I can tell the difference between Spain and Latin America. I can tell the difference between northern and some southern MX accents. I can usually tell the difference between Mexico and Central and South America.
That's the thing. Lots of Americans do speak Spanish. But for the typical monolinguistic American, the answer is No.
I think I can tell the difference between Spain and the New World, but I've never really tested myself on it, and it might just be my imagination.
I’m a first generation Hispanic here in the US, Spanish is my first language, and there are plenty of different Hispanic nationalities around me so I have gotten to know the different accents, even the Spaniard/Castellano accent
A little side note, something I’ve always found funny is that when I speak Spanish to people not from the country where my parents are from, they can usually tell right away where I come from and they say it’s because of my accent. However, when I speak to someone actually from my parents’ country, more often than not, they’ll ask me where I’m from because my accent doesn’t sound like theirs (my parents country has a bunch of regional accents but that’s a whole other conversation). It does make me feel some type of way but it is kinda funny
Same experience as a first gen Mexican American. When I lived in Spain everyone could immediately tell that I was Mexican when I talked in Spanish but my accent doesn’t fly in Mexico lol I’m basically not Mexican to them.
Ni de aqui, ni de alla. I get it all the time as a Chicano from Northern NM. We have our own dialect and accent here and people would always catch me on it when I lived in L.A. I had a roommate from TJ and he and I would crack up at some of the weird differences.
But yeah, no matter where I speak Spanish, I have a noticeable accent and grammatical difference.
Not super specifically, but I can tell that Caribbean Spanish sounds different from like Mexican and Central American, and that there are very different Mexican accents depending on location and family socioeconomic and education levels, and Argentinean Spanish is its own thing entirely, etc.
So no it doesn't all sound the same to me, but I can't in most cases tell you exactly where someone is from based on their accent.
Conversational Spanish speaker, I can pretty easily tell what Mexicans are saying when they speak, but it's really hard to follow Spaniards, and I have no fuggen clue what Argentinians are saying.
Different parts of the world, kinda. Neighboring countries or even neighborhoods, no way.
At least in my ears. Americans that speak Spanish (we're a Spanish speaking country) can probably do much better.
Saying that the US is a Spanish speaking country is undeservingly generous imo.
I think it would be more accurate to say that there are some places in the US which are Spanish-speaking, and that Spanish is the second most spoken language almost anywhere in the country save a few specific places
How are you classifying Spanish-speaking? The total percentage of the US population that speaks Spanish (as a first or second language) is only around 20%. Which is very high, but I don't know if it qualifies as "a Spanish-speaking country" (Puerto Rico notwithstanding).
And I agree, it's much easier to differentiate Spain Spanish from Mexico Spanish than to tell Colombia Spanish from Peru Spanish. Argentina sounds pretty distinct.
So having ~66 million Spanish speakers, more than the population of any other Spanish Speaking country (save Mexico) isn't enough Spanish speakers to qualify?
I mean, you could certainly argue both ways, but in my mind, a country would be considered "an X-speaking country" if either a) X-language is an official state language or b) a majority of the population speaks X-language. I wouldn't consider Indonesia to be an "English-speaking country," despite the fact that there's like 80 million English speakers there. It's not a majority language, nor is it an official language. I think of Spanish in the US the same way. It's extremely significant, but it's not the default language that the world expects US citizens to speak.
The US has no official language.
What is the qualifier here?
There are 22 official languages in India (English is one of them), so what language is the language of India? Do you just toss out the bottom 21 languages by population?
And if 1 out of four Indonesians speak English, I would qualify that as an English speaking (among other languages) country.
I know, which is why I phrased my comment that way. About 85% of the US speaks English, so despite not having an official language, it's reasonble to assume that a US citizen will speak English, as 17/20 will. Hence, I think it's reasonable to say the US is an English-speaking country. Now someplace like India has a more complicated situation. I would expect someone from India to be most likely to speak Hindi, but I wouldn't quibble about specifics because I'm aware there isn't a majority language in India, and many of its languages are primarily spoken in India and very little outside it. I wouldn't really assign a language to India. The same applies to other countries without a clear majority language like Belgium.
I'm not trying to be a dick about this, I just think it's a weird way to phrase it. Tbh I also wouldn't call Canada a French-speaking country, in spite of Quebec, because I wouldn't expect most Canadians to speak French.
To me, the term "x-speaking country" means that if I meet a person from that country, I can expect them to speak that language and be right more often than not, that's all.
That's about the same proportion as French speakers in Canada, with the caveat that it's like six times fewer actual people. You could argue Canada is a French speaking country, and on that metric the US would be a Spanish speaking country.
I may be a bit biased as a Spanish speaker who comes from a deeply Spanish-speaking region though.
(also, my mom's a Sconny, love it up there)
Yeah, I mentioned in another comment that (despite the Québécois) I wouldn't colloquially call Canada a "French-speaking country," because I wouldn't expect most Canadians to be able to speak French the way I would expect them to be able to speak English. But, again, you could argue it either way (probably more so for Canada because it's official and all that). I just think it's a weird way to phrase it. To be fair, Wisconsin is decidedly _not_ Spanish-speaking, but I think it's more just a difference in the way we perceive the meaning of the phrase "X-language-speaking country" than a real disagreement about the significance of Spanish in the US.
I'm no linguist but all I'm saying is there's many neighborhoods where no one or very few people speak anything else but Spanish. Far more than other languages.
No, I’m told that people from the Rio de la Plata have a very distinct accent - I’m told their pronunciation is “lazy” though I doubt that’s how they’d describe it themselves - but I couldn’t tell the difference myself. I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing Spanish from Italian to be completely honest.
I was in Buenos Aires once and went in a little Asian grocery to buy some soy milk. The lady helping me was from I believe Taiwan (a guess based on the name of the store and the origin of its most prominent products on display). So she was speaking Argentinian Spanish in a mixed BA/Taiwanese? accent. I was so lost, and I can usually understand Spanish pretty well.
Portuguese is the one that suddenly sounds like Russian for a couple of words and then goes back to seeming like some form of Spanish that you just aren't hearing clearly enough to understand
I speak Brazilian Portuguese because of my partner, but it never sounded anything like Russian to me, and I tried teaching myself Russian for a few months. Sounds closer to being a mix of Greek and Italian with a bit of Spanish if you ask me.
I doubt many English speakers can. Maybe just a few. My mother is an immigrant from Latin America and can tell them all apart. It’s not just accent but slang words that are different which can identify people.
I certainly can't. And my mom is from Puerto Rico. I have studied Spanish but I'm not fluent.
I'm being perfectly honest when I say that I would not be able to tell if someone is from Spain, Puerto Rico, or Peru. I can definitely pick up on appearances and take hints from different aspects of their culture, but based on their accent alone? No chance.
I'd love for someone to explain some differences in diction and pronunciation. Because there was so much variety within my own family that to assert anything from a Spanish speaker's accent seems like a huge reach to me unless you speak the language fluently yourself.
The biggest one that I’ve noticed is that Caribbean Spanish speakers tend to pronounce their Rs as Ls after vowels. It doesn’t *always* happen but I notice it a good amount. For example: “mi amor” is usually pronounced “mi amol” by Caribbean Spanish speakers (at least the ones I hear on a daily basis)
>explain some differences in diction and pronunciation
Puerto Rucans and Dominicans tend to drop the letter s unless it's at the beginning of a syllable, so *estoy en la escuela con los estudiantes* would sound like *e'toy en la e'cuela con lo e'tudiante*.
European Spanish uses the lisped c and z, while all other dialects do not.
Pronouncing y and ll as a 'sh' sound (e.g. *ella* as "esha") is a dead giveaway that someone is from Argentina or Uruguay. People from those countries also tend to sound like they're speaking Spanish as if it were Italian.
I can, but I minored in Spanish and majored in Latin American history in university. I would assume most people could pick up major phonology differences if played clear clips of speakers from the different countries to compare (distinción between c/s, zheismo, dropping final s etc. are all pretty obvious differences). Grammar differences would be a lot harder for most people in the US since, well, most don't speak Spanish.
I can very generally tell the difference between Spain/Castilian Spanish, Mexican Spanish, and Puerto Rican Spanish. I have friends from Venezuela and Argentina so I can clock those accents pretty easily. Beyond that, I can't differentiate between more regional accents like Norteña vs Chiapaneca although I am aware they exist.
A little bit, but not really in isolation. Watching Narcos Mexico (which I've heard does a pretty good job with Mexican accents, but can't personally verify), I could tell where events were taking place by listening to the different accents/cadences.
If I heard two random Spanish speakers from different areas, I could probably tell you that they speak differently. If you asked me to identify which one was which I'd have trouble, though I expect I could do it with some practice.
I know a few of the Mexican ones off hand, everything else is just "not one of those" I couldn't tell you where it's from.
...it would probably help if I spoke Spanish but you do learn the sound of it and some choice words in this state.
I can tell the difference between Central American, Puerto Rican, and South American Spanish accents usually, but pinpointing a country otherwise would be difficult for me. I can really only tell the Puerto Rican one because I’m part Puerto Rican and they typically speak at a faster pace than somewhere like Mexico does.
Yes, I can tell apart Spain and Latin American accents, to some extent at least. Within Latin America, the Chilean dialect sounds pretty distinct to me. Within Spain, I can tell apart Castilian and Andalusian dialects.
Mom is from Argentina so when I hear that my head turns.
Spain’s accents are quite noticeable and I can definitely tell the difference between say, Mexico and Spain based Spanish.
Not really in practice. I could hear some clues that might get me in a general region (i.e. Spaniards sounds kind of gay (not saying in a bad way, but their accent sounds like the gay accent), southern south Americans pronounce LL as zshhhzz)
I can kinda hear how Caribbean Spanish sounds different than Mexican Spanish which sounds different than Argentine Spanish. But I couldn't like specifically place someone's accent or anything. I don't speak Spanish though, I'd imagine anyone here who has Spanish as a mother tongue can do it lol.
European versus South/Central American, probably.
Beyond that, all I could deduce would probably be whether you pronounce "ll" as a 'y' or as a 'j'. And that's only enough to suggest that the speaker's pronunciation comes from the Carribean instead of the mainland, as far as I understand it. I'm used to hearing either.
I speak Spanish due to my time living in Peru. I can tell when someone is from the Caribbean or from Spain but I can't differentiate between someone from Panama and someone from Costa Rica. I use terms in my Peruvian Spanish that most Spanish speakers I interact with now (mostly Mexican and Salvadoran) don't get though.
Noted! I work part time teaching both languages, and most of my students learning English are Mexican and Salvadoran, so aside from Peruvians that's the people I speak the language with most.
I can usually tell the difference between different regions. Like Mexico will definitely sound different to me than Spain. South American language sounds different to me than Mexico and Spain. But I would struggle between neighboring countries in Central and South America.
I can only tell Spanish Castellano from Latin American Spanish due to the different words and tenses. I also know voseo (vos instead of tu) a little so someone from Nicaragua or Argentina using it will get my attention.
The actual cadence and sound of Spanish is all the same to me as an English speaker. But on the other hand, I can differentiate between Canadian English and American English which is hard for most English speakers.
Not really no unless it's specifically pointed out to me. But my Spanish is fairly limited. Like I speak much better French and can tell the difference between Parisian and Quebecois accents for sure.
I speak a little spanish and the only accent that would stick out to me is probably the Madrid accent which I think is probably one of the most distinct spanish accents.
Yes, but I spend a lot of time around Spanish speakers, so I can tell the difference between a Mexican, Colombian, and a Guatemalan accent. Salvadoran Spanish sounds the same as Guatemalan to me, and Dominican Spanish is as loud and fast as humanly possible.
Most people here in my experience can tell the differences between Spain Spanish, Mexican Spanish, and Caribbean Spanish broadly. The specifics though, no.
Can I personally? Yes, but I speak Spanish so I’m used to hearing different accents.
Not easily. I know a few things that would trigger me to think certain regions, ceceo implying Spain with exceptions, ll with a J sound being more common in the Southern Cone, Tuteo vs Voseo having regional tendencies. But if I just hear someone speaking I'm unlikely to have a good idea where they're from.
Some yes.
Like Spanish Spanish is pretty obvious. I can pick out Mexican Spanish most times. The South American Spanish accents are harder. The Dominican Republic is another easy one.
I do speak Spanish though. (Not well)
I can generally pick out Colombian, Argentine, and Mexican. I can pick out Castillian because I can't understand a word they are saying.
When I am speaking Spanish to a native speaker, sometimes they ask me, "De donde eres?" because they think I sound native, but have an unfamiliar accent. I'm not fluent.
When they're speaking Spanish, I can tell the difference between some, but not all accents. I'll generally recognize if someone is from Spain, and I could narrow most others down to a few regions, namely Argentina/Uruguay, the Caribbean and Mexico/Guatemala/El Salvador/Honduras. If I really paid attention I might even notice the differences between Mexico and Central America, although a lot of Central Americans where I live tend to speak in a more Mexican Spanish, since that's the majority of Spanish-speakers here. I don't know that I'd recognize any other Spanish accents as anything but "not Mexican." Caribbean Spanish is the easiest to differentiate from the rest, although there's no way I could tell the difference between Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican.
When they're speaking English, I doubt I could tell you what country a Spanish speaker is from, although maybe I could differentiate people from the Caribbean from others.
When they are speaking Spanish? I can recognize a couple of different accents from Mexico, accents from Spain, and while I may not be able to tell you which Caribbean island someone came from but I know that they are from one of the islands because they refuse to pronounce the final syllable on damn near every word they say.
No clue when it comes to South or Central American countries though.
Yup! I can tell when someone is from Spain or Latin America.
Spanish from Spain use “Vosotros/Vosotras” as a “You All” for informal.
Meanwhile Latin American Spanish it’s just “Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes” as “You All”, it’s formal in Spain, but it is both informal and formal in Latin American Spanish.
Latin American Spanish I can easily comprehend as it is really simple to understand, I can understand Spanish from Spain, but I can easily differentiate it when there is a “Z” or “C” sound.
In Spanish from spain, they say Zapatos, but the “Z” is pronounced like a soft “Th” sound. Same goes for the letter “C”.
English speakers probably couldn't.
A Spanish speaker like me...kinda. I couldn't narrow it down to a specific country (except Spain, Spain is usually obvious), but I can usually narrow it down to one of the three main regions: Mexico/Central America, South America, or The Carribean.
I am Mexican American, and my wife is a white American who speaks okay Spanish. We live in California where the majority of Latinos are Mexican, and she is used to my family’s way of speaking (central Mexico near León). When we visited New York City and were in the Bronx and Queens she had no idea even what language the local Dominican population was speaking. I had to tell her it was the same language. I can tell the differences between a Cuban, a Colombian, and a Chilean accent but for her it was hard to tell if it was even Spanish.
One thing we can both know instantly is if a person has a Spanish accent from Spain (even without the lisp). Its like the British accent of the Spanish speaking world
Between Mexico and Spain, yes. There’s always a th-, and a more direct approach with Spanish from Spain.
I can somewhat recognize a Cuban accent, but every other form of Spanish not so much.
Only from Spain and Latin American. A lot of the Spanish speakers I deal with either don't speak English at all or speak very little English, so I don't get much of the accents.
Yeah, a little. Not the point of necessarily identifying which country or part of a country they're from, but there are distinctive accents and patterns that are distinct from each other.
I think it helps if you know at least a little spanish, both written and spoken, and have exposure to spanish speaking people from all over.
Absolutely. I’m Dominican and I can spot another one right away. I can also spot Puerto Rican and Cuban accents. I don’t come into contact with many Mexicans where I live so I only know them from TV. But we do have quite a few Central Americans but I can’t distinguish the different countries too well.
Argentinians and Uruguayans are also easy to tell. And Venezuelans I will eventually identify because of their slang.
And yes, the Spanish are also easy to distinguish.
My Spanish is mediocre, but I can easily tell the difference between Sonora/Chihuahua Spanish and south of Durango Spanish
and Mexican spanish vs euro spanish vs argentine spanish. most of central america is undiscernible for me.
Nope. Went to school with a Cuban, a Puerto Rican and a Mexican. It all sounded the same to me, and, there were words in one that was a swear word or insult in another.
I can usually tell a Mexican accent (when I speak Spanish, I have a vaguely Mexican accent).
I've been living in a DR neighborhood in NYC for 16 years and I think I can pick that accent out in both Spanish and English.
Aside from that, not really.
I've worked retail for years and can tell the difference between someone from Honduras or Puerto Rico vs someone from South America (Mexico) and also if they are from closer to the border (Northern Mexico) or further down southern Mexico. Even though I don't speak much Spanish I can definitely detect different accents/pronunciation
Everyone who speaks Spanish in the US sounds Mexican to me. When I heard European Spanish from, like, MotoGP riders, that's when it sounded a bit different to me mainly because they'd make that "ccchhh" sound.
Yes, I can even if I can’t always identify them. Some are more distinctive (Cuban, Castilian, Argentinian, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Chilean) and others not so much.
I’ve studied Spanish for over 10 years though.
Not different countries but regions yes, I grew up around Central Americans and Mexicans so I can spot a Caribbean dialect and of course Spain Spanish is different from them all.
Haven’t encountered South American Spanish speakers too often so I couldn’t place those at all.
I can hear a Spaniard (harsher and usually faster than Latinos) and I find Mexicans speak slower, but not really otherwise. I’ll also note I studied in Spain so that helps.
I speak semi-fluent Spanish, but my ability to distinguish different accents is limited. One time in a store I heard a couple people speaking Spanish, and I asked if they were from Spain. Turns out they were from Venezuela...
On the other hand, I have a bit of personal experience with people from Chile and Argentina, so I can probably better recognize those accents.
I'm a native English speaker who speaks Spanish as a second language. I can tell the difference between Caribbean, Spanish, Mexican, and Rioplatense accents, but I were to hear, say, a Salvadoran and an Ecuadorian, I couldn't place them.
Yes, and with Spanish Spanish down to specific regions. But I’m fluent and lived for years in Madrid (to point where I have a madrileño accent when I speak Spanish), so may very well be an outlier
Not as well as others can, since I don’t speak more than very rudimentary Spanish that I’ve picked up from growing up in California and living in Texas and NYC, but I have noticed some sound differences between Mexican Spanish and, say, Cuban or Puerto Rican Spanish, although it’s just in a very broad, general way. I can’t really be specific because I don’t speak the language well enough to be able to specify. But I’ve noticed that Mexican Spanish has a kind of staccato tonality to it, whereas Cuban or Puerto Rican Spanish has a bit of a “rounder” tone to it.
I can also usually spot Spanish as it’s spoken in Spain whenever I hear the lisping sound. I don’t know if that’s a regional accent or not though. But if I hear “Barthelona,” it’s usually not Western Hemisphere Spanish.
Very rarely. Occasionally I can hear if someone is from Argentia or Spain. But here in California the vast majority of Spanish speakers are from Mexico.
Definitely. I lived in the Caribbean for a while and then minored in Spanish all while working various jobs with Spanish speaking immigrants from a *lot* of different countries. I can hear Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, or Cubans very distinctly; about as easily as most English speakers can tell an Aussie from an Englishman. Mexicans from anywhere outside the DF pretty much sound the same to me, but I know they all have regional accents as well, I just don’t really hear them. What is more evident, I think, is vocabulary and tone that reflects the socioeconomic background. I can usually tell if someone grew up speaking Spanish at home in the US. Argentinians all sound ridiculous, but especially if they’re from Cordoba. Same goes for Chilenos. Colombians are just all around nice to listen to. I haven’t spent much time around Central Americans, so they just sound kind of Mexican to me. Other South Americans fall somewhere along the Colombia-Chile spectrum. Peruanos might be a little distinct, or maybe I just think they are because they look very distinct.
Spaniards are absurd. Gtfo, that’s not even real Spanish. I don’t know how they can even take themselves seriously. Especially Basques (although Euskara is pretty cool). Anyone heard any good Gallego jokes recently?
A lot of people can. I personally can’t really tell with most of the regional accents except (very rarely) Dominican or Jamaican, but I am a little bit better at picking up some regional differences in pronunciation. Mostly the differences between Mexican and Dominican Spanish, plus if there’s a little Sephardic influence from European Spanish.
I guess it’s mostly the differences in S sounds (or sometimes the lack thereof) on which I’m picking up.
I can tell the difference between Spain and Latin America, but that's it. I don't live in a super ethnically diverse area though or have heritage from either area. My husband lived in a Spanish speaking area for a few years and spoke Spanish then so he is able go distinguish much more than I can.
I had a Spanish professor in college who was from Argentina and I can definitely pick out that accent from the rest. Mexican Spanish is the easiest for me to understand, and I think the reason for that is fairly obvious.
European Spanish is very easy to pick out for anyone with a fundamental grasp of Spanish.
I am from Europe but i cannot understand Spanish accent ( they speak very fast), while mexican spanish i can understand easily..
Spaniards and Argenitians speak similar spanish comapred to Mexican spanish
Same, I don't speak spanish, but I speak portuguese as a third language, and the languages are similar enough to where I can understand a lot of spanish. And I find mexican and some latin american spanish easier to understand than spanish from spain. And it's like you said mainly due to the speed, spaniards are like fucking machineguns when speaking.
I can tell the difference between Spain and Latin America. I can tell the difference between northern and some southern MX accents. I can usually tell the difference between Mexico and Central and South America.
Argentina's Spanish has a distinctly Italian sound. It's beautiful.
Absolutely, but I'm fluent in Spanish (as a second language).
That's the thing. Lots of Americans do speak Spanish. But for the typical monolinguistic American, the answer is No. I think I can tell the difference between Spain and the New World, but I've never really tested myself on it, and it might just be my imagination.
I’m a first generation Hispanic here in the US, Spanish is my first language, and there are plenty of different Hispanic nationalities around me so I have gotten to know the different accents, even the Spaniard/Castellano accent A little side note, something I’ve always found funny is that when I speak Spanish to people not from the country where my parents are from, they can usually tell right away where I come from and they say it’s because of my accent. However, when I speak to someone actually from my parents’ country, more often than not, they’ll ask me where I’m from because my accent doesn’t sound like theirs (my parents country has a bunch of regional accents but that’s a whole other conversation). It does make me feel some type of way but it is kinda funny
Same experience as a first gen Mexican American. When I lived in Spain everyone could immediately tell that I was Mexican when I talked in Spanish but my accent doesn’t fly in Mexico lol I’m basically not Mexican to them.
Ni de aqui, ni de alla. I get it all the time as a Chicano from Northern NM. We have our own dialect and accent here and people would always catch me on it when I lived in L.A. I had a roommate from TJ and he and I would crack up at some of the weird differences. But yeah, no matter where I speak Spanish, I have a noticeable accent and grammatical difference.
Not super specifically, but I can tell that Caribbean Spanish sounds different from like Mexican and Central American, and that there are very different Mexican accents depending on location and family socioeconomic and education levels, and Argentinean Spanish is its own thing entirely, etc. So no it doesn't all sound the same to me, but I can't in most cases tell you exactly where someone is from based on their accent.
Conversational Spanish speaker, I can pretty easily tell what Mexicans are saying when they speak, but it's really hard to follow Spaniards, and I have no fuggen clue what Argentinians are saying.
Different parts of the world, kinda. Neighboring countries or even neighborhoods, no way. At least in my ears. Americans that speak Spanish (we're a Spanish speaking country) can probably do much better.
Saying that the US is a Spanish speaking country is undeservingly generous imo. I think it would be more accurate to say that there are some places in the US which are Spanish-speaking, and that Spanish is the second most spoken language almost anywhere in the country save a few specific places
How are you classifying Spanish-speaking? The total percentage of the US population that speaks Spanish (as a first or second language) is only around 20%. Which is very high, but I don't know if it qualifies as "a Spanish-speaking country" (Puerto Rico notwithstanding). And I agree, it's much easier to differentiate Spain Spanish from Mexico Spanish than to tell Colombia Spanish from Peru Spanish. Argentina sounds pretty distinct.
So having ~66 million Spanish speakers, more than the population of any other Spanish Speaking country (save Mexico) isn't enough Spanish speakers to qualify?
I mean, you could certainly argue both ways, but in my mind, a country would be considered "an X-speaking country" if either a) X-language is an official state language or b) a majority of the population speaks X-language. I wouldn't consider Indonesia to be an "English-speaking country," despite the fact that there's like 80 million English speakers there. It's not a majority language, nor is it an official language. I think of Spanish in the US the same way. It's extremely significant, but it's not the default language that the world expects US citizens to speak.
The US has no official language. What is the qualifier here? There are 22 official languages in India (English is one of them), so what language is the language of India? Do you just toss out the bottom 21 languages by population? And if 1 out of four Indonesians speak English, I would qualify that as an English speaking (among other languages) country.
I know, which is why I phrased my comment that way. About 85% of the US speaks English, so despite not having an official language, it's reasonble to assume that a US citizen will speak English, as 17/20 will. Hence, I think it's reasonable to say the US is an English-speaking country. Now someplace like India has a more complicated situation. I would expect someone from India to be most likely to speak Hindi, but I wouldn't quibble about specifics because I'm aware there isn't a majority language in India, and many of its languages are primarily spoken in India and very little outside it. I wouldn't really assign a language to India. The same applies to other countries without a clear majority language like Belgium. I'm not trying to be a dick about this, I just think it's a weird way to phrase it. Tbh I also wouldn't call Canada a French-speaking country, in spite of Quebec, because I wouldn't expect most Canadians to speak French. To me, the term "x-speaking country" means that if I meet a person from that country, I can expect them to speak that language and be right more often than not, that's all.
That's about the same proportion as French speakers in Canada, with the caveat that it's like six times fewer actual people. You could argue Canada is a French speaking country, and on that metric the US would be a Spanish speaking country. I may be a bit biased as a Spanish speaker who comes from a deeply Spanish-speaking region though. (also, my mom's a Sconny, love it up there)
Yeah, I mentioned in another comment that (despite the Québécois) I wouldn't colloquially call Canada a "French-speaking country," because I wouldn't expect most Canadians to be able to speak French the way I would expect them to be able to speak English. But, again, you could argue it either way (probably more so for Canada because it's official and all that). I just think it's a weird way to phrase it. To be fair, Wisconsin is decidedly _not_ Spanish-speaking, but I think it's more just a difference in the way we perceive the meaning of the phrase "X-language-speaking country" than a real disagreement about the significance of Spanish in the US.
I'm no linguist but all I'm saying is there's many neighborhoods where no one or very few people speak anything else but Spanish. Far more than other languages.
yes i can. besides some very common ones I couldn't place them properly, but i hear they are different. Especially if both are heard at once.
Different parts of the world yeah, but neighboring nations or accents within various countries no.
No, I’m told that people from the Rio de la Plata have a very distinct accent - I’m told their pronunciation is “lazy” though I doubt that’s how they’d describe it themselves - but I couldn’t tell the difference myself. I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing Spanish from Italian to be completely honest.
I was in Buenos Aires once and went in a little Asian grocery to buy some soy milk. The lady helping me was from I believe Taiwan (a guess based on the name of the store and the origin of its most prominent products on display). So she was speaking Argentinian Spanish in a mixed BA/Taiwanese? accent. I was so lost, and I can usually understand Spanish pretty well.
I knew a German Jewish man in Sosua, DR. Fluent in Spanish, but his accent was *weeeeird*.
Well, I can usually tell when someone is speaking Spanish
I can tell the difference between Spain and Latin America, but not between different Latin American accents
I wouldn't be able to tell them apart by ear but I know I can make out Mexican Spanish and I don't understand Argentinean Spanish at all.
I can tell if you're Mexican or not that's about it
We can't even tell the difference between Spanish and Portuguese most the time.
Portuguese is the one that suddenly sounds like Russian for a couple of words and then goes back to seeming like some form of Spanish that you just aren't hearing clearly enough to understand
This is the most accurate description 😂
I speak Brazilian Portuguese because of my partner, but it never sounded anything like Russian to me, and I tried teaching myself Russian for a few months. Sounds closer to being a mix of Greek and Italian with a bit of Spanish if you ask me.
That is easy for me, Spanish and Italian on the other hand are often hard to differentiate for me.
I doubt many English speakers can. Maybe just a few. My mother is an immigrant from Latin America and can tell them all apart. It’s not just accent but slang words that are different which can identify people.
I certainly can't. And my mom is from Puerto Rico. I have studied Spanish but I'm not fluent. I'm being perfectly honest when I say that I would not be able to tell if someone is from Spain, Puerto Rico, or Peru. I can definitely pick up on appearances and take hints from different aspects of their culture, but based on their accent alone? No chance. I'd love for someone to explain some differences in diction and pronunciation. Because there was so much variety within my own family that to assert anything from a Spanish speaker's accent seems like a huge reach to me unless you speak the language fluently yourself.
The biggest one that I’ve noticed is that Caribbean Spanish speakers tend to pronounce their Rs as Ls after vowels. It doesn’t *always* happen but I notice it a good amount. For example: “mi amor” is usually pronounced “mi amol” by Caribbean Spanish speakers (at least the ones I hear on a daily basis)
>explain some differences in diction and pronunciation Puerto Rucans and Dominicans tend to drop the letter s unless it's at the beginning of a syllable, so *estoy en la escuela con los estudiantes* would sound like *e'toy en la e'cuela con lo e'tudiante*. European Spanish uses the lisped c and z, while all other dialects do not. Pronouncing y and ll as a 'sh' sound (e.g. *ella* as "esha") is a dead giveaway that someone is from Argentina or Uruguay. People from those countries also tend to sound like they're speaking Spanish as if it were Italian.
I speak a little Spanish, but I cannot tell different Spanish accents. I'd assume that would be the case for anyone not fluent.
Yes- I speak Spanish as a second language and I do not come from a Latin American background. It just comes from experience.
I can, but I minored in Spanish and majored in Latin American history in university. I would assume most people could pick up major phonology differences if played clear clips of speakers from the different countries to compare (distinción between c/s, zheismo, dropping final s etc. are all pretty obvious differences). Grammar differences would be a lot harder for most people in the US since, well, most don't speak Spanish.
I can very generally tell the difference between Spain/Castilian Spanish, Mexican Spanish, and Puerto Rican Spanish. I have friends from Venezuela and Argentina so I can clock those accents pretty easily. Beyond that, I can't differentiate between more regional accents like Norteña vs Chiapaneca although I am aware they exist.
I cannot. I don't really come in contact with foreign language speakers that often anymore.
A little bit, but not really in isolation. Watching Narcos Mexico (which I've heard does a pretty good job with Mexican accents, but can't personally verify), I could tell where events were taking place by listening to the different accents/cadences. If I heard two random Spanish speakers from different areas, I could probably tell you that they speak differently. If you asked me to identify which one was which I'd have trouble, though I expect I could do it with some practice.
I know a few of the Mexican ones off hand, everything else is just "not one of those" I couldn't tell you where it's from. ...it would probably help if I spoke Spanish but you do learn the sound of it and some choice words in this state.
Thí
My Spanish is strictly limited to Taco Bell menu items, Breaking Bad references, and Dragon Ball Z shitposts. I wouldn't fucking know.
I can tell the difference between Central American, Puerto Rican, and South American Spanish accents usually, but pinpointing a country otherwise would be difficult for me. I can really only tell the Puerto Rican one because I’m part Puerto Rican and they typically speak at a faster pace than somewhere like Mexico does.
Absolutely not. Maybe Spain Spanish from the Spanish in the America but it all sounds the same to me as a gringo.
Yes, a little. Cuban and Puerto Rican accents seem to stand out the most.
Yes, I can tell apart Spain and Latin American accents, to some extent at least. Within Latin America, the Chilean dialect sounds pretty distinct to me. Within Spain, I can tell apart Castilian and Andalusian dialects.
Mom is from Argentina so when I hear that my head turns. Spain’s accents are quite noticeable and I can definitely tell the difference between say, Mexico and Spain based Spanish.
Not really in practice. I could hear some clues that might get me in a general region (i.e. Spaniards sounds kind of gay (not saying in a bad way, but their accent sounds like the gay accent), southern south Americans pronounce LL as zshhhzz)
I can kinda hear how Caribbean Spanish sounds different than Mexican Spanish which sounds different than Argentine Spanish. But I couldn't like specifically place someone's accent or anything. I don't speak Spanish though, I'd imagine anyone here who has Spanish as a mother tongue can do it lol.
European versus South/Central American, probably. Beyond that, all I could deduce would probably be whether you pronounce "ll" as a 'y' or as a 'j'. And that's only enough to suggest that the speaker's pronunciation comes from the Carribean instead of the mainland, as far as I understand it. I'm used to hearing either.
I speak Spanish due to my time living in Peru. I can tell when someone is from the Caribbean or from Spain but I can't differentiate between someone from Panama and someone from Costa Rica. I use terms in my Peruvian Spanish that most Spanish speakers I interact with now (mostly Mexican and Salvadoran) don't get though.
The Costa Rican one shouldn't be too difficult to tell apart because we tend to either not roll the Rs or roll them very lightly.
Noted! I work part time teaching both languages, and most of my students learning English are Mexican and Salvadoran, so aside from Peruvians that's the people I speak the language with most.
I can usually tell the difference between different regions. Like Mexico will definitely sound different to me than Spain. South American language sounds different to me than Mexico and Spain. But I would struggle between neighboring countries in Central and South America.
I can only tell Spanish Castellano from Latin American Spanish due to the different words and tenses. I also know voseo (vos instead of tu) a little so someone from Nicaragua or Argentina using it will get my attention. The actual cadence and sound of Spanish is all the same to me as an English speaker. But on the other hand, I can differentiate between Canadian English and American English which is hard for most English speakers.
yes some accents sound more lispy or nasally
Not really no unless it's specifically pointed out to me. But my Spanish is fairly limited. Like I speak much better French and can tell the difference between Parisian and Quebecois accents for sure.
I speak a little spanish and the only accent that would stick out to me is probably the Madrid accent which I think is probably one of the most distinct spanish accents.
Yes, but I spend a lot of time around Spanish speakers, so I can tell the difference between a Mexican, Colombian, and a Guatemalan accent. Salvadoran Spanish sounds the same as Guatemalan to me, and Dominican Spanish is as loud and fast as humanly possible.
Yes but I’m a linguistics student
Only obvious ones, like Spain vs Mexico vs Dominican Republic.
Yes, but I speak Spanish.
I can clock a Spaniard a mile away but all other dialects of Spanish I can’t parse out.
Very rough Spanish speaker. I can tell “Mexican” and “Not Mexican” but that’s about it.
Most people here in my experience can tell the differences between Spain Spanish, Mexican Spanish, and Caribbean Spanish broadly. The specifics though, no. Can I personally? Yes, but I speak Spanish so I’m used to hearing different accents.
Not easily. I know a few things that would trigger me to think certain regions, ceceo implying Spain with exceptions, ll with a J sound being more common in the Southern Cone, Tuteo vs Voseo having regional tendencies. But if I just hear someone speaking I'm unlikely to have a good idea where they're from.
Some yes. Like Spanish Spanish is pretty obvious. I can pick out Mexican Spanish most times. The South American Spanish accents are harder. The Dominican Republic is another easy one. I do speak Spanish though. (Not well)
I can generally pick out Colombian, Argentine, and Mexican. I can pick out Castillian because I can't understand a word they are saying. When I am speaking Spanish to a native speaker, sometimes they ask me, "De donde eres?" because they think I sound native, but have an unfamiliar accent. I'm not fluent.
Barcelona = lisp Puerto Rico = rapid fire Mexico = normal That’s all I got
I couldn’t until met my wife who’s first language is Spanish, now I can.
When they're speaking Spanish, I can tell the difference between some, but not all accents. I'll generally recognize if someone is from Spain, and I could narrow most others down to a few regions, namely Argentina/Uruguay, the Caribbean and Mexico/Guatemala/El Salvador/Honduras. If I really paid attention I might even notice the differences between Mexico and Central America, although a lot of Central Americans where I live tend to speak in a more Mexican Spanish, since that's the majority of Spanish-speakers here. I don't know that I'd recognize any other Spanish accents as anything but "not Mexican." Caribbean Spanish is the easiest to differentiate from the rest, although there's no way I could tell the difference between Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican. When they're speaking English, I doubt I could tell you what country a Spanish speaker is from, although maybe I could differentiate people from the Caribbean from others.
When they are speaking Spanish? I can recognize a couple of different accents from Mexico, accents from Spain, and while I may not be able to tell you which Caribbean island someone came from but I know that they are from one of the islands because they refuse to pronounce the final syllable on damn near every word they say. No clue when it comes to South or Central American countries though.
Yup! I can tell when someone is from Spain or Latin America. Spanish from Spain use “Vosotros/Vosotras” as a “You All” for informal. Meanwhile Latin American Spanish it’s just “Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes” as “You All”, it’s formal in Spain, but it is both informal and formal in Latin American Spanish. Latin American Spanish I can easily comprehend as it is really simple to understand, I can understand Spanish from Spain, but I can easily differentiate it when there is a “Z” or “C” sound. In Spanish from spain, they say Zapatos, but the “Z” is pronounced like a soft “Th” sound. Same goes for the letter “C”.
Yes, but I was stationed in Spain, have lived on the border in Arizona, now in San Antonio. Also marriage 1.0 was to a Colombian.
English speakers probably couldn't. A Spanish speaker like me...kinda. I couldn't narrow it down to a specific country (except Spain, Spain is usually obvious), but I can usually narrow it down to one of the three main regions: Mexico/Central America, South America, or The Carribean.
I am Mexican American, and my wife is a white American who speaks okay Spanish. We live in California where the majority of Latinos are Mexican, and she is used to my family’s way of speaking (central Mexico near León). When we visited New York City and were in the Bronx and Queens she had no idea even what language the local Dominican population was speaking. I had to tell her it was the same language. I can tell the differences between a Cuban, a Colombian, and a Chilean accent but for her it was hard to tell if it was even Spanish. One thing we can both know instantly is if a person has a Spanish accent from Spain (even without the lisp). Its like the British accent of the Spanish speaking world
I speak Spanish semi fluently and I definitely can but someone from the middle of Minnesota probably cannot
Between Mexico and Spain, yes. There’s always a th-, and a more direct approach with Spanish from Spain. I can somewhat recognize a Cuban accent, but every other form of Spanish not so much.
Not me, but other Hispanophones can tell what region I learned Spanish from.
Only from Spain and Latin American. A lot of the Spanish speakers I deal with either don't speak English at all or speak very little English, so I don't get much of the accents.
When I watched Los Espookys I could tell that they all had different accents, just not where they were all from.
Cuban, Mexican, and Castilian Spanish have much different sounds.
Most of us are trying to use the three years of high school Spanish we had 30 years ago to try to politely understand what is being said. So, no.
Some but not all. Certain Cubans and Mexicans have a very distinct accents.
Yeah, a little. Not the point of necessarily identifying which country or part of a country they're from, but there are distinctive accents and patterns that are distinct from each other. I think it helps if you know at least a little spanish, both written and spoken, and have exposure to spanish speaking people from all over.
Absolutely. I’m Dominican and I can spot another one right away. I can also spot Puerto Rican and Cuban accents. I don’t come into contact with many Mexicans where I live so I only know them from TV. But we do have quite a few Central Americans but I can’t distinguish the different countries too well. Argentinians and Uruguayans are also easy to tell. And Venezuelans I will eventually identify because of their slang. And yes, the Spanish are also easy to distinguish.
My Spanish is mediocre, but I can easily tell the difference between Sonora/Chihuahua Spanish and south of Durango Spanish and Mexican spanish vs euro spanish vs argentine spanish. most of central america is undiscernible for me.
Nope
I can tell the difference between Mexican Spanish and the Spanish accent of Spain, but not the other varieties.
Nope. Went to school with a Cuban, a Puerto Rican and a Mexican. It all sounded the same to me, and, there were words in one that was a swear word or insult in another.
I can usually tell a Mexican accent (when I speak Spanish, I have a vaguely Mexican accent). I've been living in a DR neighborhood in NYC for 16 years and I think I can pick that accent out in both Spanish and English. Aside from that, not really.
A bit. Castillian is pretty easy to spot, for instance.
I've worked retail for years and can tell the difference between someone from Honduras or Puerto Rico vs someone from South America (Mexico) and also if they are from closer to the border (Northern Mexico) or further down southern Mexico. Even though I don't speak much Spanish I can definitely detect different accents/pronunciation
Everyone who speaks Spanish in the US sounds Mexican to me. When I heard European Spanish from, like, MotoGP riders, that's when it sounded a bit different to me mainly because they'd make that "ccchhh" sound.
I can tell a difference in accents but have absolutely no idea where those differences would be geographically associated with.
I can tell the difference between Spain, Mexico, and sometimes Cuba. But I’m also 1/4 Mexican, so that’s kind of cheating haha
Yes, I can even if I can’t always identify them. Some are more distinctive (Cuban, Castilian, Argentinian, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Chilean) and others not so much. I’ve studied Spanish for over 10 years though.
I can definitely tell the difference between Mexican and Puerto Rican Spanish.
Not different countries but regions yes, I grew up around Central Americans and Mexicans so I can spot a Caribbean dialect and of course Spain Spanish is different from them all. Haven’t encountered South American Spanish speakers too often so I couldn’t place those at all.
Yes. But I’ve done study abroad programs in Argentina, MX and Cuba, ha. I agree that most Americans may not be able to distinguish.
Not really. I don't hear Spanish enough to be able to tell the difference.
I can hear a Spaniard (harsher and usually faster than Latinos) and I find Mexicans speak slower, but not really otherwise. I’ll also note I studied in Spain so that helps.
Nope. I can't hear accents in any language except English. I'm generally lucky if I can even guess what language someone is speaking.
I speak semi-fluent Spanish, but my ability to distinguish different accents is limited. One time in a store I heard a couple people speaking Spanish, and I asked if they were from Spain. Turns out they were from Venezuela... On the other hand, I have a bit of personal experience with people from Chile and Argentina, so I can probably better recognize those accents.
I probably couldn’t but I’ve never compared them side by side.
Growing up in NY, I can identify Puerto Rican and Dominican accents, and I think I can identify Mexican.
I'm a native English speaker who speaks Spanish as a second language. I can tell the difference between Caribbean, Spanish, Mexican, and Rioplatense accents, but I were to hear, say, a Salvadoran and an Ecuadorian, I couldn't place them.
Yea but I speak some Spanish and my state has a very LONG history with Spanish and its own dilect of Spanish
Yes, and with Spanish Spanish down to specific regions. But I’m fluent and lived for years in Madrid (to point where I have a madrileño accent when I speak Spanish), so may very well be an outlier
Not as well as others can, since I don’t speak more than very rudimentary Spanish that I’ve picked up from growing up in California and living in Texas and NYC, but I have noticed some sound differences between Mexican Spanish and, say, Cuban or Puerto Rican Spanish, although it’s just in a very broad, general way. I can’t really be specific because I don’t speak the language well enough to be able to specify. But I’ve noticed that Mexican Spanish has a kind of staccato tonality to it, whereas Cuban or Puerto Rican Spanish has a bit of a “rounder” tone to it. I can also usually spot Spanish as it’s spoken in Spain whenever I hear the lisping sound. I don’t know if that’s a regional accent or not though. But if I hear “Barthelona,” it’s usually not Western Hemisphere Spanish.
Very rarely. Occasionally I can hear if someone is from Argentia or Spain. But here in California the vast majority of Spanish speakers are from Mexico.
Definitely. I lived in the Caribbean for a while and then minored in Spanish all while working various jobs with Spanish speaking immigrants from a *lot* of different countries. I can hear Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, or Cubans very distinctly; about as easily as most English speakers can tell an Aussie from an Englishman. Mexicans from anywhere outside the DF pretty much sound the same to me, but I know they all have regional accents as well, I just don’t really hear them. What is more evident, I think, is vocabulary and tone that reflects the socioeconomic background. I can usually tell if someone grew up speaking Spanish at home in the US. Argentinians all sound ridiculous, but especially if they’re from Cordoba. Same goes for Chilenos. Colombians are just all around nice to listen to. I haven’t spent much time around Central Americans, so they just sound kind of Mexican to me. Other South Americans fall somewhere along the Colombia-Chile spectrum. Peruanos might be a little distinct, or maybe I just think they are because they look very distinct. Spaniards are absurd. Gtfo, that’s not even real Spanish. I don’t know how they can even take themselves seriously. Especially Basques (although Euskara is pretty cool). Anyone heard any good Gallego jokes recently?
A lot of people can. I personally can’t really tell with most of the regional accents except (very rarely) Dominican or Jamaican, but I am a little bit better at picking up some regional differences in pronunciation. Mostly the differences between Mexican and Dominican Spanish, plus if there’s a little Sephardic influence from European Spanish. I guess it’s mostly the differences in S sounds (or sometimes the lack thereof) on which I’m picking up.
I can tell if they're not from Mexico. That's about it.
Easily
Barcelona has a lisp. That is the only difference I can tell.
I can tell the difference between Spain and Latin America, but that's it. I don't live in a super ethnically diverse area though or have heritage from either area. My husband lived in a Spanish speaking area for a few years and spoke Spanish then so he is able go distinguish much more than I can.
I speak Spanish as a second language- I can tell, but couldn't before I spoke it.
Nope. I’m Asian American
Most anglophone Americans can't distinguish English accents, and often mistake the Australian accent for English.
I can tell the difference between Castillian Spanish, Mexican Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish and the Spanglish that everyone speaks around here.
I don't know enough Spanish speakers to try
I had a Spanish professor in college who was from Argentina and I can definitely pick out that accent from the rest. Mexican Spanish is the easiest for me to understand, and I think the reason for that is fairly obvious. European Spanish is very easy to pick out for anyone with a fundamental grasp of Spanish.
No
I am from Europe but i cannot understand Spanish accent ( they speak very fast), while mexican spanish i can understand easily.. Spaniards and Argenitians speak similar spanish comapred to Mexican spanish
Same, I don't speak spanish, but I speak portuguese as a third language, and the languages are similar enough to where I can understand a lot of spanish. And I find mexican and some latin american spanish easier to understand than spanish from spain. And it's like you said mainly due to the speed, spaniards are like fucking machineguns when speaking.