From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Andalusian dialect of Spanish (also
called andaluz/andalú) is spoken
in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla, Gibraltar 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
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
Spanish are based on Andalusian.
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 to Andalusian as
"modalidad lingüística andaluza" or "Andalusian language
variety" instead of calling it a dialect.
Areas of Andalusia in which seseo
(red), or the distinction of c
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.
- 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 /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 is
widespread throughout most of the southern half of Spain.
This is the continuation of the tendency of lenition in Vulgar Latin which developed into
the Romance languages. Compare Italian
vita, (Brazilian) Portuguese
vida with a "hard" D,
Castilian vida with a "soft"
D (like English th in
this), and French vie, where the
-d- is elided as in Andalusian.
- Similarly, intervocalic /ɾ/ 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/ and /x/ are usually aspirated (pronounced [h]) or just omitted. This makes the previous
] In all southern Spanish varieties, one
distinguishes la casa [la ˈkasa], ('the house') and las casas
[læ̞h ˈkæ̞sæ̞h], ('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) thus have 5 tense
vowels (roughly the same as in northern Spanish); [a], [e̞], [i], [o̞], [u]. And 5 open vowels; [æ̞], [ɛ], [i̞], [ɔ], [u̞]. In addition to this, a process of vowel harmony takes
place where tense vowels that precede a lax vowel may become lax
] For example: el niño ('the boy'), [e̞l ˈniɲo̞]; los niños ('the boys') in
spoken Andalusian is [lɔ ˈni̞ɲɔ], 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
- In many words final consonants are dropped. This does not
really cause the previous vowel to open; e.g., comer [ko̞ˈme̞], ('to eat'); comercial [ko̞me̞ɾˈsja], ('commercial'); mujer [muˈhe̞], ('woman'); pared [paˈɾe̞], ('wall'). This often gives rise to a
situation where two different words sound exactly the same, as with
cortar ('to cut'), the imperative ¡cortad! ('cut
[it]!') and the feminine past participle cortada, ('[a]
cut thing'); which are all pronounced [ko̞ɾˈta]. The geographical extent of this
consonant drops is variable, and in some cases, like final "d",
common to most of Spain.
- /tʃ/ is deaffricated to [ʃ] including large cities like Seville. I.e. escucha,
('(s)he listens') is pronounced [ɛˈkuʃa].
- /l/ may be pronounced as /r/ before a consonant, as in [ˈarma] instead of [ˈalma] for alma ('soul'). The opposite
may also happen, i.e. /r/ becomes /l/.
- Before /n/ and /l/, /r/ may be either elided or aspirated. Thus,
perla ('pearl') becomes either [ˈpe̞la] or [ˈpe̞hla], carne ('meat') becomes [ˈkane̞] or [ˈkahne̞], etc.
- /x/ is usually pronounced [h] except in some north-eastern areas (Jaén
province), where the dorsal [x] is retained. This also happens in most of Extremadura and parts
- Before a [h], /r/ can be pronounced in two ways: it may be
elided, thus leaving only the [h] or it may be retained, intensifying the
aspirated sound of the [h]. Thus virgen ('virgin') becomes
either [ˈbihẽ̞] or [ˈbirhẽ̞].
- 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. This also occurs in the speech of Extremadura. However,
this characteristic is limited to rural areas and the flamenco culture.
- 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 instead, so ¡callaos ya! /
¡callaros ya! ("shut up!") becomes ¡callarse ya! and
¡sentaos! / ¡sentaros! ("sit down!") becomes
- The gender of some words may be changed,
e.g. la calor for el calor ("the heat"), el
chinche for la chinche ("the bedbug").
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
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
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.
Some words pronounced in the Andalusian way have entered general
Spanish with a specific meaning. Examples are juerga
("debauchery", or "partying") that is the Andalusian pronunciation
(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 same non-Flamenco-specific terms are
cantante, músico, bailarín).
Llanito, the vernacular of the British
overseas territory of Gibraltar, mainly originates from British English
and Andalusian among others.
Maria-Rosa (2007), "On the Nature of Vowel Harmony: Spreading with
a Purpose", in Bisetto, Antonietta; Barbieri, Francesco,
Proceedings of the XXXIII Incontro di Grammatica
Generativa, pp. 15–35
- Ropero Núñez, Miguel (1992): "Un aspecto de lexicología
histórica marginado: los préstamos del caló" (en Cervantes
- Alvar, Manuel: A vueltas con el seseo y el ceceo
- Guitarte, Guillermo L. (1992): "Cecear y palabras afines" (en