Mexican spanish

[Ali]

Hi all
Just wanted to seek knowledge as I want to email my hotel this afternoon to ask for a specific room location.....

Now, I've been trying to learn spanish for many years and am not too bad, however as I'm in Europe I've been taught Castillian. What are the main differences between Castillian and Mexican spanish (apart from some pronounciation issues of course!)? I vaguely remember something about Mexican not using the tu/vosotros forms so would that mean you address people using usted and ustedes (which is formal in Castillian so not really used much which means my memory will have to regurgitate all that info to the front of my brain again!)

Any tips really welcome as I intend to use my spanish as much as poss while I'm there and I don't want to confuse/offend anyone!

Thanks

[Jacko]

We speak Castilian too...you will not have any trouble at all..the locals will just be delighted you speak Spanish!......They will quickly notice that you learned your Spanish in Castilla though! We noticed just small things like they have camarones instead of gambas for shrimp etc. Not unlike the differences between American English and the King's English. Buen viaje!

[Rissask]

Yes you will have no issues, the differences are quite minor. And they will appreciate you speaking their language even if it is Castillian!

One big difference (according to my Cliffs notes Spanish ) is that Mexican spanish doesn't have the "th" sound in certain words. So in Mexico, siento 'I feel' and ciento '100' sound the same. In Spain the first sound is an [s] in the 'feel' word but a "th" in '100'.

[Heather]

You are right, Mexican Spanish doesn't use vosotros. They do use the informal "tu" form, however. In fact, when I was first learning, I was taught only the formal "usted" and didn't learn the "tu," to avoid offending anyone. I find now I hardly ever use "usted," unless I am meeting someone older than me for the first time. Haven't met the president of Mexico yet, but when I do, I'm sure I will use "usted."

[Sol]

I don't think formal Spanish is called Castilian anymore. What I have heard that Spanish that does not include slang or social linguistic registers that are particular to a country or its regions is called neutral Spanish or formal Spanish. Steve Ryberg can speak to this. If you look at Spain itself, there are different accents and expressions due to its ethnic diversity. Mexicans in PdC will totally understand Spanish learned in Spain. The ceceo pronounce "theh-theh-oh" does not pose a problem for mexicanos. PdC is very cosmopolitan and Latin Americans plus folks from la Peninsula are frequent visitors, so you'll hear different versions of Spanish.

[ELECTRA]

QUOTE:
"I don't think formal Spanish is called Castilian anymore." END QUOTE

Castillian IS Spanish. It never implied formal or informal.
Formal and informal are simply the use of "Usted" and "Tu".
There are also some LITERARY TENSE that are not used in everyday lan

The Spanish spoken world-wide is Castillian. Certainly regional uses vary in accent, pronouncation and certain word choices (ie: the word "car". in Mexico and latin america is "Carro". In Spain it is "coche". Both are understood by speakers of spanish.

QUOTE:...you'll hear different versions of Spanish.END QUOTE

There is only one version, the differences in the language are described above.

PS: Do not confuse Gallego or Catalan spoken in parts of the Iberian peninsula with Spanish. They are different Romance languages .

[JoanieBlon]

And then there's the Spanish that's spoken in Tampa....to quote my former brother-in-law, a native of Cozumel... "they speak like machine guns!"

[tesa001]

my intended is castillian.......

castillian is spanish...

[tesa001]

drats......dial up......

anyway, when i was looking for learn spanish tapes, he said to look for latin american spanish.....but either would do.....

long story short, i never got those tapes, i wish i would have, as i know almost no spanish.....

i should get on that....

[Tortuguita]

All Spanish speaking people will understand Spanish from any other country, whether Latin America or Spain. There are of course differences, not only in grammar or use of different words, but also in dialect, people from for example Chile or Perú usually speak very fast and if you are used to Spanish from Mexico than you might have some problems at the beginning to follow everything well. Argentinian Spanish is spoken in a very ´´singing´´way and Cuban spanish tends to swallow the ´´s´´.
Spanish from Spain tends to be a bit faster than Mexican Spanish as well, but usually doesn´t cause much differences.

About use of USTED, it´s not being used only with older people and in formal situations, but out of politeness with people you don´t know who have passed the state of kid and teenager.

[Ali]

Ah....thanks for all your input! I'll just be really nice to the waiting staff and explain I'm still learning so if they help me/correct me it'll be appreciated! Plus I'm always more confident in my abilities when the tequila has kicked in!!

Thanks all!

[TonyB]

Hi Ali,

I originate from Gibraltar, and speak both English and Andalucian spanish, I think the best is to have a go, and I am sure you will get by, I now live in Holland and I also speak Dutch will not do me any good in Playa.

We are arriving 23 Jan - 6 feb and staying at La Tortuga Hotel in Playa, I think I did tell you already, lived in London for 26 years.

Maybe we could meet for a drink and a chat.

All the best

TonyB

[Sol]

Originally Posted by ELECTRA

QUOTE:
"I don't think formal Spanish is called Castilian anymore." END QUOTE

Castillian IS Spanish. It never implied formal or informal.
Formal and informal are simply the use of "Usted" and "Tu".
There are also some LITERARY TENSE that are not used in everyday lan

You are right. I was wrong...Castillian is Spanish, but Mexican Spanish is not Castilian per se. "Usted" and "Tu" are pronouns used to address someone in a formal or informal fashion. Formal Spanish or Castilian is when language is devoid of slang and expletives. Look at your quote which I think is awesome: "Vamos pa' Cadiz. You, other Spanish speakers, and I know that it means para, right? But for some elitists of Spanish, it is mispronounced. Another example is the way people speak in the region of Mexico where my parents were born. Some of them have the tendency to say "juimos pa' juera [we went outside]." For me, it is a delicious variation of language. This is what complicates Spanish. Perfectionists will say these people are ignorant and their Spanish is informal as well as inferior. I have had friends being by their professors told not to speak Spanish like Mexicans just because they used the diminutive, for example, "ahorita." Individuals who are learning Spanish have difficulty understanding what these words mean when they listen to them or read them.

What is a literary tense? Do you mean verb tenses? Like when the indicative is changed over into the present, future, conditional, or subjunctive tense?

The Spanish spoken world-wide is Castillian. Certainly regional uses vary in accent, pronouncation and certain word choices (ie: the word "car". in Mexico and latin america is "Carro". In Spain it is "coche". Both are understood by speakers of spanish.

Indeed, these words will be understood by speakers of Spanish. But there are words native to Latin American countries that are of indigenous origin or are contributions from people of other countries. You know, the influence of arabic on castilian . Would you consider the word "ojala" castilian? What happens to Castilian when words like tomate, aguacate, petate, are added or mixed in with language? It becomes Mexican Spanish. Sure, Castilian is the important base, and the syntax remained the same but once Spanish became gobalized, it became much more complex in order to match the identity of its respective country


There is only one version, the differences in the language are described above.

PS: Do not confuse Gallego or Catalan spoken in parts of the Iberian peninsula with Spanish. They are different Romance languages .

I am well aware that these languages are different from Spanish as is Basque. I was referring to the influence of people coming into Spain from other countries

[Sol]

Originally Posted by Ali

Ah....thanks for all your input! I'll just be really nice to the waiting staff and explain I'm still learning so if they help me/correct me it'll be appreciated! Plus I'm always more confident in my abilities when the tequila has kicked in!!

Thanks all!

Ali,

Have a great time! You are in the best place to put your Spanish to good use!

Alicia

[ryberg]

On the original question, the great thing about the lack of the use of vosotros here in Mexico is that you get to forget the second person (you) plural verb conjugations wholesale! Everything with ustedes matches with third person plural (they) forms, which you already know. And as a bonus, you also get to forget all about the relevant personal pronouns (os, vuestro/a), too, similarly just using the third person forms you already know and use (su). So it's really just remembering to just say ustedes and then everything falling out easily from that, not having to pull up a form you don't usually use. It would be harder to go from Mexican Spanish into the form spoken by Spaniards, because then you would in fact have to pull up verb forms and pronouns that you don't use very much. (I can't even do it anymore when talking to friends from Spain, even though I did learn those forms originally.)

On the name of the language point, you will in fact get some differing views. At different times, friends of mine from Spain have made statements that themselves are contradictory in this regard. For example, one asserted that what was spoken in Spain was no longer really Castilian, but rather Spanish, emphasing the name of the country in the name of the language, exactly as some people will tell you (in all seriousness, too) that what is spoken in American isn't English but American. It was this person's opinion that due to the name/country connection and a supposedly more conservative nature in the language as it was spoken in Mexico, it actually made more sense to say that what Mexicans speak is Castilian. (In this he evidently didn't see the irony of the regional name connection being applied to somewhere outside Spain.) On the other hand, one other friend insisted that only Spaniards spoke Castilian -- not Spanish -- and that Spanish (Español) was in fact properly applied to the language as spoken everywhere else but Spain, emphasizing that its origin was Spain but at the same time that it wasn't true to the original aspects of Castilian.

Of course, all this is socio-linguistic and political meandering, and linguists all know that whatever you call them and despite the really very small differences between them, it's just one language, just as English (which shows more dialectic variation throughout the world) is just one language. You get this kind of inconsistency all over the place. We say Chinese as if it's one language when in fact the country has regions with mutually unintelligible forms that are less like dialects of the same language than Spanish and Italian, which we always consider to be two different languages even though careful speakers of each (even I, not as a native!) can communicate with each other without changing them. (I have seen my wife do this on multiple occasions with Portuguese speakers, staying in Spanish, and both sides understanding just fine.) In fact there's a good line about this by an Austrian, I think, whose name I cannot remember, to the effect that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy.

Steve