A Trailing s or n

Submitted by fyl on 15 March, 2004 - 07:55.

If you have talked in Spanish with a Nicaraguan you have probably noticed that an s or an n at the end of a word seems to disappear. I accepted that as just a dialect difference until this morning. Now, I have a new theory. Am I right or crazy (or both)?

I was walking my dog. He likes to socialize so virtually everyone who is out and about between 6 and 7 am knows him. That includes a lot of kids waiting for a bus to take them to school. This morning, as we were walking across the street from his favorite bus stop--that is, one with his favorite group of kids at it--he decides to just ignore them. The kids are surprised and I yell "Carlos no le gustan hoy". I quickly start thinking that maybe I meant "Carlos no les gusta hoy".

Literally, this means "Carlos to him you (plural) are not pleasing today". You would say "Carlos doesn't like you today". The good news is that the indirect object is singular and the verb is plural and I said it right. But, what I realized is that in "Nicaraguan Spanish" I would have said "Carlos no le gusta hoy" which would be correct no matter how many dogs were liking how many people.

So, finally, the question. Is the missing s or n really just a way to simplify the language?

Adio (or adios for the rest of the Spanish-speaking world).

‹ "E" for effort goes for months.... Language Differences in English too ›
( categories: )

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

the s problem is phonetical...

Submitted by Westerman on 10 March, 2005 - 17:47.

The 's' problem is a well known phonetical problem in parts of southern Spain, the Caribean, Central America and parts of South America.

Phonetically, I wasn't aware that we (nicaraguans) had a problem with the 'n' sound at the end of words. I do know that the 'n' sound can be very soft sometimes such as the case in the word 'camion' ka-mi-on and can be sometimes overpowered by the vowel inmediately before it since this vowel always has an accent and is therefore stressed.

Please note, however, that pronouncing these leters is always the correct way of speaking regardless of regionalisms or where in Latin America or Spain one is (in Spanish there are only a few times when it is correct to not pronounce a letter all together... for example, it is phonetically correct to omit the letter 'h' at the beginning of words). I would encourage foreigners to practice the correct pronounciation as you will get into problems when trying to comunicate 'the way locals do.'

I equate it to Southern accen

Submitted by Millsapsmissions on 16 March, 2004 - 15:11.

I equate it to Southern accents versus Northern-speak in the US. Southerners often add syllables where there are none, and up in Boston they don't say their "r's" very often.

But now I find myself speaking Spanish exactly like the Nicaraguans do. It should be interesting to go back to the States and speak to some of our Mexican friends!

Jan in Nicaragua http://suppliants.blogs.com/pura_vida