Do they speak "epañol" in Chili?

[frank]

Hi all,

My apologies for x-posting this one...

Yesterday i was talking with a student from Chili, in Dutch and in Spanish. He hardly made the "typical mistake" of putting an /e/ before the word initial clusters /sp-/, /st-/. The majority of my hispanophone (yes?) students produce something as "estreet", "espanish" (or rather "estraat" and "espaans"). He didn't. So what?
Well, i don't know if there is a connection, but afterwards, we shifted from Dutch to Spanish and it struck me that (in Spanish) he didn't say "español", but "epañol", without an /-s-/. Also in other words with initial "est-", "esp-" etc. he quite consequently deleted the /-s-/.
Now, i don't know Spanish (i speak (bad) Portuguese with him), but is this deletion of -s- typical for Spanish as spoken in Chili (he's from Santiago), or can it be heard in other variants, in Latin America or in Spain?

Groetjes,

Frank

[Brazilian dude]

I would say that Chileans are probably the most difficult Spanish speakers to understand, I don't care if they are speaking Spanish or anything else (I had a Chilean classmate at college and a lot of people had no clue what the hell he was saying and didn't know either whether he was speaking Portuguese, Spanish or Portuñol/Portunhol ). Eliminating that s at the end of a syllable is characteristic of other accents as well, I'd say mostly Central Americans. It's not as grating to my ears as pronouncing s's like English h's, though. But what do I know? Portuguese is a Slavic language, right?

Brazilian dude

[Brazilian dude]

Another Chilean linguistic feature I can think of is pronouncing Spanish ch's like English sh's (or Portuguese ch's).

Brazilian dude

[frank]

Portuguese is a Slavic language, right?

, reminds me of my first visit to Lisbon. I overheard a few people on the table next to me and i was wondering which Slavic language they spoke. It turned out, indeed, to be Prtgs.
Even after a slightly longer stay in Portugal, i found Spanish easier to understand than (Portuguese) Portuguese.
Meeting (and talking with) Brazilians in Lisbon was more or less the equivalent of the sun breaking through the clouds, since they did use one of the best inventions ever, language-wise, i mean: syllables with vowels.

Frank

[Brazilian dude]

since they did use one of the best inventions ever, language-wise, i mean: syllables with vowels.

Hahahaha.

Brazilian dude

[anders]

is this deletion of -s- typical for Spanish as spoken in Chili (he's from Santiago), or can it be heard in other variants, in Latin America or in Spain?

A very soft s or none at all is very typical of the Spanish in the Canarias. Many mainlanders think it sounds childish. For example ete for este.

Another feature of theirs is the ll > y (caye for calle etc.)

Combine them and you get e(h)treya for estrella.

The Finns solve the problem of initial consonat clusters in another way: the drop all but one consonant. So, Stockholm is Estocolmo in Spanish, Istokholm in Arabic but Tukholma in Finnish.

[Brazilian dude]

Stockholm is Estocolmo in Spanish

And also in Portuguese.

Brazilian dude

[tcward]

Another feature of theirs is the ll > y (caye for calle etc.)

What does this mean?

-Tim

[Brazilian dude]

That they have neutralized ll's in favor of y's, which nearly everybody does, anyway.

Brazilian dude

[tcward]

But I mean I'm confused about the pronunciation differences.

Do you mean that Spanish 'll' is now more commonly pronounced (a) as Spanish 'y' would normally be, or (b) as English 'y' would normally be?

-Tim

[Brazilian dude]

(a)

Brazilian dude

[Stargzer]

. . . since they did use one of the best inventions ever, language-wise, i mean: syllables with vowels.

Frank

There is an old Frank and Ernest cartoon buried somewhere in my archives that I haven't found to scan in.

AHA! GOD BLESS BOB THAVES! Straight from October 16, 1980 to the present!

[ailyn]

About the previous comment on the accent we have in the Canary Islands I do admit that we leave some letters behind or change them like Telde for Terde. But we do not mix pronunciation variations like that in your etreya unless you are five, of course.
Anyway, how about the dialects in Belgium. I live there right now and it's really amazing the difference from one area to another in just a couple of kilometers. It's almost like a whole new language.

[Spiff]

I take it you're not talking about Dutch and French, are you?

[Sparg]

Portuguese is a Slavic language, right?

, reminds me of my first visit to Lisbon. I overheard a few people on the table next to me and i was wondering which Slavic language they spoke. It turned out, indeed, to be Prtgs.

(snip)

Frank

Years ago I had a job listening to Russian radio. The first time I came across Portuguese, I swore it was some Slavic language that I had missed studying. It's odd how I can look at it written and understand it better than listening to its crazy sounds.