Andalusian Spanish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Andalusian dialect (also called andaluz) of Spanish is spoken in Andalusia, Gibraltar, Melilla, Ceuta and parts of southern Extremadura. Andalusian spanish differs significantly in many respects from northern dialects of Spanish and Standard Spanish, which is largely based on a northern dialect, Castilian. Due to the large population of Andalusia, the Andalusian dialect is the second most spoken dialect in Spain, after Castilian. Due to massive emigration from Andalusia to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and elsewhere, many American Spanish dialects share some fundamental characteristics with Andalucian Spanish, such as the use of ustedes instead of vosotros for the second person plural, and the widespread use of seseo. The Spanish dialects spoken in the Canary Islands, Chilean, Rioplatense and Caribbean dialects (such as Venezuelan Spanish) are based on Andalusian, and some dialects based on northern Spanish dialects, such as Mexican Spanish have been heavily influenced by their Andalusian-based neighbours.
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[edit] Language or Dialect?
For historical and political reasons, many people over the years have tried to argue that Andalusian is not a dialect of Castilian, but a language in its own right, to the extent that the Ministry of Education & Science of Andalusia's regional government refers Andalusian as "modalidad lingüística andaluza" or "Andalusian language variety" instead of calling it a dialect. Some linguists argue that Andalusian should not be seen as a dialect of Castilian, rather as a creole language that developed out of a hybridisation between Castilian and the Mozarabic language. However, most linguists do consider Andalusian to be a dialect of Castilian, albeit heavily influenced by Arabic and Mozarabic.
[edit] Features
Andalusian has a number of distinguishing phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical features. However, not all of these are unique to Andalusian, nor are all of these features found in all areas where Andalusian is spoken, but in any one area, most of these features will be present.
[edit] Phonological features
- Most Spanish dialects in Spain differentiate between the sound of "z" and "c" (before e and i), pronounced /θ/ and that of "s", pronounced /s/. However, in many Andalusian-speaking areas, the sounds of all three letters are pronounced as an "s" (/s/), which is known as Seseo. In other areas, all three letters are pronounced as /θ/, which is known as Ceceo. In still other areas, the distinction is retained (Distinción). Ceceo predominates in more southerly parts of Andalusia, including Cadiz, southern Huelva, most of Malaga and Seville (except the northern parts of both provinces and the city of Seville, and south-western Granada. A common stereotype about Ceceo is that it is mostly found in backward rural areas, but the predominance of Ceceo in major cities such as Malaga, Huelva and Granada are enough proof to refute this. Seseo predominates in Cordoba, northern Seville and Malaga and western Huelva. Interestingly, the cities of Seville and Cadiz are seseante, but which are entirely surrounded by Ceceo using areas; Cadiz city is very unusual in that it is the only area in the entire province of Cadiz that is not ceceante. Distinción is mostly found in Almeria, eastern Granada, Jaen, and the northern parts of Cordoba and Huelva. See map above for a detailed description of these zones.
- Intervocalic "d" is elided in many words, for example pesao for pesado ("heavy"), a menúo for a menudo ("often"). This is especially common in the past participle, e.g. he acabado becomes he acabao ("I have finished").
- Similarly, intervocalic "r" is often elided also, although this tends to occur only in certain words and phrases. For example, parece becomes paece ("it appears"), quieres becomes quie'es ("you want") and padre and madre may sometimes pa'e and ma'e ("father" and "mother", respectively).
- Final /s/ is usually aspirated (pronounced [h]) or just omitted. In the latter case, the vowel often "opens". In Andalusian Spanish, one distinguishes la casa ([la'kasa], "the house") and las casas ([lah'kasah], "the houses") by a final [h], where Castilian would have [s]. Some varieties of Andalusian have developed a new vowel system with 10 vowels: 5 tense vowels (the same as in Castilian Spanish) and 5 open vowels (in place of final consonants such as "s"). For example: el niño ("the boy"), [en'niɲo]; los niños ("the boys") in Andalusian is lò niñò, with lax/open vowels instead of plural "s"s, [lɔ'niɲɔ]. Some speakers may substitute [ɑ], [ɛ], [ɪ] in for standard [as], [es], [is], respectively, in final positions.
- In many words, final consonants are dropped, as in comé (comer, "to eat"), comerciá (comercial, "commercial"), paré (pared, "wall"). This often gives rise to a situation where two different words sound exactly the same, as with the infinitive cortar ("to cut") and the imperative ¡cortad! ("cut [it]!"), which are both pronounced as cortá.
- "ch" is usually pronounced as the English "sh" in some areas ([ʃ]), including large cities like Seville, as in ècusha ([ɛ'kuʃa]) instead of escucha ("s/he listens")
- "l" may be pronounced as "r" before a consonant, as in arma instead of alma ("soul"), or er coche instead of el coche ("the car"). The opposite may also happen, i.e. "r" becomes "l": cuerpo becomes cuelpo ("body") and sartén becomes saltén ("frying pan").
- Before "n" and "l", "r" may be either elided or aspirated. Thus, perla ("pearl") becomes either pe'la or pehla, carne ("meat") becomes ca'ne or cahne, etc.
- "j" is usually pronounced as the English "h" ([h]), becoming "soft", as opposed to the "hard" Castilian [χ], except in some north-eastern areas, where the Castilian "j" is retained..
- Before a "j" or "g" which precedes an "i" or "e", "r" can be pronounced in two ways: it may be elided, thus leaving only the soft aspirated sound of the "j" or "g" described above, or it may be retained, intensifying the aspirated sound of the "j" or "g" and nasalising the vowel sounds following those. Thus virgen ("virgin") becomes either vi'hen or virHên.
- In many cases, vowels can become nasalised, especially before a final "n", for example the last syllable of ellos cantan ("they sing") becomes nasalised to ellos cantã
- Words of Latin origin starting with "h" in writing (that is, that have kept the etymological 'H' in writing) are sometimes pronounced with an initial "j" ([h]) sound. However, this characteristic is limited to rural areas and the flamenco culture.
- Many words of Andalusi Arabic origin that have become archaisms or unknown in general Spanish, together with multitude of sayings: eg. haciendo morisquetas (from the word morisco, meaning pulling faces and gesticulating, historically associated with Muslim prayers).
[edit] Morphology and syntax
- Many Andalusian speakers (especially in western parts) replace the informal second person plural vosotros with the (in other parts of Spain) more formal ustedes, often mixing the the pronoun ustedes with the vosotros form of the verb. For example, the standard second person plural verb forms for ir ("to go") are vosotros vais (informal) and ustedes van (formal), but in Andalusian one often hears ustedes vais for the informal version.
- The standard form of imperative, second person plural (vosotros) is -aos, whereas in Andalusian, -se is used intead, so ¡callaos ya! ("shut up!") becomes ¡callarse ya! and ¡sentaos! ("sit down!") becomes ¡sentarse!.
- The gender of some words may be changed, e.g. la calor for el calor ("the heat"), el chinche for la chinche ("the bedbug").
[edit] Lexicon
Many words of Arabic, Mozarabic, Romani and Old Castilian origin occur in Andalusian which are not found in other dialects in Spain (but many of these may occur in South American dialects due to the greater influence of Andalusian there). For example: chispenear instead of standard lloviznar or chispear ("to drizzle"), babucha instead of zapatilla ("slipper"), chavea or antié for anteayer ("the day before yesterday").
[edit] Social status
Andalusian is the language of Flamenco music. While its use is generalized across the classes of the Andalusian society, in the rest of Spain it lacks the prestige of the Castilian variant. This prejudice was particularly reinforced during the mass migrations which occurred in the fifties and sixties from rural areas of Andalusia and Extremadura to wealthier areas, particularly Madrid and Barcelona. An Andalusian accent is often the mark of comic characters. Often, Andalusians who want to succeed in the Spanish media learn to speak in the Castilian variant. An example is Malagan actor Antonio Banderas, who keeps his accent in interviews and everyday life but switches to Castilian (considered the unmarked pronunciation) when playing roles not specifically Andalusian or when dubbing his Hollywood performances.
[edit] Influence
Some words pronounced in the Andalusian way have entered general Spanish with a specific name. Examples are juerga, "debauchery", that is the Andalusian pronunciation of huelga (originally "strike", now "leisure" or "partying"). The Flamenco lexicon incorporates many Andalusisms: cantaor, tocaor, bailaor ("Flamenco singer, player, dancer", respectively) where the non-Flamenco generic terms are cantante, músico, bailarín. The seguidilla Flamenco genre is similarly dissimilated from the siguiriya.
The Gibraltarian code-switching Llanito is based in English and Andalusian.
