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Mexican Spanish (español mexicano in Spanish) is the Spanish language as it is spoken in Mexico. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America.

As a result of Mexico City's central role in the colonial administration of New Spain, the population of the city included relatively large numbers of speakers from Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Mexico City (Tenochtitlán) had also been the capital of the Aztec Empire, and many speakers of the Aztec language Nahuatl continued to live there and in the surrounding region, outnumbering the Spanish-speakers for several generations. There are some towns in Mexico which are spelled "Tenochtitlán" like San Lorenzo Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political Nahuatl ( is a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan or Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family Consequently, Mexico City tended historically to exercise a standardizing effect over the entire country, more or less, evolving into a distinctive dialect of Spanish which incorporated a significant number of hispanicized Nahuatl words.

Contents

Variation

The differences between Spanish from Spain and Mexican Spanish are no greater than those one might find when comparing American and British English. The territory of contemporary Mexico is not coextensive with what might be termed Mexican Spanish. First, the Spanish of the Yucatán Peninsula is distinct from all other forms, both in intonation and incorporation of Mayan words. The Yucatán Peninsula, in Southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico. The Spanish spoken in the areas that border Guatemala resembles the variation of Central American Spanish spoken in that country, where the voseo is used. Guatemala (República de Guatemala) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west the Pacific Ocean to the southwest Central American Spanish ( Spanish: español centroamericano) is the general name of the Spanish language Dialects spoken in the Central America In Spanish, voseo is the use of the second person singular Pronoun vos instead of tú. Secondly, the waves of 19th and 20th century migration from Mexico to the United States have caused Mexican Spanish to become the most widely spoken variety of Spanish in the United States, except in the East Coast (e. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The East Coast of the United States, also known as the "Eastern Seaboard" or "Atlantic Seaboard" refers to the easternmost coastal states in the central and northern g. Miami). The Spanish spoken in the Gulf Coastal areas of Veracruz and Tabasco is also distinctive – at least at the level of vernacular speech – as the Spanish spoken there exhibits more Caribbean phonetic traits than that spoken in the remainder of Mexico. Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave is one of the 31 states that constitute the republic of Mexico. Tabasco is a state in Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Veracruz to the west Chiapas to the south and Campeche to the Caribbean Spanish ( español caribeño) is the general name of the Spanish language dialects spoken in the Caribbean region

Regarding the evolution of the Spanish spoken in Mexico, the Swedish hispanist Bertil Malmberg points out that in Mexican Spanish, unlike most variations of the other Spanish-speaking countries, it is the vowels which lose strength, while consonants are fully pronounced. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Bertil Frans Harald Malmberg ( August 13, 1889 -- February 11, 1958) was a Swedish author poet and actor Malmberg explains this by the influence of the consonant-complex Nahuatl language through bilingual speakers and placenames. Nahuatl ( is a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan or Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family However, there are currently more than 50 native Mexican languages spoken throughout the country and they all contribute to the diversity of accents found all over Mexico[1]. For instance, the tonal or "sing song" quality of some forms of Mexican Spanish derive from some of the indigeneous languages such as Zapotec which, like Chinese, include tonality in their standard form.

Phonetics and phonology

A striking feature of Mexican Spanish, in the interior of the country at least, is the high rate of unstressed vowel reduction and elision, as in [tɾasts] 'trastes' (cooking utensils/dishes). Vowel reduction is the term in Phonetics that refers to various changes in the acoustic quality of Vowels which are related to changes in stress Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a Vowel, a Consonant, or a whole Syllable) in a word or phrase producing a result that is easier This process is most frequent when a vowel is in contact with [s], and [e] is the vowel that is most frequently affected.

In the same regions – most of the interior of Mexico – syllable-final /s/ is rarely weakened; this fact, combined with frequent unstressed vowel reduction, gives the sibilant [s] a special prominence. (Note that this situation contrasts with the situation in the coastal areas, on both the Pacific and the Gulf Coastal sides, where syllable-final /s/ weakening is a sociolinguistic marker, reflecting the tension between the Mexico City norm and the historical tendency towards consonantal weakening that is so characteristic of coastal areas in Spanish America. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions The Gulf Coast region of the United States comprises the coasts of states which border the Gulf of Mexico. ) One example of s-dropping at the end of a syllable is found in the speech of the nacos of Sinaloa. Sinaloa is one of the 31 states of Mexico. Geography Sinaloa is bordered to the north by Sonora and Chihuahua; to the south

Mexican Spanish speakers are likely to have shifted the stress of some verbs that end in -iar, a trait common to other languages of Spain such as Catalan. The Languages of Spain are the languages spoken or once spoken in Spain. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official

In many verbs ending with -ear, the infinitive often is pronounced as -iar, examples including desear (to desire), often pronounced desiar.

People in the southern half of Sinaloa, (ie from the capital of Culiacán south) speak a dialect so different from the rest of the country that even other Mexicans have trouble understanding them. Sinaloa is one of the 31 states of Mexico. Geography Sinaloa is bordered to the north by Sonora and Chihuahua; to the south Culiacán is a city in northwestern Mexico, the largest city in the state of Sinaloa as well as its capital and capital of the municipality of Culiacán

Taps and trills

[ɾ] and [r] are routinely assibilated throughout central and southern Mexico, as while in the northern states the tap and trill predominate. In Linguistics, assibilation is the term for a Sound change resulting in a Sibilant consonant

Nasals

Some Spanish speakers, like those from Spain, pronounce final /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ as [n] despite spelling that has the many modern Spanish words that end in 'm' (UNAM, . Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. com). Many other dialects also pronounce all three final nasals exactly the same, whether that be as [ŋ], or as [n]. In Mexico, final /n/ and /ŋ/ are realized as different sounds. Final /n/ is always pronounced as [n], and final /ŋ/' as in smoking (tuxedo) is also pronounced as [ŋ].

Fricatives

On top of the usual fricatives for other American Spanish dialects ([f], [s], [x]), Mexican Spanish also has [ʃ], represented in a variety of ways. In words coming from Nahuatl, mostly place names, the usual spelling will be "x". Nahuatl ( is a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan or Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family The prime example would be "Xola" [ʃola]. However, since "x" also represents at least 2 other pronunciations [x] as in "México" [me xi ko], [s], [ks]) many instances where "x" should be [ʃ] have switched pronunciation (e. g. , "Jalapa" [xa la pa], alternately spelled "Xalapa"; "Xochimilco" [ʃo tʃi mil ko] --> [so tʃi mil ko]). Xalapa or Jalapa is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Xochimilco is one of the sixteen ''delegaciones'' or boroughs within Mexican Federal District. (As in many modern European languages, "x" can also be pronounced as [ks]. )

In Northern Mexican Spanish, [tʃ] tends to be replaced consistently by [ʃ].

In terms of the [x] variable, the articulation in inland Mexico is usually [x], as in [kaxa] 'caja' (box). On the coasts the normal articulation is [h], as in most Caribbean and Pacific coast dialects throughout Latin America.

In Spanish, before the conquest of Mexico, the letter "j" was commonly used to denote the sound "sh", particularly with respect to Arabic names and words; for example, Jerez de la Frontera. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Today, the "j" would be pronounced as an "h" in English, but hundreds of years ago, it was pronounced as the English "sh"; hence, the origin of the word "sherry" for the famous product of Jerez de la Frontera. "Mexico" was initially spelled to reflect its Nahuatl pronunciation, i. Nahuatl ( is a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan or Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family e. "mesheeco", hence one can find Mexico spelled "Mejico" in old documents. As the Spanish "j" was standardized to an "h" pronunciation instead of "sh", the original Nahuatl pronunciation was obscured. The use of an "x" was then more commonly employed, but was still commonly pronounced as an English "h". In all Nahuatl-derived words and place-names, the "x" is properly pronounced as an English "sh", but in Mexican Spanish, continues to be more commonly pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative ([x]). The voiceless velar fricative, informally known as the hard ch, is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the

Morphology

Mexican Spanish is a tuteante form of the Spanish language, voseo being confined to some parts of the state of Chiapas, where the local Spanish rather belongs to the Central American region. Chiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico, located towards the southeast of the country In Chiapas, the verb forms corresponding to vos are the same as in Guatemala. Guatemala (República de Guatemala) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west the Pacific Ocean to the southwest In other words, in the voseo, only used in some parts of the state of Chiapas, the present indicative and subjunctive have oxytone forms with monophthongal endings (cantás/-és, comés/-ás, subís/-ás), the imperative has no final /d/, there is sociolinguistic variation in the future between forms in -ás and forms in -és/-ís (the latter being the less prestigious of the alternants), and the remaining vos forms are identical to those that go with tú in standard Spanish.

Vosotros (Second Person Plural, in English "you all"). Vosotros is heard in some regional Central American varieties of Spanish and in Spain. However, it is almost unknown in Mexico, although it is still taught in school. Mexicans from all over the country use ustedes instead since vosotros sounds archaic and pedantic even to very educated Mexican ears.

Syntax

Several syntactic patterns that sound very 'non-standard' to the Peninsular ear are routine in Mexican Spanish. First and foremost is the more or less conventionalized ellipsis of the negative particle "no" in clauses containing the preposition "hasta" (until):

In each case, the sentence has the sense indicated by the English translation only if the main verb is implicitly understood as being negated. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

A departure from Peninsular usage involves using interrogative "qué" in conjunction with the quantifier "tan(to)":

Note that phenomena relating to bilingualism are likely to be encountered among bilinguals whose primary language is not Spanish or in isolated rural regions where the syntactic influence of indigenous languages has been important historically. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. An indigenous language or autochthonous language is a Language that is native to a region and spoken by Indigenous peoples but has been reduced One of the most discussed of these phenomena is the redundant use of verbal clitics, particularly "lo", a tendency that is encountered in language contact areas throughout Latin America. In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word.

Lexicon

Mexican Spanish retains a number of words that are considered archaisms in Spain.

Examples of these terms would be, in requesting repetition of something not understood, the most common response in Central Mexico would be:

Another example is "alcancía" instead of "hucha. " Other commonly heard Mexicanisms include the following:

In Mexico, the common word for a cold is gripa instead of gripe. El radio refers to a radio receiver while la radio refers to the means of communication; e. This article is about a radio receiver for other uses see Radio (disambiguation. g. , Ayer pasaron la noticia por la radio vs enchufó el radio (he plugged the radio in). This difference can be attributed to a shortening of the word: el radio (the radio receiver) remains with the masculine article while la radio refers to la radio-difusora (radio station), hence the feminine article. A swimming pool is an alberca instead of piscina (used in Spain) or pileta (used in South America). Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.

Also, there are a number of words widely used in Mexico which have Nahuatl origins, in particular names for flora and fauna. An example would be guajolote, for "turkey" (although pavo less used, as in other Spanish-speaking countries) which comes from the Nahuatl huaxōlōtl. Other examples would be papalote for "kite", from the Nahuatl pāpālōtl for "butterfly"; and jitomate for "tomato" from the Nahuatl xītomatl.

Dialects

Due to the size of the country, it is natural that a variety of Mexican dialects has emerged. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of Some of them are clearly distinct from the other varieties (the speech of Mexico City, Yucatán, Nuevo León, Chihuahua, Jalisco, Veracruz, Sonora and Chiapas, for example, are easy to tell apart from each other). Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México DF, México or simply Méjico) is the Capital city of Mexico Yucatán is one of the 31 states of Mexico, located on the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. Nuevo León ( Spanish for "New León " after the former kingdom in Spain) is a state located in northeastern Mexico. Jalisco is a state in Mexico. The capital of Jalisco is the city of Guadalajara. Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave is one of the 31 states that constitute the republic of Mexico. Sonora is one of the 31 federal states of Mexico and is located in the northwest of the country Chiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico, located towards the southeast of the country Differences in usage and vocabulary among the regions are common and, although standard Mexican Spanish is understood by all, sometimes the differences can lead to misunderstandings. Dialects also vary depending on the education, social level and ethnic background of the speaker.

Diminutives

In Mexico, the -ito style diminutive suffix is the only one that is generally used to form one's own words (cafecito, cervecita, chavito), and attach to names (Marquitos, Juanito). The suffix is also repeated quite often in Mexico in the word chiquitita.

Miscellaneous

External links

References

  1. ^ "Descubren en México cinco nuevas lenguas indígenas" (Newspaper), El Universal, May 11, 2008. El Universal is a major Mexican Newspaper. El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in Events 330 - Byzantium is renamed ''Nova Roma'' during a dedication ceremony but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Retrieved on 2008-05-20. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 325 - The First Council of Nicaea &ndash the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church is held (Spanish) 

See also

The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Mexico has an enormous linguistic diversity apart from Spanish, the government recognizes 62 indigenous Amerindian languages as national languages
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