The accent Latin America's coasts inherited from the ships that left Seville and Cádiz. Seseo, s aspirated to a breath, d dropped between vowels and at the end, final r and l blurred or lost. It is the fastest-sounding Spanish because so many consonants are gone.
Where: southern Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean coast
Anything the spelling engine can transcribe, the accent can move. Slow it down to hear the shape.
Quick and clipped, with the weight on the vowels because so many consonants are missing. Rising tails on statements in the Caribbean.
In the order the mouth applies them. Every before-and-after is playable — click the IPA. The pattern is the rule as the engine runs it, for the curious.
θ → sHow: A plain s. Tongue tip behind the teeth, not between them.
Seseo. The whole of Latin America, and Andalusia, never had the lisped c. It is a Castilian innovation of the 1500s that the colonies left before it arrived.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| cinco | |||
| zapato | |||
| casa | unchanged — 'casa' and 'caza' are now one word |
ʎ → ʝHow: Say y as in 'yes'. The tongue does not touch the roof of the mouth along the sides.
Yeísmo. The palatal l of the spelling survives only in parts of the north and the Andes; everywhere else it has become the y of 'yo'.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| calle | now identical to 'caye' | ||
| lluvia |
s(?=[pbtdkɡqʔmnɲŋɴfvθðszʃʒɕʂʐçxχɣʁħʕhβʝlʎɹrɾjwɥʈɖɳɽʋɦ]|$| ) → hWhen: when no vowel follows the s
How: Breathe out through the s position without touching. A soft English h.
The s is still there in the speaker's head; the tongue just does not reach it. Listeners from Madrid hear 'los' as 'lo' with a breath.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| esto | |||
| los | |||
| casa | unchanged — the s is before a vowel |
([iɪyʏeɛøœəɐæaɑɒɔoʊuʌɤɵɚɨɯ][ː̃]?)ð([iɪyʏeɛøœəɐæaɑɒɔoʊuʌɤɵɚɨɯ][ː̃]?) → $1$2How: Simply leave it out. The two vowels run together.
The soft ð of the reference weakens until it is not there. '-ado' endings become '-ao' — 'cansao', 'pescao'.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| cansado | |||
| nada | |||
| todo |
ð$ → ∅When: at the end of a word
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| verdad | |||
| Madrid |
ɾ$ → ∅An infinitive ends on its vowel. The Caribbean often turns it into l instead — 'comel' — and the two habits overlap.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| comer | |||
| hablar |
Other accents of Spanish: Castilian · Rioplatense · Mexican · all accents