So, what do you think of the differences between the Standard version we heard in Newbie Lesson 1, the Peruvian version we heard in Regional Lesson 1, and now the Iberian version that we hear in this lesson?

Max,

I think I know what you’re talking about. I’m not sure if it’s really a lisp, but the “S” sound is sometimes pronounced like a “TH”; but even that doesn’t really serve as an accurate comparison. Maybe a native Iberian Spanish speaker could help us out here. To me, it sounds like more of a whistle than a lisp…

Hasta pronto,

Joseph

David,

Great explanation! ¡Estás hathiendo un buenísimo trabajo! Lo thierto es que prestaré más atenthión a la pronunthiathión ibérica!

¿Qué tal, eh?

Saludos,

Joseph

Daviz,

Pero hombre, ¡qué tal pronunthiathión! Me provoca visitar la madre patria de nuevo para poder disfrutar de las grathias españolas.

Nunca he estado en Madrid, pero estuve cerca de Barcelona en balneario llamado Vinarós. Ahí pude disfrutar de uno de los veranos más hermosos en Europa y pues como no iba a faltar una deliciosa paella al lado del mar (parece una postal, ¿no? jeje). Pero es que los españoles sí saben vivir bien.

Me da mucho gusto siempre leer tus comentarios y escuchar tu blog de audio. ¡Espero con ansias que nos cuentes la famosa receta familiar de la paella!

Saludos desde Nueva York,

Beatriz

I am Catalan and I don’t say “Madrith”, but “Madrit”

Take care

Hi, I’m Megan the guiri (that’s Iberian Spanish for gringo) in the dialog.

Not only do Madrileños pronounce the final “d” in Madrid as the “th” in thing, but they also do this in the middle of words like: vodka–>vothka, adquerir–>athquerir. It’s something that I didn’t even really notice until I had lived here for a long time. Also there are tricky words with both sounds together like piscina–>pisthina and ascender–>asthender.

This Iberian “th” sound is less forceful than it’s equivalent in English, your tongue goes between your teeth and you blow. When I pronounce the word “thing” in English, I tend to make a stronger sound by tapping my tongue on my top tooth as I blow.

A note about the seseo and ceceo that David was referring to above… Spanish in the south of Spain was further removed from the northern Castilian standard and started to evolve more quickly phonetically speaking. The difference between the /s/ and /th/ sound started to become less relevant (the same happened with the difference between /b/ and /v/ all over Spain). Parts of Andalusia opted for the /s/ sound other parts the /th/ sound (linguists call this neutralization of an opposition).

The reason that the seseo traveled to the Americsa is because many of the boats departed from parts of Spain that were already seseando (pronouncing s, ce, ci, za, zu, zo as /s/).

I had always thought that the ceceo was a much rarer phenomenon, but when we traveled around the region of Cádiz last spring we heard it all over. It is alive and well.

saludos desde Madrid (Madriz),

Megan

Interesting comments all around. I have heard a lot of different explanations concerning the “lisp” or “whistle” in Iberian Spanish. I know that this is more pronounced in the South of Spain, but what do we know about the linguistic imprint of the Moors on Iberian Spanish?

Hi Carlos:

Well, I would say there are some noticeable features:

- First of all, a huge number of words in Castilian Spanish derive from arabic (over four thousands). Many of them are used in fields in which arabs where more advanced than christians by the time of the Peninsula occupation (medicine, philosophy, astronomy, laws…). As a a quick tip, I would say that all words which start with al- come from arabic (al- is the arabic article). Examples: álgebra (algebra), algoritmo (algorithm), alcalde (mayor), azimut (azimuth).

- In second place I would say that our strong /j/ sound is an imprint of the arabic language spoken in Spain for so many years (centuries), as well as the aspiration of ‘h’ if southern Spain (which arabs held longer than the rest of the Peninsula, and, therefore, was more influenced by them).

Finally, and just as a curiosity, “ojalá” which is a very used word in Spain, and means “let’s hope so!” or “I hope that…”, comes from arabic in which literally means “if Alá wants”, “if God wants”.

Saludos,
David.