The accent of Argentina and Uruguay, shaped by a century of Italian immigration. The y and ll are a sh — 'yo' is 'sho' — s weakens to a breath before a consonant, and the melody is unmistakably Italian: long, swinging, with the stress stretched. The grammar is different too: vos instead of tú, with its own verb forms.
Where: Buenos Aires, Montevideo and the River Plate
Anything the spelling engine can transcribe, the accent can move. Slow it down to hear the shape.
Italian melody on Spanish words: pitch rises through a stressed syllable and the syllable is stretched. 'Che' as the all-purpose address.
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.
[ʎʝ] → ʃHow: The sh of 'ship', firm and long.
Sheísmo, the single most recognisable feature of Argentine Spanish. Older speakers have the voiced ʒ; the young have moved it all the way to ʃ.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | |||
| calle | |||
| lluvia | |||
| mayo |
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 |
Other accents of Spanish: Castilian · Mexican · Andalusian / Caribbean · all accents