Monday, August 26, 2013

The Latin Spanish Accents

All South American countries speak a unique form of Spanish, some more extreme than others. My own impression so far is that Uruguay, Argentina and Chile speak with the most notably different accent, and can thus be hard to understand initially, even with proficient Mexican Spanish. While the Uruguayans and Argentinians for example use a heavy ´Italian´ accent, the Chileans use a complete (non-existent) dictionary of slang only applicable in Chile. Let´s have a look:
Commonly used Uruguayan hand-gesture, aka:"WTF man?!!" 

Uruguayans and Argentinians:
This is a good video to showcase the stereotypical sound and tone used. The accent can sometimes  be interpreted as assailing and quarrelsome, as they do enjoy their arguments! - "Obvio bo!"

Chilean:
Is generally referred to as the worst spoken Spanish in Latin America. (I don´t entirely agree!) Still even native Spanish speaker tell me they struggle with the Chilean accent. Mostly because:
  1. Chileans generally speak m-u-c-h faster than other native Spanish speakers
  2. Chileans are known for its extensive use of "made-up" words and slang, which essentially form the  mood and tone of  the conversation
  3. Tone/mood, facial expression and eye contact also constitute a very important part of Chilean Spanish
You do well by knowing these;
"Po" = ´man´, something they frequently enrich their sentences with, "Weon" = man, dude etc., and "Catchai" = you know / you get it!?

Facial expressions!
Here is a 101 in Chilean Spanish

And here is a sample on how Chileans speak:
(for those of you who do not understand Spanish, skip to: 1:04 & 1:50 for the typical accent! ENjoy)

To conclude, the following song is attributed to you all learning spanish!!
Que difícil es hablar el español: (Oh, so hard it is to speak Spanish!)


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hur awesome! Och hur mycket saknar jag inte BSAS när jag såg det första klippet!!? hehehe

Unknown said...

jaja! Ja me du! Man känner sig lite ensam här i Chile med sin "Uruguayo"!
Hoppas allt är bra! - abrazoo