In English, Castilian Spanish can mean the variety of
Peninsular Spanish spoken in northern and central
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
, the
standard form of Spanish, or Spanish from Spain in general. In Spanish, the term (Castilian) can either refer to the Spanish language as a whole, or to the medieval
Old Spanish, a predecessor to
Early Modern Spanish.
Terminology
The term ''Castilian Spanish'' is used in English for the specific varieties of Spanish spoken in north and central Spain. This is because much of the variation in Peninsular Spanish is between north and south, often imagined as Castilian versus Andalusian. Typically, it is more loosely used to denote the Spanish spoken in all of Spain as compared to Spanish spoken in Latin America. In Spain itself, Spanish is not a uniform language and there exist several different
varieties of Spanish
Some of the regional varieties of the Spanish language are quite divergent from one another, especially in pronunciation and vocabulary, and less so in grammar.
While all Spanish dialects adhere to approximately the same written standard, ...
; in addition, there are other official and unofficial
languages in the country, although Spanish is official throughout Spain.
''Castellano septentrional'' ("Northern Castilian") is the Spanish term for the dialects from the Northern half of Spain, including those from Aragón or Navarre, which were never part of
Castile. These dialects can be distinguished from the southern varieties of Andalusia, Extremadura, and Murcia. ''Español castellano'', the literal translation of ''Castilian Spanish'', is not a common expression; it could refer to varieties found in the region of
Castile; however, the dialects of Castile, like most dialects, are not homogenous, and they tend to merge gradually with the dialects of other regions.
Phonology
* Word-final may be pronounced as a voiceless instead of the standard voiced . This is most common in the provinces of
Burgos
Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos.
Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence o ...
,
Palencia,
Valladolid, the east of
León and
Zamora, northern
Segovia and
Ávila
Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila.
It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m ab ...
, and
Soria. This pronunciation is present, though less common, in
La Rioja,
Guadalajara,
Cuenca, and
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, and it is scarcely documented in
Toledo,
Ciudad Real
Ciudad Real (, ; en, "Royal City") is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region.
History
It was founded ...
, and
Albacete
Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete.
Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, t ...
.
* is elided in the ending throughout nearly all of Spain. In other environments, elision of intervocalic is characteristic of southern varieties of Spanish.
* Syllable-final is often
aspirated in Madrid and
Castilla–La Mancha. Before a sound, it can be realized as a
voiceless velar fricative , such that 'it's that' sounds like .
* , spelled as , is pronounced as a palatalized
voiceless alveolar affricate in Madrid.
* Spanish from most of the Iberian Peninsula, including Castile, uses an
apical , as opposed to the non-retracted
voiceless alveolar fricative of Andalusian, Canarian, and Latin American Spanish, as well as of English.
Grammar
* A wide swath of central Castile is home to
leísmo. The RAE considers leísmo to be incorrect, though it considers it to be admissible when referring to a single, male person.
See also
*
Andalusian Spanish
*
Canarian Spanish
*
Castúo
*
Murcian Spanish
Murcian (endonym: ) is a variant of Peninsular Spanish, spoken mainly in the autonomous community of Murcia and the adjacent ''comarcas'' of Vega Baja del Segura and Alto Vinalopó in the province of Alicante (Valencia), the corridor of Alma ...
*
Standard Spanish
Standard Spanish, also called the es, label=none, norma culta, lit=cultivated norm, refers to the standard, or codified, variety of the Spanish language, which most writing and formal speech in Spanish tends to reflect. This standard, like oth ...
– the standard form that is very different from the
medieval Spanish language-base
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
External links
WordNet 3.0. Princeton UniversityCOSER Audible Corpus of Spoken Rural Spanish
{{Spanish variants by continent
Castile (historical region)
Spanish dialects of Spain