Distinctive Traits of American Spanish
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General Features of American Spanish
The Spanish spoken across the Americas, as a whole, exhibits the following common features:
Phonetic Characteristics
- Intonation Variation: Distinct intonation patterns (tone curves) in each region, often attributed to the influence of indigenous substrates.
- Seseo: The pronunciation of the interdental voiceless fricative phoneme /θ/ (as in Peninsular Spanish 'z' or 'c' before 'e', 'i') as a sibilant /s/.
- Aspiration of /s/: Aspiration or loss of syllable-final or word-final /s/ (e.g., 'los' pronounced as 'loh'), a feature also found in some Peninsular Spanish dialects like Extremaduran.
- Rhotic/Lateral Confusion: Confusion or neutralization between the phonemes /r/ and /l/ in syllable-final or word-final positions.