It is important to be aware of how many dialects of Spanish are there. There is no authoritative count, but the search engine says that it’s 10 in number.
Well, dialects refer to the differences in speech and grammar beside. And there are no such things as “better” or “worse” for dialects of a language. And of course, you don’t need to be exactly sound like a native in every single dialect.
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If you do already know how many dialects of Spanish are there? So are you aware of the differences too? Let’s clear your mind with the basic differences to avoid any awkwardness.
Answer To How many dialects of Spanish are there Is 7:
Read on to learn about the dialects of Spanish. How may they be spoken, and where?
Let’s begin!
1. One of the major dialects of Spanish is Castilian Spanish:
Castilian dialect is where all the Spanish began. Some refer to it as the original Spanish language.
The name ‘Castilian Spanish’ prospered in the self-ruling community known as Castile. That comes across in the north-central region of Spain.
In the 13th century, King Alfonso X promoted Castilian. He made Castilian Spanish the official language of government. Alfonso had the scholar translators who covert many historical and scientific documents into Castilian. In the 14th century, Castilian was named as the official dialect of Spain. It is the most widely known and spoken of all dialects in the world.
Today, Castilian Spanish consider as the most proper, purest dialect and original form of Spanish. It is also very easy to understand. Yet, it has different verb conjugations from countries like Andalusia and Latin American Spanish.
Apart from Castilian, however, Basque, Catalan, and Galician have Spanish dialects.
Did you know? Christopher Columbus spoke Castilian Spanish.
2. Latin American Spanish:
In the U.S. the most common Spanish dialect is Latin American. It is generally vocalized in the mountains areas of Latin America. So sometimes called ‘Highland Spanish’.
Spain Spanish and Latin American Spanish has enormous differences between the dialects, vocabulary, and accent. In Latin America, they call the Spanish language ‘español’.
Early colonists like Columbus, brought the language with them to America. Today, the Americas take that claim as being home to the most Spanish language speakers in the world. Spanish is using virtually all of Central and South America except Brazil.
3. Dialect of Spanish – Andalusian Spanish:
Andalusian is the Spanish dialect speaking in southern Spain including Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla, and Gibraltar. After Castilian, it is the second most popular dialect of Spanish. It sounds more fluid and softer than other Spanish dialects.
4. Mexican Spanish:
Mexico has the largest Spanish speaking country in the world. It is the heart of Spanish media and cinema.
Mostly says that Mexico is the best Latin American country to learn Spanish. Because they have very clear pronunciation. They are famous for using slang in their day-to-day conversation.
It is influenced by Indigenous languages (Nahuatl & Tzotzil) and American English. Mexican-Spanish is different from Spain-Spanish.
Fun Fact: Many Mexican communities are purely Indigenous, yet don’t speak Spanish.
5. Rioplatense Spanish – South America:
This Spanish dialect is also called Rioplatense Castilian or River Plate. And mainly spoken in the Rio de Plata Basin of Argentina and Uruguay.
Italian much influences rioplatense Spanish. It has very similar intonation patterns as that of the Neapolitan dialect. It is famous for its distinctive pronunciation features.
Each dialect has featured in diagnostic in that dialect. Features that when you hear them, you say ‘hey this person is from that place’. And sometimes we can get even more specific than that. Such as this person is from this ethnic socio-economic category from this side of town from this place.
6. Colombian Spanish – South America:
Some say that the Colombian accent is the “most neutral Spanish accent”. Because people speak Spanish more slowly without cutting the words in this region.
In Colombia, y and ll are pronounced with a soft “j” sound. For example, yo is pronounced jo, and calle would be cay-je.
7. The Caribbean Spanish:
The Spanish dialects are spoken in the region of the Caribbean island. Including Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic besides Panama, Venezuela, and the Caribbean coast of Colombia.
Caribbean Spanish speakers cut huge chunks off of a word. Like they completely drop the ‘d’ at the end of the word. They also tend to drop the ‘s’ sound at both the middle and ends of words.
That’s why you don’t hear about many Spanish language learners going to these countries to learn Spanish.
There are many other Spanish dialects, depending on where in the world the language is spoken.
Try not to feel overwhelmed by this dialect thing. As I stated before, even Spanish-speakers can face great difficulty trying to understand another Spanish dialect.
Do you still have any confusion? Well, don’t be. For all that, some natives are not sure that how many Spanish dialects are there.
How many dialects of Spanish are there? Spanish Distribution:
Nearly 8% of the total population of the world is Spanish-speaking. So it makes sense that not all Spanish speakers sound the same. And these dialects are a result of Spanish getting influenced by another language such as Arabic. So it has different dialects, grammar, vocabulary, idioms, and slang.
Spanish became more complex and varied. Due to the heaviness of the accents, even native Spanish-speaker sometimes can’t understand each other.
There are two main categories of Spanish. Spain Spanish and Latin American Spanish. But they’re more than this. Perhaps some might sound foreign to you. So you should be aware of how many dialects of Spanish are there. Moreover, check out another interesting blog post on What’s the difference between dialect and language?
Conclusion:
In brief, Spanish is a collection of different dialects of the same language. Each has its history and characteristics. Just like English, Spanish has mutual intelligibility.
Though each dialect has its own set of variations on all linguistic descriptions, they would ultimately understand each other perfectly.
What’s more?
According to the American (F.S.I) Foreign Service Institute, Spanish is a category 1 language. That means it is one of the easier languages for native English speakers to learn.
No matter which dialect you learn, you’ll be able to adapt the other dialect quite easily. It depends on which variety you are most likely to use. And which dialect you think is better, more correct, or nicer-sounding than others.
So what are you waiting for? Learn some español then. Or should I say, Castellano?
I’m not sure, because Spanish speakers themselves can’t agree on this issue.
