Andalusian Spanish

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The Andalusian dialect of Spanish (also called andaluz) is spoken in Andalusia, Gibraltar, Melilla, Ceuta and parts of southern Extremadura. It is perhaps the most distinct of the southern dialects of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern dialects as well as from Standard Spanish. Due to the large population of Andalusia, the Andalusian dialect is the second most spoken dialect in Spain, after the transitional variants between Castilian and Andalusian (for example the one from Madrid). Due to massive emigration from Andalusia to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and elsewhere, many American Spanish dialects share some fundamental characteristics with Andalusian Spanish, such as the use of ustedes instead of vosotros for the second person plural, and the widespread use of seseo. Canarian Spanish, Caribbean Spanish, Chilean Spanish and Rioplatense are based on Andalusian.

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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 Spanish, 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[who?] argue that Andalusian should not be seen as a dialect of Spanish, rather as a creole language that developed out of a hybridisation between medieval Castilian and the Mozarabic language. However, most linguists[citation needed] do consider Andalusian to be a dialect of Spanish, albeit heavily influenced by Mozarabic.

[edit] Features

Areas of Andalusia in which seseo (green), ceceo (red), or the distinction of c/z and s (white) predominate
Areas of Andalusia in which seseo (green), ceceo (red), or the distinction of c/z and s (white) predominate

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 Cádiz, southern Huelva, most of Málaga 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 Málaga, Huelva and Granada (where, on the other hand one can also find distinction, depending on the neighbourhood) are enough proof to refute this. Seseo predominates in Córdoba, northern Seville and Malaga and western Huelva. Interestingly, the cities of Seville and Cádiz are seseante, but which are entirely surrounded by Ceceo using areas; Cádiz 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 Almería, eastern Granada, Jaén, and the northern parts of Cordoba and Huelva. See map above for a detailed description of these zones. Outside Andalusia, Seseo has also existed in parts of Extremadura and Murcia up to at least 1940.
  • 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"). For the -ado suffix, this feature is common to all peninsular variants of Spanish, while in other positions it's widespread throughout most of the southern half of Spain.
  • 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). This feature can be heard in many parts of Spain, too.
  • Final /s/ is usually aspirated (pronounced [h]) or just omitted. This makes the previous vowel to open. In all southern Spanish varieties, one distinguishes la casa [la'kasa], ("the house") and las casas [lɑh'kasɑh], ("the houses") by a final [h] and open vowels, where northern Spanish would have [s] and closed vowels. Eastern varieties of Andalusian (along with Murcian Spanish) have developed a new vowel system with 8 or 10 vowels (up to 15 vowels if counting the nasal vowels). 5 tense vowels (roughly the same as in northern Spanish); [a], [e], [i], [o], [u]. And 5 open vowels (in place of a vowel followed by an "s"); [ɑ], [ɛ], [ɪ], [ɔ], [ʊ] instead of northern Spanish [as], [es], [is], [os], [us] respectively. For example: el niño ("the boy"), [en'niɲo]; los niños ("the boys") in spoken Andalusian is [lɔ'niɲɔ], with lax/open vowels instead of plural with "s". S-aspiration is general in all of the southern half of Spain, and now becoming common in the northern half too.
  • In many words final consonants are dropped, this does not really cause the previous vowel to open; i.e. comer [co'me], ("to eat"); comercial [comeɾ'cja], ("commercial"); mujer [mũ'he], ("woman"); pared [pa're], ("wall"). This often gives rise to a situation where two different words sound exactly the same, as with the infinitive cortar ("to cut"), the imperative ¡cortad! ("cut [it]!") and the feminine past participle cortada, "[a] cut [thing]"; which are all pronounced as [cor'ta]. The geographical extent of this consonant drops is variable, and in some cases, like final "d", common to most of Spain.
  • "ch" is usually pronounced as the English "sh" in some areas ([ʃ]), including large cities like Seville. I.e. escucha, "(s)he listens" is pronounced [ɛ'kuʃa].
  • "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 ['pela] or ['pehla], carne ("meat") becomes ['cane] or ['cahne], etc.
  • "j" is usually pronounced as the English "h" [h]), becoming "soft", as opposed to the "hard" northern [χ] or [x], except in some north-eastern areas (Jaén province), where the velar/uvular "j" is retained. This also happens in most of Extremadura and parts of Cantabria.
  • 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 ['bihẽ] or ['birhẽ].
  • In many cases, vowels can become nasalised, especially before a final "n", or less common a final "m". This makes greater the amount of vowel sounds in Andalusian; 10 oral vowels plus 5 nasal vowels [ã], [ẽ], [ĩ], [õ], [ũ]. For example the last syllable of ellos cantan ("they sing") becomes nasalised to (['eʝɔ 'cantã]. Other cases are vírgen ("virgin") pronounced either ['bihẽ] or ['birhẽ], and mujer ("woman") where the "m" nasalises the following "u", [mũ'he].
  • 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 [h]) sound. In Extremadura too. However, this characteristic is limited to rural areas and the flamenco culture.

[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 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 with a reflexive pronoun (vosotros) is -aos, or -aros in informal speech, whereas in Andalusian, and other dialects too, -se is used intead, so ¡callaos ya! / ¡callaros ya! ("shut up!") becomes ¡callarse ya! and ¡sentaos! / ¡sentaros! ("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 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").

Many words of Andalusi Arabic origin that have become archaisms or unknown in general Spanish can be found, together with multitude of sayings: eg. haciendo morisquetas (from the word morisco, meaning pulling faces and gesticulating, historically associated with Muslim prayers). There are some doublets of Arabic-Latinate synonyms with the Arabic form being more common in Andalusian like Andalusian alcoba for Standard habitación or dormitorio ("bedroom").

[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. A counter-example is Malaganian 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 meaning. Examples are juerga[1] ("debauchery", or "partying") that is the Andalusian pronunciation of huelga[2] (originally "period without work", now "work strike"). The Flamenco lexicon incorporates many Andalusisms: cantaor, tocaor, bailaor which is another example of the dropped "d", example "cantador" becomes "cantaor". (where the some non-Flamenco generic terms are cantante, músico, bailarín.)

Llanito, the vernacular of the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, mainly originates from British English and Andalusian among others.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Juerga in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.
  2. ^ Huelga in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources for further studies

  • Ropero Núñez, Miguel (1992): "Un aspecto de lexicología histórica marginado: los préstamos del caló" (en Cervantes Virtual)
  • Alvar, Manuel: A vueltas con el seseo y el ceceo (Alicante)
  • Guitarte, Guillermo L. (1992): "Cecear y palabras afines" (en Cervantes Virtual)