By Sarah-Claire Jordan
Many of you have probably come in contact with Spanish somehow or other, either in high school or by going to certain areas of your hometown even. Spanish is pretty prevalent here in the U.S., so it’s almost unheard of to not encounter it in this day and age. In fact, after English, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the U.S.
But the Spanish you will hear and see in the U.S. is generally from parts of Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and other hispanic countries that are close to the U.S. It’s not as common to find dialects from Spain, Chile, Argentina, and other countries that are a bit farther away. Argentines in particular speak a very unique dialect of Spanish that makes it very easy to the trained ear to figure out where they come from originally.
The first thing most people will notice about Argentinian Spanish is the particular intonation of the language. It’s not spoken with the same rhythm and pitch modulation as, for example, Mexican Spanish. The intonation is much more lilting and almost sing-song in nature. It sounds a whole lot like Italian to the untrained ear, and that’s because it comes from Italian. Since the 1800s, there have been quite a few waves of immigrants from Italy who ended up settling in Buenos Aires. Their Italian accents rubbed off on the locals, and thus the intonation that you can still hear today.
Once you get past the lovely Italian-inspired “canto”, you’ll have to navigate the crazy world of the “voseo”. All the time spent memorizing verb conjugations in high school Spanish class is a bit for naught, at least in the case of the informal second person singular. That “tú” that you so carefully used only when talking to friends and family (in skits and dialogues, presumably) is a bit useless when talking to Argentinians. Yes, they understand it perfectly, but they will respond using “vos” and the “vos” conjugation, which is used exactly like you would use “tú” in other dialects.
Don’t start worrying just yet, though. The only times that the conjugation is different is when you use the present indicative tense or the affirmative imperative tense. The conjugation is pretty simple, too; it’s actually easier and makes more sense once you get the hang of it. To conjugate verbs in the present indicative “vos”, just take the final “r” off the infinitive form of the verb, replace it with an “s”, and put an accent on the “i”, “e”, or “a” right before the final letter. The affirmative imperative is the same, except with no “s” on the end. There are no irregular conjugations to worry about, so you can breathe a little easier.
In terms of pronunciation, Argentinian Spanish generally features a variation on the “ll” and “y” sound. Normally this sound is about the same as the English “y” as in “yellow”, but in Argentina it takes on the sound of the “s” in “measure”. This can vary from province to province, and even from city to city, but that’s the most common way it’s pronounced. In some areas, there is a different “rr” pronunciation too, where the sound is in between the “s” in “measure” and the regular “rr” sound. This is mostly in the north of the country, but can be found in other provinces as well.
So, now you can see that the Spanish you were taught in high school is definitely not what you will hear from Argentines. Those classes will definitely come in handy if you’re trying to learn (or just understand) Argentinian Spanish, but keep in mind that with a unique country comes a unique way of speaking.
