {{IPAblink|ð̞|ð}}. The usual pronunciation of those words in most of Spain is {{IPA|[aðˈlantiko]}} and {{IPA|[aðˈleta]}}.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Navarro Tomás|2004|section=98, 125}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rae.es/espanol-al-dia/division-silabica-y-ortografica-de-palabras-con-tl|language=es|work=Real Académia Española|access-date=19 July 2021|title=División silábica y ortográfica de palabras con "tl"}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hualde |first1=José Ignacio |last2=Carrasco |first2=Patricio |author1-link=José Ignacio Hualde |title=/tl/ en español mexicano. ¿Un segmento o dos? |journal=Estudios de Fonética Experimental |date=2009 |volume=XVIII |pages=175–191 |url=https://www.ub.edu/journalofexperimentalphonetics/pdf-articles/XVIII-15.pdf |language=es |issn=1575-5533}}</ref>

The {{IPA|[ts]}} sound also occurs in European Spanish in loanwords of Basque origin (but only learned loanwords, not those inherited from Roman times), as in ''[[abertzale]]''. In colloquial Castilian it may be replaced by {{IPA|/tʃ/}} or {{IPA|/θ/}}. In [[Bolivian Spanish|Bolivian]], [[Paraguayan Spanish|Paraguayan]], and [[Peruvian Ribereño Spanish|Coastal Peruvian Spanish]], {{IPA|[ts]}} also occurs in loanwords of Japanese origin.{{citation needed|date=July 2022|reason=Why would Bolivian and Paraguayan Spanish have Japanese loanwords? Mention of Bolivia and Paraguay has been unsourced since Jan. 2016, and there're no loans given as examples and no source}}

===Other loaned phonetics===
Spanish has a fricative {{IPA|[ʃ]}} for loanwords of [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|origins from native languages]] in Mexican Spanish, loanwords of French, German and English origin in Chilean Spanish, loanwords of Italian, Galician, French, German and English origin in Rioplatense Spanish and [[Venezuelan Spanish]], Chinese loanwords in [[Peruvian Ribereño Spanish|Coastal Peruvian Spanish]], Japanese loanwords in Bolivian Spanish, Paraguayan Spanish, [[Peruvian Ribereño Spanish|Coastal Peruvian Spanish]], Basque loanwords in Castilian Spanish (but only learned loanwords, not those inherited from Roman times), and English loanwords in [[Puerto Rican Spanish]] and all dialects.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zamora|first=Juan Clemente|date=1982-01-01|title=Amerindian loanwords in general and local varieties of American Spanish|journal=WORD|volume=33|issue=1–2|pages=159–171|doi=10.1080/00437956.1982.11435730|issn=0043-7956|doi-access=free}}</ref> {{Citation needed|date=February 2016|reason=entire section}}

===Pronunciation of ''ch''===
The Spanish digraph ''ch'' (the phoneme {{IPA|/tʃ/}}) is pronounced {{IPAblink|tʃ}} in most dialects. However, it is pronounced as a fricative {{IPAblink|ʃ}} in some [[Andalusian Spanish|Andalusian]] dialects, [[New Mexican Spanish]], some varieties of northern [[Mexican Spanish]], informal and sometimes formal [[Panamanian Spanish]], and informal [[Chilean Spanish]]. In Chilean Spanish this pronunciation is viewed as undesirable, while in Panama it occurs among educated speakers. In Madrid and among upper- and middle-class Chilean speakers, it can be pronounced as the [[Alveolar consonant|alveolar]] affricate {{IPAblink|ts}}.

===Open-mid and open front vowels===

In some dialects of southeastern Spain (Murcia, eastern Andalusia and a few adjoining areas) where the weakening of final {{IPA|/s/}} leads to its disappearance, the "silent" {{IPA|/s/}} continues to have an effect on the preceding vowel, [[open-mid vowel|opening the mid vowels]] {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} to {{IPA|[ɛ]}} and {{IPA|[ɔ]}} respectively, and fronting the open central vowel {{IPA|/a/}} toward {{IPA|[æ]}}. Thus the singular/plural distinction in nouns and adjectives is maintained by means of the vowel quality: 
* ''libro'' {{IPA|[ˈliβɾo]}} 'book', but ''libros'' {{IPA|[ˈliβɾɔ]}} 'books'. 
* ''libre'' {{IPA|[ˈliβɾe]}} 'free, ''singular'' ', but ''libres'' {{IPA|[ˈliβɾɛ]}} 'free, ''plural'''.
* ''libra'' {{IPA|[ˈliβɾa]}} 'pound', but ''libras'' {{IPA|[ˈliβɾæ]}} 'pounds'.<ref name="Hualde 2005 130">{{Harvcoltxt|Hualde|2005|p=130}}</ref>

Furthermore, this opening of final mid vowels can affect other vowels earlier in the word, as an instance of [[metaphony (Romance languages)|metaphony]]:

* ''lobo'' {{IPA|[ˈloβo]}} 'wolf', but ''lobos'' {{IPA|[ˈlɔβɔ]}} 'wolves'.<ref name="Hualde 2005 130"/>

(In the remaining dialects, the mid vowels have nondistinctive open and closed [[allophones]] determined by the shape of the syllable or by contact with neighboring phonemes.  See [[Spanish phonology#Exact number of allophones|Spanish phonology]].)

===Post-tonic ''e'' and ''o''===
Final, non-stressed {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} may be raised to {{IPA|[i]}} and {{IPA|[u]}} respectively in some rural areas of Spain and Latin America. Examples include {{lang|es|noche > nochi}} 'night', {{lang|es|viejo > vieju}}. In Spain, this is mainly found in Galicia and other northern areas. This type of raising carries negative prestige.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Lipski|2012|p=8}}</ref>

===Judaeo-Spanish===
{{Main|Judaeo-Spanish}}

Judaeo-Spanish (often called ''Ladino'') refers to the Romance dialects spoken by Jews whose ancestors were [[Alhambra Decree|expelled from Spain near the end of the 15th century]].

These dialects have important phonological differences compared to varieties of Spanish proper; for example, they have preserved the [[Voice (phonetics)|voiced/voiceless distinction]] among [[Sibilant consonant|sibilants]] as they were in [[Old Spanish language|Old Spanish]]. For this reason, the letter {{angbr|s}}, when written single between vowels, corresponds to a voiced {{IPA|[z]}}—e.g. {{wikt-lang|es|rosa}} {{IPA|[ˈroza]}} ('rose'). Where {{angbr|s}} is not between vowels and is not followed by a voiced consonant, or when it is written double, it corresponds to voiceless {{IPA|[s]}}—thus {{wikt-lang|es|asentarse|assentarse}} {{IPA|[asenˈtarse]}} ('to sit down'). And due to a phonemic neutralization similar to the ''[[seseo]]'' of other dialects, the Old Spanish voiced {{angbr|z}} {{IPA|[dz]}} and the voiceless {{angbr|ç}} {{IPA|[ts]}} have merged, respectively, with {{IPA|/z/}} and {{IPA|/s/}}—while maintaining the voicing contrast between them. Thus {{wikt-lang|es|fazer}} ('to make') has gone from the medieval {{IPA|[faˈdzer]}} to {{IPA|[faˈzer]}}, and {{wikt-lang|es|plaça}} ('town square') has gone from {{IPA|[ˈplatsa]}} to {{IPA|[ˈplasa]}}.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bradley|first1=Travis G.|last2=Smith|first2=Jason|date=2015|title=The Phonology-Morphology Interface in Judeo-Spanish Diminutive Formation: A Lexical Ordering and Subcategorization Approach|journal=Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics|volume=4|issue=2|pages=247–300|doi=10.1515/shll-2011-1103|s2cid=10478601|issn=2199-3386|citeseerx=10.1.1.387.8195}}</ref>

A related dialect is [[Haketia]], the Judaeo-Spanish of northern Morocco. This too tended to assimilate with modern Spanish, during the Spanish occupation of the region.
[[Tetuani Ladino]] was brought to [[Oran]] in Algeria.

=== Intonation ===

Patterns of [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] differ significantly according to dialect, and native speakers of Spanish use intonation to quickly identify different accents. To give some examples, intonation patterns differ between Peninsular and Mexican Spanish, and also between northern Mexican Spanish and accents of the center and south of the country. Argentine Spanish is also characterized by its unique intonation patterns which are supposed to be influenced by the [[languages of Italy]], particularly [[Neapolitan language|Neapolitan]]. Language contact can affect intonation as well, as the Spanish spoken in [[Department of Cuzco|Cuzco]] and [[Mallorca]] show influence from Quechua and [[Catalan language|Catalan]] intonation patterns, respectively, and distinct intonation patterns are found in some ethnically homogenous [[Afro–Latin Americans|Afro-Latino]] communities. Additionally, some scholars have historically argued that indigenous languages influenced the development of Latin America's regional intonation patterns.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lipski |first1=John M. |author-link=John M. Lipski |editor1-last=Díaz-Campos |editor1-first=Manuel |title=The handbook of Hispanic sociolinguistics |date=2011 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=Malden, MA |isbn=9781405195003 |chapter= Socio-Phonological Variation in Latin American Spanish |pages=72–97 |doi=10.1002/9781444393446.ch4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Rourke |first1=Erin |editor1-last=Auger |editor1-first=Julie |editor2-last=Clements |editor2-first=J. Clancy |editor3-last=Vance |editor3-first=Barbara |title=Contemporary approaches to Romance linguistics: selected papers from the 33rd Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Bloomington, Indiana, April 2003 |date=2004 |publisher=J. Benjamins |location=Amsterdam |isbn=9789027247728 |pages=321–342 |chapter=Peak placement in two regional varieties of Peruvian Spanish intonation}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Rourke |first1=Erin |editor1-last=Hualde |editor1-first=José Ignacio |editor2-last=Olarrea |editor2-first=Antxon |editor3-last=O'Rourke |editor3-first=Erin |editor1-link=José Ignacio Hualde |editor2-link=Antxon Olarrea |title=The handbook of Hispanic linguistics |date=2012 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Hoboken |isbn=9781405198820 |pages=173–191 |chapter=Intonation in Spanish |doi=10.1002/9781118228098.ch9}}</ref>

==Grammar==

===Second-person pronouns and verbs===
Spanish is a language with a "[[T–V distinction]]" in the second person, meaning that there are different pronouns corresponding to "you" which express different degrees of formality. In most varieties, there are two degrees, namely "formal" and "familiar" (the latter is also called "informal").

For the second person ''formal'', virtually all Spanish dialects of Spain and the Americas use {{wikt-lang|es|usted}} and {{wikt-lang|es|ustedes}} (singular and plural respectively). But for the second person ''familiar'', there is regional variation—between {{wikt-lang|es|tú}} and {{wikt-lang|es|vos}} for the singular, and, separately, between {{wikt-lang|es|vosotros}} and {{wikt-lang|es|ustedes}} for the plural. The use of ''vos'' (and its corresponding verb forms) rather than ''tú'' is called ''[[voseo]]''.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Kany|1951|pp=55–91}}</ref>

Each of the second-person pronouns has its historically corresponding verb forms, used by most speakers. Most {{wikt-lang|es|voseo}} speakers use both the pronoun ''vos'' and its historically corresponding verb forms (e.g. ''vos {{wt|es|tenés}}'', 'you have'). But some dialects use the pronoun ''tú'' with "''vos'' verb forms" (verbal ''voseo''—''tú {{wt|es|tenés}}''), while others use ''vos'' with "''tú'' verb forms" (pronominal ''voseo''—''vos {{wt|es|tienes}}'').

====Second-person singular====
[[File:Voseo-extension-real.PNG|thumb|left|250px|Distribution of ''voseo'':
{{legend|#000070|primarily spoken + written}}
{{legend|#0077E5|primarily spoken}}
{{legend|#A2D2FC|spoken, alternating with ''tuteo''}}
{{legend|#8F8F8F|absent}}]]
In most dialects the familiar second person singular pronoun is ''tú'' (from Latin ''tū''), and the formal pronoun is ''usted'' (usually considered to originate from ''{{wt|es|vuestra}} {{wt|es|merced}}'', meaning 'your grace' or, literally, 'your mercy'). In a number of regions in the Americas, ''tú'' is replaced by another pronoun, ''vos'', and the verb conjugation changes accordingly (see details below). Spanish ''vos'' comes from Latin ''vōs'', the second person ''plural'' pronoun in Latin.

In any case, there is wide variation as to when each pronoun (formal or familiar) is used. In Spain, ''tú'' is familiar (for example, used with friends), and ''usted'' is formal (for example, used with older people). In recent times, there has been a noticeable tendency to extend the use of ''tú'' even in situations previously reserved for ''usted''. Meanwhile, in several countries (in parts of [[Middle America (Americas)|Middle America]], especially, Costa Rica and Colombia), the formal ''usted'' is also used to denote a closer personal relationship. Many Colombians and some Chileans, for instance, use ''usted'' for a child to address a parent and also for a parent to address a child. Some countries, such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, prefer the use of ''tú'' even in very formal circumstances, and ''usted'' is seldom used.

Meanwhile, in other countries, the use of formal rather than familiar second-person pronouns denotes authority. In Peru, for example, senior military officers use ''tú'' to speak to their subordinates, but junior officers use only ''usted'' to address their superior officers.

Using the familiar ''tú'', especially in contexts where ''usted'' was to be expected, is called {{wikt-lang|es|tuteo}}. The corresponding verb is {{wikt-lang|es|tutear}} (a [[transitive verb]], the direct object being the person addressed with the pronoun). The verb ''tutear'' is used even in those dialects whose familiar pronoun is ''vos'' and means 'to treat with the familiar second-person pronoun'.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Kany|1951|pp=56–57}}</ref>

Pronominal [[voseo]], the use of the pronoun ''vos'' instead of ''tú'', is the prevalent form of the familiar second person singular pronoun in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay. In those countries, it is used by many to address others in all kinds of contexts, often regardless of social status or age, including by cultured/educated speakers and writers, in television, advertisements, and even in translations from other languages. In Guatemala and Uruguay, ''vos'' and ''tú'' are used concurrently, but ''vos'' is much more common. Both pronouns use the verb forms normally associated with ''vos'' (''vos {{wt|es|querés}}'' / ''tú querés'', 'you want').

The name ''[[Rioplatense Spanish|Rioplatense]]'' is applied to the dialect of Spanish spoken around the mouth of the Río de la Plata and the lower course of the Paraná River, where ''vos'', not ''tú'', is invariably used, with the ''vos'' verb forms (''vos tenés''). The area comprises the most populous part of Argentina (the provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe) as well as an important part of Uruguay, including Montevideo, the capital.

In Ecuador, ''vos'' is the most prominent form throughout the Sierra region of the country, though it does coexist with ''usted'' and the lesser-used ''tú''. In this region, ''vos'' is regarded as the conversational norm, but it is not used in public discourse or the mass media. The choice of pronoun to be used depends on the participants' likeness in age and/or social status. Based on these factors, speakers can assess themselves as being equal, superior, or inferior to the addressee, and the choice of pronoun is made on this basis, sometimes resulting in a three-tiered system. Ecuadorians of the Highlands thus generally use ''vos'' among familiarized equals or by superiors (in both social status and age) to inferiors; ''tú'' among unfamiliarized equals, or by a superior in age but inferior in social status; and ''usted'' by both familiarized and unfamiliarized inferiors, or by a superior in social status but inferior in age. In the more populated coastal region, the form ''tú'' is used in most situations, ''usted'' being used only for unfamiliar and/or superior addressees.

''Vos'' can be heard throughout most of Chile, Bolivia, and a small part of Peru as well, but in these places it is regarded as substandard. It is also used as the conversational norm in the [[Paisa Region]] and the southwest region of Colombia, in [[Zulia State]] (Venezuela), in Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the state of Chiapas in Mexico.

In Chile, even though ''tú'' is the prestige pronoun among educated speakers, the use of "verbal [[voseo]]", i.e. "''tú'' + verb conjugation of ''vos''" (e.g. ''tú {{wt|es|podís}}'') is widespread. On the other hand, "pronominal voseo", the use of the pronoun ''vos''—pronounced with [[Debuccalization|aspiration]] of the final {{IPA|/s/}}—is used derisively in informal speech between close friends as playful banter (usually among men) or, depending on the tone of voice, as an offensive comment.

In Colombia, the choice of second person singular varies with location. In most of inland Colombia (especially the [[Andes|Andean]] region), ''usted'' is the pronoun of choice for all situations, even in speaking between friends or family; but in large cities (especially [[Bogotá]]), the use of ''tú'' is becoming more accepted in informal situations, especially between young interlocutors of opposite sexes and among young women. In [[Valle del Cauca]] ([[Cali]]), [[Antioquia Department|Antioquia]] ([[Medellín]]) and the Pacific coast, the pronouns used are ''vos'' and ''usted''. On the Caribbean coast (mainly [[Barranquilla]] and [[Cartagena de Indias|Cartagena]]), ''tú'' is used for practically all informal situations and many formal situations as well, ''usted'' being reserved for the most formal environments. A peculiarity occurs in the [[Altiplano Cundiboyacense]] and among some speakers in Bogotá: ''usted'' is replaced by {{wikt-lang|es|sumercé}} for formal situations (it is relatively easy to identify a ''Boyacense'' by his/her use of this pronoun). ''Sumercé'' comes from ''su merced'' ('your mercy').

In parts of Spain, a child used to use not ''tú'' but ''usted'' to address a parent. Today, however, this usage is unusual. Among the factors for the ongoing replacement of ''usted'' by ''tú'' are the new social relevance of youth and the reduction of social differences. In particular, it has been attributed{{By whom|date=May 2021}} to the egalitarianism of the right-wing [[FET y de las JONS|Falange]] party. By contrast, Spanish leftists of the early 20th century would address their comrades as ''usted'' as a show of respect and workers' dignity.

According to [[Joan Coromines]]<!--With "Coromin'''a'''s" printed on the book, "Coromin'''e'''s" in the Wiki article (he uses both)-->, by the 16th century, the use of ''vos'' (as a second person ''singular'' pronoun) had been reduced to rural areas of Spain, which were a source of many emigrants to the New World, and so ''vos'' became the unmarked form in many areas of Latin America.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Corominas|1987}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Kany|1951|pp=58–63}}</ref>

A slightly different explanation is that in Spain,  even if ''vos'' (as a singular) originally denoted the high social status of those who were addressed as such (monarchs, nobility, etc.), the people never used the pronoun themselves since there were few or no people above them in society. Those who used ''vos'' were people of the lower classes and peasants. When the waves of Spanish immigrants arrived to populate the New World, they primarily came from these lower classes. In the New World, wanting to raise their social status from what it was in Spain, they demanded to be addressed as ''vos''.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}}

Through the widespread use of ''vos'' in the Americas, the pronoun was transformed into an indicator of low status not only for the addresser but also for the addressee. Conversely, in Spain, ''vos'' is now considered a highly exalted archaism virtually confined to liturgy.

Speakers of [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]] still use ''vos'' as it was used in the Middle Ages, to address people higher on the social ladder.  The pronoun ''usted'' had not been introduced to this dialect of Spanish when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 so ''vos'' is still used in Ladino much as ''usted'' is used in modern Spanish.

A variant of ''usted'', ''[[vusted]]'', can be heard in Andean regions of South America. Other, less frequent forms analogous to ''usted'' are {{wikt-lang|es|vuecencia}} (short for ''{{wt|es|vuestra}} {{wt|es|excelencia}}''), and ''usía'' (from ''vuestra {{wt|es|señoría}}'').

There is a traditional assumption that Chilean and River Plate ''voseo'' verb forms are derived from those corresponding to ''vosotros''. This assumption, however, has been challenged, in an article by {{Harvcoltxt|Baquero|Westphal|2014}}—in the theoretical framework of classical [[Generative grammar|generative phonology]]—as [[Synchrony and diachrony|synchronically]] inadequate, on the grounds that it requires at least six different rules, including three [[monophthongization]] processes that lack phonological motivation. Alternatively, the article argues that the Chilean and River Plate ''voseo'' verb forms are synchronically derived from [[underlying representations]] that coincide with those corresponding to the [[Honorifics (linguistics)|non-honorific]] second person singular ''tú''. The proposed theory requires the use of only one special rule in the case of Chilean ''voseo''. This rule—along with other rules that are independently justified in the language—makes it possible to derive synchronically all Chilean and River Plate ''voseo'' verb forms in a straightforward manner. The article additionally solves the problem posed by the alternate verb forms of Chilean ''voseo'' such as the future indicative (e.g. ''vay a bailar'' 'will you dance?'), the present indicative forms of ''haber'' (''habih'' and ''hai'' 'you have'), and the present indicative of ''ser'' (''soi'', ''eríh'' and ''erei'' 'you are'), without resorting to any ad hoc rules.

====Second-person plural====
In Standard European Spanish the plural of ''tú'' is ''vosotros'' and the plural of ''usted'' is ''ustedes''. In Hispanic America ''vosotros'' is not used, and the plural of both ''tú'' and ''usted'' is ''ustedes''. This means that speaking to a group of friends a Spaniard will use ''vosotros'', while a Latin American Spanish speaker will use ''ustedes''. Although ''ustedes'' is semantically a second-person form, it is treated grammatically as a third-person plural form because it originates from the term ''{{wt|es|vuestras}} {{wt|es|mercedes}}'' ('your [pl.] mercies,' sing. ''vuestra merced'').

The only vestiges of ''vosotros'' in the Americas are {{wikt-lang|es|boso}}/{{wikt-lang|es|bosonan}} in [[Papiamento]] and the use of ''vuestro/a'' in place of ''{{wt|es|sus}} ({{wt|es|de}} ustedes)'' as second person plural possessive in the Cusco region of Peru.

In very formal contexts, however, the ''vosotros'' conjugation can still be found. An example is the [[Mexican national anthem]], which contains such forms as {{wikt-lang|es|aprestad}} and {{wikt-lang|es|empapad}}.

The plural of the Colombian (Cundi-Boyacense Plateau) ''sumercé'' is ''sumercés/susmercedes'', from ''sus mercedes'' ('your mercies').

In some parts of Andalusia (the lands around the [[Guadalquivir]] river and western Andalusia), the usage is what is called ''ustedes-vosotros'': the pronoun ''ustedes'' is combined with the verb forms for ''vosotros''. However, this sounds extremely colloquial and most Andalusians prefer to use each pronoun with its correct form.

In [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]], ''vosotros'' is still the only second person plural pronoun, since ''ustedes'' does not exist.<!-- pronunciation needs to be clarified in IPA -->

====Second-person verb forms====
Each second-person pronoun has its historically corresponding verb forms. The formal ''usted'' and ''ustedes'', although semantically second person, take verb forms identical with those of the third person, singular and plural respectively, since they are derived from the third-person expressions ''vuestra merced'' and ''vuestras mercedes'' ('your grace[s]'). The forms associated with the singular ''vos'' can generally be derived from those for the plural ''vosotros'' by deleting the palatal [[semivowel]] of the ending (''vosotros hablá'''i'''s'' > ''vos hablás'', 'you speak'; ''vosotros comé'''i'''s'' > ''vos comés'', 'you eat').

General statements about the use of ''voseo'' in different localities should be qualified by the note that individual speakers may be inconsistent in their usage, and that [[isoglosses]] rarely coincide with national borders. That said, a few assertions can be made:
* "Full" ''voseo'' (involving both pronoun and verb—''vos comés'', 'you eat') is characteristic of two zones: that of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and that of Central America and the Mexican state of Chiapas.
* Pronominal ''voseo'' (''vos tienes'', ''vos dices'', etc. but ''vos sos'') is common in [[Santiago del Estero Province]], Argentina
* "Full" ''voseo'' coexists with the use of ''tú'' and its verb forms (e.g. ''tú comes'') in Colombia and Ecuador, and in parts of Colombia also with ''usted'' (with its standard verb forms) as a familiar form.
* In Chile there is coexistence of three usages:
** ''tú'' and its verb forms (''tú comes'');
** "full" ''voseo'' with uniquely Chilean ''voseo'' verb endings (''-ái'', ''-ís'', and ''-ís'' respectively for ''-ar'', ''-er'', and ''-ir'' verbs: ''vos hablái''—'you speak', ''vos comís''—"you eat", ''vos vivís''—'you live'); and
** verbal ''voseo'' with the Chilean verb endings (''tú hablái'', ''tú comís'', etc.).
* "Full" ''voseo'' coexists with verbal ''voseo'' (''tú comés'') in Uruguay.
* In Venezuela's [[Zulia]] State and parts of the state of [[Falcón]] there is no deletion of the palatal semivowel, creating ''vos coméis'', ''vos habláis'', and ''vos seáis''. In [[Trujillo State]], the "voseo" is like that of Argentina, with the exception of the imperative mood, which is like that of the standard ''tú''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/file/d/13vnz0v4TOEKZmie2F4l_AouayjM1ITvGWGEizCXgY12ks8x1cWvANFDhPHv5/edit?pli=1 |title=3235 - Google Drive |access-date=2015-05-31}}</ref>
* ''Voseo'' is absent from the Spanish of Spain, and from most of Mexico, Peru, and the islands of the Caribbean.

As for the second person familiar ''plural'', it can be said that northern and central Spain use ''vosotros'' and its verb forms (''vosotros habláis'', 'you [pl.] speak'), while the rest of the Spanish-speaking world merges the familiar and formal in ''ustedes'' (''ustedes hablan''). Usage in western Andalusia includes the use of ''ustedes'' with the traditional ''vosotros'' verb form (''ustedes habláis'').

In [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]], the second-person pronouns are quite different from those of Spain and Latin America. The forms ''usted'' and ''ustedes'' had not yet appeared in 1492 when the Jews were expelled from Spain. Speakers of Ladino still use ''vos'' as it was used in the Middle Ages (as a singular) to address people higher on the social ladder. And ''vosotros'' is the only second person plural pronoun. In Ladino the formal singular for 'you speak' is ''vos avláis'' (pronounced {{IPA|[aˈvlaʃ]}}, and the same verb form serves for the plural, both formal and familiar: ''vosotros avláis'' ({{IPA|[voˈzotros aˈvlaʃ]}}). The subjunctive 'that you lose (formal singular)' is ''que vos pedráis'' ({{IPA|[ke vos peˈdraʃ]}}), while the plural (both formal and familiar) is ''que vosotros pedráis'' ({{IPA|[ke voˈzotros peˈdraʃ]}}). The formal ''singular'' imperative ('come') is ''venid'' or ''vení'', and the same form serves as the ''plural'' imperative, both formal and familiar.

===Third-person object pronouns===
[[File:Leísmo laísmo loísmo.png|thumb|left|Area of ''leísmo'', ''loísmo'' and ''laísmo'' in northern and central Spain]]
{{Main|Leísmo|Loísmo}}
In many dialects in northern and central Spain, including that of Madrid, the indirect object pronouns ''le'' and ''les'' may be used in place of the direct object pronouns ''lo'', ''la'', ''los'', and ''las'' in a phenomenon known as ''leísmo''. ''Leísmo'' typically occurs when the direct object refers to a person or personalized thing, such as a pet, and is most commonly used for male direct objects. The opposite phenomenon also occurs in the same regions of Spain and is known as ''loísmo'' or ''laísmo''. In ''loísmo'', the direct object pronouns ''lo'' and ''los'' are used in contexts where the indirect object pronouns ''le'' and ''les'' would normally be prescribed; this usually occurs with a male indirect object. In ''laísmo'', ''la'' and ''las'' are used instead of ''le'' and ''les'' when referring to a female indirect object.

===Verb tenses for past events===
In a broad sense, when expressing an action viewed as finished in the past, speakers (and writers) in most of Spain use the perfect tense—e.g. ''he llegado'' *'I have arrived')—more often than their American counterparts, while Spanish-speakers in the Americas more often use the preterite (''llegué'' 'I arrived').<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Kany|1951|pp=161–164}}</ref>

The [[Perfect (grammar)|perfect]] is also called the "[[present perfect]]" and, in Spanish, ''pasado perfecto'' or ''pretérito perfecto compuesto''. It is described as a [[Compound verb|"compound" tense]] (''compuesto'' in Spanish) because it is formed with the [[auxiliary verb]] ''haber'' plus a main verb.

The [[preterite]], also called the "simple past" and, in Spanish, ''pretérito indefinido'' or ''pretérito perfecto simple'', is considered a "simple" tense because it is formed of a single word: the verb [[Word stem|stem]] with an [[Inflection|inflectional ending]] for person, number, etc.

The choice between preterite and perfect, according to [[Linguistic prescription|prescriptive grammars]] from both Spain<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Seco|1986|p=302}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Real Academia Española|1973|pp=465 and 468}}</ref> and the Americas,<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Bello|1903|p=134}}</ref> is based on the psychological time frame—whether expressed or merely implied—in which the past action is embedded. If that time frame includes the present moment (i.e. if the speaker views the past action as somehow related to the moment of speaking),  then the recommended tense is the perfect (''he llegado''). But if the time frame does not include the present—if the speaker views the action as only in the past, with little or no relation to the moment of speaking—then the recommended tense is the preterite (''llegué''). This is also the real spontaneous usage in most of Spain.

Following this criterion, an explicit time frame such as ''hoy'' ('today') or ''este año'' ('this year') includes the present and thus dictates the compound tense: ''Este año '''he cantado''''' ('I have sung this year'). Conversely, a time frame such as ''ayer'' ('yesterday') or ''la semana pasada'' ('last week') does not include the present and therefore calls for the preterite: ''La semana pasada '''canté''''' ('I sang last week').

However, in most of the Americas, and in the Canary Islands, the preterite is used for all actions viewed as completed in the past. It tends to be used in the same way in those parts of Spain where the local languages and vernaculars do not have compound tenses, that is, the [[Galician language|Galician]]-speaking area and the neighbouring [[Astur-Leonese]]-speaking area.

In most of Spain, the compound tense is preferred in most cases when the action described is close to the present moment:
*''He viajado a (los) Estados Unidos.'' ('I have [just] traveled to (the) United States')
*''Cuando he llegado, la he visto.'' ('When I arrived, I saw her')
*''¿Qué ha pasado?'' ('What just happened?')
Prescriptive norms would rule out the compound tense in a ''cuando''-clause, as in the second example above.

Meanwhile, in Galicia, León, Asturias, Canary Islands and the Americas, speakers follow the opposite tendency, using the simple past tense in most cases, even if the action takes place at some time close to the present:
*''Ya viajé a (los) Estados Unidos.'' ('I [have already] traveled to (the) United States')
*''Cuando llegué, la vi.'' ('When I arrived, I saw her')
*''¿Qué pasó?'' ('What just happened?')

In Latin America one could say, "''he viajado a España varias veces''" ('I have traveled to Spain several times'), to express a repeated action, as in English. But to say ''El año pasado he viajado a España'' would sound ungrammatical (as it would also be in English to say "last year, I have traveled to Spain", as ''last year'' implies that the relevant time period does not include the present).  In Spain, speakers use the compound tense when the period of time considered has not ended, as in ''he comprado un coche este año'' ('I have bought a car this year'). Meanwhile, a Latin American Spanish speaker is more likely to say, "''compré un carro este año''" ('I bought a car this year').

==Vocabulary==
<!-- [[List of Spanish words having different meanings in distinct Spanish-speaking countries]] redirects here -->
Different regional varieties of Spanish vary in terms of vocabulary as well. This includes both words that exist only in certain varieties (especially words borrowed from indigenous languages of the Americas), and words that are used differently in different areas. Among words borrowed from indigenous languages are many names for food, plants and animals, clothes, and household object, such as the following items of Mexican Spanish vocabulary borrowed from [[Nahuatl]].<ref name="Cotton-Sharp" />

{| class="wikitable"
|+Examples of Nahuatl etymologies in Spanish
|-
!scope="col"| Word
!scope="col"| English translation
|-
!scope="row"| camote
| sweet potato
|-
!scope="row"| pipián
| stew
|-
!scope="row"| chapulín
| grasshopper
|-
!scope="row"| huipil
| blouse
|-
!scope="row"| metate
| grinder, mortar and pestle
|}

In addition to loan words, there are a number of Spanish words that have developed distinct senses in different regional dialects. That is, for certain words a distinct meaning, either in addition to the standard meaning or in place of it, exists in some varieties of Spanish.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Words with different meanings in Spanish dialects
|-
!scope="col"| Word
!scope="col"| Standard meaning
!scope="col"| Regional meaning
|-
!scope="row"| almacén
| warehouse, department store
| grocery store ([[Rioplatense Spanish]], [[Chilean Spanish]], [[Andean Spanish]])<ref name="Webster's">{{Harvcoltxt|Webster's New World Concise Spanish Dictionary|2006}}</ref>
|-
!scope="row"| colectivo
| collective
| bus (Argentine Spanish originally 'collective taxi', Chilean Spanish, [[Bolivian Spanish]])<ref name="Webster's" />)
|-
!scope="row"| cuadra
| stable, pigsty
| city block ([[Spanish language in the United States|United States Spanish]])<ref name="Webster's" />
|-
!scope="row"| chaqueta
| jacket
| (vulgar) male masturbation ([[Central American Spanish]])<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Velázquez Spanish and English Dictionary: Pocket Edition|2006}}</ref>
|-
!scope="row"| coger
| to take, to catch, to start, to feel
| (vulgar) to fuck, have sexual relations (Rioplatense Spanish and [[Mexican Spanish]])<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Miyara|2001}}</ref>
|-
!scope="row"| concha
| shell, tortoiseshell
| (vulgar) cunt (Rioplatense Spanish, Chilean Spanish, Andean Spanish)<ref name="Webster's" />
|-
!scope="row"| peloteo
| knock-up (in tennis), warm up
| fawning, adulation (Peninsular Spanish)<ref name="Webster's" />
|}

==Mutual intelligibility==
The different [[dialect]]s and [[Accent (sociolinguistics)|accent]]s do not block cross-understanding among relatively educated speakers. Meanwhile, the [[basilect]]s have diverged more. The unity of the language is reflected in the fact that early imported [[sound film]]s were [[Dubbing (filmmaking)|dubbed]] into one version for the entire Spanish-speaking market. Currently, films not originally in Spanish (usually [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] productions) are typically dubbed separately into two or sometimes three accents: one for Spain (standardized [[Peninsular Spanish]] without regional terms and pronunciations), and for the Americas, either just one (Mexican), or two: a Mexican one for most of the Americas (using a neutral standardized accent without regionalisms) and one in [[Rioplatense Spanish]] for Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. {{Cn|date=June 2024}} Some high-budget productions, however, such as the [[Harry Potter (film series)|''Harry Potter'' film series]], have had dubs in three or more of the major accents. On the other hand, productions from another Spanish-language country are seldom dubbed. Exceptionally, the made-in-Spain animated features ''[[Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds]]'' and ''[[The World of David the Gnome]]'', as well as TV serials from the [[Andean]] countries such as ''Karkú'' (Chile), have had a Mexican dub. The popularity of ''[[telenovela]]s'' and music familiarizes the speakers with other accents of Spanish.

[[Prescription and description|Prescription]] and a common cultural and literary tradition, among other factors, have contributed to the formation of a loosely defined [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] which can be termed [[Standard Spanish]] (or "Neutral Spanish"), which is the preferred form in formal settings, and is considered indispensable in academic and literary writing, the media, etc. This standard tends to disregard local grammatical, phonetic and lexical peculiarities, and draws certain extra features from the commonly acknowledged [[wiktionary:canon|canon]], preserving (for example) certain verb tenses considered "bookish" or archaic in most other dialects.

Mutual intelligibility in Spanish does not necessarily mean a [[translation]] is wholly applicable in all Spanish-speaking countries, especially when conducting health [[research]] that requires precision. For example, an assessment of the applicability of [[Quality of well-being scale|QWB-SA]]'s Spanish version in Spain showed that some translated terms and usage applied US-specific concepts and regional [[Lexical semantics|lexical]] choices and cannot be successfully implemented without adaptation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Congost-Maestre |first=Nereida |url=https://www.rti.org/rti-press-publication/language-survey-research |title=Sociocultural issues in adapting Spanish health survey translation: The case of the QWB-SA (Chapter 10) in The Essential Role of Language in Survey Research |date=2020-04-30 |publisher=RTI Press |isbn=978-1-934831-24-3 |editor-last=Sha |editor-first=Mandy |pages=203–220 |doi=10.3768/rtipress.bk.0023.2004 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Languages}}

===Cants and argots===
*[[Bron (cant)|Bron]] of migrant merchants and artisans of Asturias and León
*[[Caló language]] of [[Gitanos|Gitano]]s
*[[Caló (Chicano)|Caló]] of [[Chicano]]s
*[[Coa (argot)|Coa]] of Chilean criminals
*[[Cheli]] of Madrid
*[[Gacería]] of [[Cantalejo]], Spain
*[[Germanía]] of [[Spanish Golden Century]] criminals
*[[Lunfardo]] of [[Porteño]] Spanish
*[[Parlache]] originated in the city of [[Medellin]]

===Mixes with other languages===
*[[Spanish-based creole languages]]
*[[Annobonese language]] of [[Annobón Province]] and [[Bioko]], [[Equatorial Guinea]]
*[[Belgranodeutsch]] of Buenos Aires
*[[Castrapo]] of [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]]
*[[Amestao]] of [[Asturias]]
*[[Chavacano]] of the Philippines
*[[Cocoliche]] of Buenos Aires
* [[Frespañol]] of French–Spanish contact
*[[Judaeo-Spanish]], also known as Ladino, the language of the [[Sephardic Jew]]s
* [[Llanito]] of [[Gibraltar]]
*[[Palenquero]] of Colombia
*[[Papiamento]] of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire
*[[Pichinglis]] of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea
*[[Portuñol]] of the Brazilian border
*[[Spanglish]] of the United States of America
*[[Jopara language]] in Paraguay with [[Guarani language]]

===Other===
*[[History of the Spanish language]]
*[[Spanish phonology]]
*[[Andalusian Spanish]]
**[[Andalusian language movement]]
*[[Castilian Spanish]]
*[[Central American Spanish]]
*[[South American Spanish]]
*[[Equatoguinean Spanish]]
*[[Philippine Spanish]]
**[[Spanish language in the Philippines]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{Citation
|author = Real Academia Española
|year= 1973
|title=Esbozo de una nueva gramática de la lengua española
|place=Madrid
|publisher=Espasa-Calpe
}}
*{{Citation
|last1=Alonso
|first1=Dámaso
|last2=Canellada
|first2=María Josefa
|last3 = Zamora Vicente
|first3 = Alonso
|title = Vocales andaluzas
|journal = Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica
|volume=4
|year = 1950
|pages=209–230
|doi=10.24201/nrfh.v4i3.159
|doi-access=free
}}
*{{citation
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{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* Alonso Zamora Vicente, ''Dialectología Española'' (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1960) is highly detailed.

==External links==
*[http://www.jotamartin.byethost33.com/alpi0_e.php Isogloss maps of phonetic variants in the Iberian Peninsula]
*[http://www.jotamartin.byethost33.com/mapa1_e.php Map of Spanish dialects in the Iberian Peninsula]
*[http://www.ruralcostarica.com/costa-rican-spanish.asp Costa Rican Spanish Dictionary]
*[http://www.onlinespanishhelp.com/ Spanish learning site with Argentinian speakers]
*[http://www.asihablamos.com/ Hispanic American Dictionary with variants for every country]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20240715102422/http://crandall.altervista.org/sp/spanish-dialects.html Spanish dialects, pronunciation maps]
*[http://www.corpusrural.es/ING/ COSER], Audible Corpus of Spoken Rural Spanish

{{Spanish variants by continent}}
{{Language varieties}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spanish Dialects And Varieties}}
[[Category:Spanish dialects| ]]