Spanish vs. Castellano
Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and the third most spoken language in the world. 21 countries in the world use Spanish as their official language. Given the number of people who speak Spanish around the world, grammatical and regional differences between areas are unavoidable. Generally, Spanish can be divided into two groups: Peninsular Spanish and Castellano. The former refers to the languages used in Spain and the latter denotes those used in Latin America. The following will discuss three distinctions between these two similar yet different languages, including pronunciation, pronouns and vocabularies.
Firstly, the pronunciation is one of the major differences. In terms of the pronunciation of the letter “c” and “z”, Spanish is inclined to pronounce “th /θ/”, while Latin Americans tend to pronounce “s” . For example, the word “gracias” is pronounced /ˈɡɾa.θjas/ in Spain, but /ˈɡɾa.sjas/ in South America. Another difference lies in the different pronunciation of “ll”. In South America, “ll” most often sounds like the English letter “y” as in the words “yellow” and “yes”. On the contrary, it is pronounced “j” in the Peninsular Spanish. In fact, it’s almost closer to the “s” in the English word “treasure” but stretched out a bit longer. For instance, the word “lluvia” is pronounced /yuvia/ in Latin America with a “y” sound, but /juvia/ in Peninsular Spanish with a sound like “j”.
Moreover, the usage of pronouns is a significant difference between the two regions, the second person pronoun in particular. In Spain, “Tú” is commonly used to symbolize the second person singular and “Vosotros” represents the second person plural. Nonetheless, In Latin America, people usually use “Vos” rather than “tú” to indicate “you” in daily life. “Vosotros” is not commonly used there as well. Instead, Latin Americans choose “Ustedes”, the term regarded as an honorific in Peninsular Spanish.
Third, some vocabularies have totally different meanings in these two languages. Take “pendejo” as an example. The word is referred to as “childish” in South America. On the contrary, “pendejo” is a curse word in the Peninsular, which means “bastard”. Another example is “coger”. It means “to take” or “to put” in Spain, but the meaning of “coger” is extremely different in the Latin. “Coger” means “to force somebody to have sex with others”. If we don’t know the differences of the meanings of these words, we might easily get into trouble under any circumstances.
To sum up, although Peninsular Spanish and Castellano are both originated from Spanish, there are some distinctions to differentiate these two languages. First, there are some slight differences in the pronunciation. Moreover, when it comes to the pronouns, Latin Americans replace “tu” and “vosotros” with “vos” and “ustedes” to symbolize the second person. Third, the meanings of some vocabularies are different in these two languages. All in all, even though the Peninsular Spanish and Castellano have several differences, people using these two languages can still communicate with each other. The more we learn about different languages, the more we can know the people who come from different cultural backgrounds.
Sources:
Retrieved from: MetaSur1 (2010)
西班牙的西班牙文(Español)與中南美洲的西班牙文(Castellano)的差異
https://metasur1.pixnet.net/blog/post/30889326
Retrieved from: Glossica (2018)
「西班牙的西班牙文」和「中南美洲的西班牙文」有什麼差異？
https://ai.glossika.com/zh-tw/blog/difference-between-european-spanish-and-mexican-spanish
Retrieved from: I will teach you a language (n/d)
The Spanish LL Pronunciation: Is It A ‘Y’ Or A ‘J’ Sound?
https://iwillteachyoualanguage.com/learn/spanish/spanish-tips/spanish-ll-pronunciation