Distinctive Traits of American Spanish

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.
• Velarization of /n/: Velarization of the sound /n/ at the end of a word or syllable.
• Yeísmo: Neutralization of the sounds /ʎ/ (as in 'll' in Peninsular Spanish) and /ʝ/ (as in 'y'). In some regions, particularly Argentina and Uruguay, this can lead to a rehilado (fricative) pronunciation of /ʝ/.

Morphosyntactic Features

• Voseo: The use of the pronoun 'vos' instead of 'tú' (and sometimes 'usted') for the second person singular informal address. This is prevalent in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Uruguay, southern Chile) and parts of Central America. Voseo is characterized by specific verb conjugations (e.g., 'Vos tenés' instead of 'Tú tienes').
• Gender Shift: Changes in the grammatical gender of certain nouns (e.g., 'la calor' instead of 'el calor').
• Past Tense Preference: A strong preference for the simple past tense (pretérito perfecto simple or pretérito indefinido) over the compound past tense (pretérito perfecto compuesto) in many regions.
• Pronoun Placement: In some Antillean regions, specific pronoun placement occurs, often between an interrogative pronoun and the verb.
• Adverbialization of Adjectives: The use of adjectives with adverbial value (e.g., '¡Que te vaya bonito!' - 'May it go well for you!').
• Intensifying Prefix 're-': Frequent use of the intensifying prefix 're-' with adjectives and adverbs (e.g., 'rebueno' - 'really good', 'rebién' - 'really well').
• Preposed Possessives in Vocatives: The use of possessive adjectives before nouns in vocative phrases (e.g., '¡Mi hijo!' - 'My son!').
• Distinct Prepositional Usage: Different uses of prepositions and adverbial phrases (e.g., 'cada que' instead of 'cada vez que' - 'each time that').

Semantic Aspects and Lexicon

1. Indigenous Lexicon: Words of indigenous origin that have been integrated into American Spanish, often related to local flora, fauna, food, and cultural items (e.g., maíz - corn, ají - chili pepper, cancha - sports field/popcorn).
2. Adapted Patrimonial Lexicon: This category includes words that have either become archaic in Peninsular Spanish or have acquired new meanings in American Spanish.
   • Archaic Words: Terms no longer commonly used in Peninsular Spanish but retained in American Spanish (e.g., manta for 'blanket', mercar for 'to buy').
   • Semantic Shifts: Words that have acquired new or different meanings compared to Peninsular Spanish (e.g., carro for 'car', celular for 'mobile phone', manejar for 'to drive').
3. Lexicon of African Origin: Words introduced due to the transatlantic slave trade, often associated with music, dance, and cultural practices (e.g., marimba, tango).
4. Foreignisms (Anglicisms): Words adopted from English to describe new realities, technologies, or concepts (e.g., rentar for 'to rent', clóset for 'wardrobe', chequear for 'to check').