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")
, i ...
, 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
Early Modern Spanish (also called ''classical Spanish'' or '' Golden Age Spanish'', especially in literary contexts) is the variant of Spanish used between the end of the fifteenth century and the end of the seventeenth century, marked by a serie ...
.
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; 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 of ...
,
Palencia
Palencia () 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 Palencia.
Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half o ...
,
Valladolid
Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...
, the east of
León and
Zamora, northern
Segovia
Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia.
Segovia is in the Inner Plateau ('' Meseta central''), near the northern slopes of t ...
and
Ávila, and
Soria
Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 ( INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial populati ...
. This pronunciation is present, though less common, in
La Rioja
La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...
,
Guadalajara,
Cuenca, and
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
, and it is scarcely documented in
Toledo,
Ciudad Real, 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, the ...
.
* 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
Castilla–La Mancha (, , ), or Castile La Mancha, is an autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo, it was created in 1982. The government headquarters are in Toledo, and ...
. 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
A voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of affricate consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are several ty ...
in Madrid.
* Spanish from most of the Iberian Peninsula, including Castile, uses an
apical
Apical means "pertaining to an apex". It may refer to:
*Apical ancestor, refers to the last common ancestor of an entire group, such as a species (biology) or a clan (anthropology)
*Apical (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features loc ...
, as opposed to the non-retracted
voiceless alveolar fricative
The voiceless alveolar fricatives are a type of fricative consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are at lea ...
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
Canarian Spanish (Spanish terms in descending order of frequency: , , , or ) is a variant of standard Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands by the Canary Islanders. The variant is similar to the Andalusian Spanish variety spoken in Western Andal ...
*
Castúo
Castúo is the generic name for the dialects of Spanish spoken in the autonomous community of Extremadura, in Spain. Not to be confused with Extremaduran, a language between Asturleonese and Castilian, or Fala another language spoken in Extrem ...
*
Murcian Spanish
*
Standard Spanish – 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