How to understand Andaluz Spanish: Some hints

When I first moved to Spain a couple of years ago, I had studied Spanish and I could read newspapers and books with little difficult. I could follow some of the TV news and I thought, give it a couple of months and I'll be yacking like a local. How wrong could I be?

We had moved to a small village in Southern Andalucia and my first encounter with the local language made me think I'd learned the wrong language. Although I seemed to be able to make myself understood, the moment anyone responded the conversation ended because I couldn't make out any of the words. Was it my ear? Was it the local accent? What was going on?

It turns out that my reaction was typical of many foreigners living in Southern Spain and it takes a bit of effort to get your head around how the Andaluz dialect works. Just as with any regional accent, there are different ways of pronouncing words, but in Andalusia there are some quite specific changes too. So assuming you already know some Spanish, here are the things to watch out for:

• Something called yeismo. Instead of pronouncing the “ll” as “ly” (lleno pronounced as l-y-eno), pronounce it as a y. Lleno is pronounced yeno.

• Occasionally the “s” is pronounced as a spanish “j” so “mascar” which means to chew, is pronounced “majcar” with the “j” sounding like “ch” in the Scottish word “loch”.

• One of the strangest features is that an “l” or an “r” in a word can be dropped altogether, or switched. “Golpe” (a blow) can sound “gorpe”. “Carne” (meat) can become “cajne”, “soldado” (soldier) can become “sordado”.

• Occasionally a “d” will disappear altogether. “Padre” (father) becomes “pare”, “cortado” (cut) becomes “cortao”, and “ido” (gone) becomes “io”.

• Sometimes an “n” or an “r” can disappear. The name Manolillo becomes Maoillo.

• “b” and “g” can disappear. “Cogollo” (a plant shoot) becomes “coollo”

• Sometimes at the beginning of a word, an “h” is replaced by a “j”. So “hambre” is pronounced “jambre”

• Almost always the “s” on the end of a word is lost. “Adios” becomes “Adio” and “dos” (two) turns into “do”. “Comemos” (we are eating) then becomes “comemo”.

• The infamous seseo, using “s” for a “c” or a “z”, is also accompanied by ceceo, using a “z” for an “s”. Just when you thought you had it, it runs away from you.

Of course these features don't occur on their own and it's quite possible to find words in which several of these changes have been made. As with all dialects, there are many words of Andaluz Spanish that don't exist outside Andalusia and they number around seven thousand. But there are similarities with some regions in South America where accent changes also occur.

I may return to this topic and produce some hubs on Andaluz vocabulary if there is sufficient interest. In the meantime, listen carefully and try to pick up the changes and you can practice listening to online radio from Jerez and Cadiz.

Ha'luego