Ceceo
Encyclopedia
In Spanish dialectology
, the terms distinción, seseo and ceceo are used to describe the opposition between dialects that distinguish the phoneme
s /θ/ and /s/, and those that exhibit merger of the two sounds (neutralización) into either /s/ (seseo) or /θ/ (ceceo).
Dialects that distinguish the two sounds, and thus pronounce the words casa "house" and caza "hunt" differently, are described as having distinción, whereas the dialects that lack this distinction and pronounce the two words as homophone
s are described as having seseo if both words are pronounced with [s] or ceceo if both words are pronounced with [θ].
Seseo is typical of the Latin America
n and Canarian dialects
and some dialects of central Andalusia
, whereas distinción is typical of most dialects in Spain, except in much of Andalusia and the Canary Islands. Ceceo is found in some dialects of Spain, in the southernmost part of Andalusia. The Philippine Spanish possesses all of the three sounds.
):
This pronunciation is the standard
on which Spanish orthography
was based, and it is universal in Central and Northern parts of Spain, except for some bilingual speakers of Catalan
and Basque
, according to . Thus, in Spanish the choice between the spellings ⟨sa⟩, ⟨se⟩, ⟨si⟩, ⟨so⟩, ⟨su⟩ and ⟨za⟩, ⟨ce⟩, ⟨ci⟩, ⟨zo⟩, ⟨zu⟩ is determined by the pronunciation in most of Spain, unlike English, where it is often done according to etymology
or orthographic convention
s (although in English, soft c is always /s/ and never /z/ like s is, as with "rise" vs. "rice").
Ceceo is a phenomenon found in a few dialects of southern Spain in which the historical phonemes /s/ and /θ/ are both realized as [θ]. In other words, only the latter sound is used for ⟨s⟩, ⟨z⟩, and soft ⟨c⟩. Ceceo is found primarily in some varieties of Andalusian Spanish
, although Hualde reports that there is some evidence of it in parts of Central America. In a number of Spanish speakers in the Philippines
, ceceo can also be observed, being coexistent with distinción and seseo. It is a largely rural pronunciation and is often stigmatized
. Note that although these dialects make no distinction between the letters ⟨s⟩ and ⟨c⟩/⟨z⟩, they are never pronounced as in English in this case.
are seseantes, and seseo is considered standard in all varieties of Latin American Spanish. This also employs with most of the Spanish speakers in the Philippines
, the lone representative of the Hispanic World in Asia. It does coexist with distinción and ceceo in parts of Spain (e.g. in Canary Islands and in some areas of Andalusia), and again in the Philippines. Traditional dialect atlases (e.g.) show one variant or another used in adjacent regions. In Spain, seseo is considered "more socially acceptable or perhaps 'less substandard' than ceceo."
The following table gives an example of the three pronunciation patterns discussed so far:
). However, as, for instance, in the case of the variation between the standard velar nasal and alveolar pronunciation of the nasal in -ing in English (walking versus walkin), the switching may be entirely unconscious. It is perhaps evidence of the saliency of three-way ceceo-seseo-distinción variation that inconsistent use has elicited evaluative comments by some traditional Spanish dialectologists. For instance, discussed it as "sporadic or chaotic switching [between /s/ and /θ/] and the use of intermediate sounds impossible to determine with precision". proposes the synonymous terms ceseo and seceo to refer to these "mixed" patterns, and notes surprise at a speaker who produced all four possible pronunciations of Zaragoza within the space of a few minutes. In fact, sociolinguistic variation is typically highly structured in terms of how often each variant will appear given various social and linguistic independent variables.
claims that the prevalence of the sound /θ/ in Spanish can be traced back to a Spanish king who spoke with a lisp
, and whose pronunciation spread by prestige borrowing to the rest of the population. This myth has been discredited by scholars for lack of evidence. traces the origins of the legend back to a chronicle of López de Ayala
stating that Pedro of Castile
"lisped a little" ("ceceaba un poco"). The timeline is totally incorrect, however: Pedro reigned in the 14th century, but the sound /θ/ only began to develop in the 16th century (see below). Moreover, it is clear that a true lisp
would not give rise to the systematic distinction between /s/ and /θ/ that characterizes Standard Peninsular pronunciation. For example, a lisp would lead one to pronounce both siento "I feel" and ciento "hundred" the same (as [θjento]), whereas in Standard Peninsular Spanish they are pronounced [sjento] and [θjento], respectively.
Nevertheless, for speakers of seseo varieties of Spanish, where /θ/ is absent, and for people who are more familiar with seseo pronunciation (e.g., learners of Spanish in North America), the use of /θ/ by Peninsular speakers is striking, and does indeed give an impression of "lispiness". The misnomer
"Castilian lisp" is used occasionally to refer to this aspect of Peninsular pronunciation (in both distinción and ceceo varieties).
s, more than any current variety of Spanish. Those eight phonemes merged differently as they evolved during the 16th and early 17th centuries into the pronunciation of the modern dialects. There were four pairs of voiceless
versus voiced
sibilants: dental/alveolar
affricates /t͡s/ vs. /d͡z/ (spelled ⟨c⟩/⟨ç
⟩ vs. ⟨z⟩); dental/alveolar fricatives /s/ (spelled ⟨ss⟩ when intervocalic, ⟨s⟩ otherwise) vs. /z/ (intervocalic only, spelled ⟨s⟩); postalveolar
affricates /t͡ʃ/ vs. /d͡ʒ/; and postalveolar fricatives /ʃ/ vs. /ʒ/ (⟨x⟩ vs. ⟨j⟩ and ⟨g⟩ before ⟨i⟩/⟨e⟩
). Most likely, /dʒ/ deaffricated and merged with /ʒ/ before the year 1500. The main difference between the prestige dialect of North Central Spain and dialects to the south (such as Andalusian Spanish
) was that, in the north, dental/alveolar continuants were more retracted than the affricates (the former pair can be represented as /s̺/ and /z̺/ and the latter as /t͡s̪/ and /d͡z̪/) but homorganic in those to the south such as in Andalusia
.
The first step away from that system was the deaffrication of /d͡z̪/ a couple of decades after 1500. Because of a differing place of articulation
, this still contrasted with /z̺/ in the prestige dialect of North Central Spain, though it was a complete merger for southern dialects.
The second step was the devoicing of voiced sibilants. In the north, /z̺/ and /ʒ/ were lost, though /z̪/ remained contrastive as there had been no voiceless /s̪/. This sound contrasted with two acoustically similar sounds: dentoalveolar /t͡s̪/ and apicoalveolar /s̺/. By 1600, /t͡s̪/ had deaffricated and merged with /s̪/. Subsequent changes to the sound system of Spanish retained the contrasts while enhancing the segments by increasing articulatory distance amongst their rather subtle acoustic contrasts, an appropriate step due to the high productivity of these phonemes in differentiating frequently used minimal pair
s. The dentoalveolar one was moved "forward" to interdental /θ̟/, losing its former sibilance in the process (which increased its acoustic distance to the remaining sibilant ⟨s⟩), and the prepalatal one was moved "backward" to velar
/x/ also losing its former sibilance. All in all resulting in the three-way distinction found in modern Standard Peninsular pronunciation:
In the south, the devoicing process and deaffrication of /t͡s/ gave rise to new fricatives that were indistinguishable from the existing ones. The process of increasing articulatory distance still applied, however, and /ʃ/ retracted to /x/ in the south just as it did in the north. In a number of ceceo areas (particularly the southernmost provinces like Cádiz
) /s/ developed into a non-sibilant apico-dental [θ̺], perceptually similar to the interdental /θ̟/ used by Standard Peninsular speakers for orthographic ⟨c⟩/⟨z⟩. In seseo areas (particularly in the westernmost provinces like Seville
and Huelva
), the resulting phoneme developed a predorsal alveolar realization [s̻] (like English ⟨s⟩), perceptually similar to the apicoalveolar [s̺] used by Standard Peninsular speakers for orthographic ⟨s⟩. This seseo variety was the pronunciation that most impacted Latin America, as many emigrants to the Americas were from Andalusian and Canarian ports. In addition, several generations of Spanish speakers had lived and grown in the Americas before /θ/ appeared in Castilian.
The development of the sibilants in Ladino (which split off from Castilian and other Peninsular varieties in the 15th century) was more conservative, resulting in a system closer to that of Portuguese
.
Spanish dialects and varieties
Spanish dialects and varieties are the regional variants of the Spanish language, some of which are quite divergent from one another, especially in pronunciation and vocabulary, and less so in grammar....
, the terms distinción, seseo and ceceo are used to describe the opposition between dialects that distinguish the phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s /θ/ and /s/, and those that exhibit merger of the two sounds (neutralización) into either /s/ (seseo) or /θ/ (ceceo).
Dialects that distinguish the two sounds, and thus pronounce the words casa "house" and caza "hunt" differently, are described as having distinción, whereas the dialects that lack this distinction and pronounce the two words as homophone
Homophone
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
s are described as having seseo if both words are pronounced with [s] or ceceo if both words are pronounced with [θ].
Seseo is typical of the Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n and Canarian dialects
Canarian Spanish
Canarian Spanish is a variant of standard Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands by the Canarian people, and in the southeastern section of Louisiana in Isleño communities that emigrated to the Americas as early as the 18th century...
and some dialects of central Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, whereas distinción is typical of most dialects in Spain, except in much of Andalusia and the Canary Islands. Ceceo is found in some dialects of Spain, in the southernmost part of Andalusia. The Philippine Spanish possesses all of the three sounds.
Distinction
Distinction refers to the differentiated pronunciation of the two Spanish phonemes written ⟨s⟩ and ⟨z⟩ or ⟨c⟩ (only before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, the so-called "soft" ⟨c⟩Hard and soft C
In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages , a distinction between hard and soft ⟨c⟩ occurs in which ⟨c⟩ represents two distinct phonemes...
):
- ⟨s⟩ represents a voiceless alveolar fricativeVoiceless alveolar fricativeThe voiceless alveolar sibilant is a common consonant sound in spoken languages. It is the sound in English words such as sea and pass, and is represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as . It has a characteristic high-pitched, highly perceptible hissing sound...
/s/ (either laminalLaminal consonantA laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue on the top. This contrasts with apical consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the tongue apex only...
like in English, or apicalApical consonantAn apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue . This contrasts with laminal consonants, which are produced by creating an obstruction with the blade of the tongue .This is not a very common distinction, and typically applied only to fricatives...
); - ⟨z⟩ and soft ⟨c⟩ represent a voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ (the ⟨th⟩ in think).
This pronunciation is the standard
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
on which Spanish orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
was based, and it is universal in Central and Northern parts of Spain, except for some bilingual speakers of Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
and Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
, according to . Thus, in Spanish the choice between the spellings ⟨sa⟩, ⟨se⟩, ⟨si⟩, ⟨so⟩, ⟨su⟩ and ⟨za⟩, ⟨ce⟩, ⟨ci⟩, ⟨zo⟩, ⟨zu⟩ is determined by the pronunciation in most of Spain, unlike English, where it is often done according to etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
or orthographic convention
Convention (norm)
A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....
s (although in English, soft c is always /s/ and never /z/ like s is, as with "rise" vs. "rice").
Mergers
In many other Spanish-speaking regions and countries, however, the phonemic distinction between /s/ and /θ/ has been neutralized or merged. These varieties of Spanish are sometimes said to exhibit neutralización ('neutralization') as opposed to distinción. In this case, their pronunciation may or may not coincide with the English pronunciation.Ceceo
Andalusian Spanish
The Andalusian varieties of Spanish are spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla and Gibraltar. They include perhaps the most distinct of the southern variants of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern varieties, and also from Standard Spanish...
, although Hualde reports that there is some evidence of it in parts of Central America. In a number of Spanish speakers in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, ceceo can also be observed, being coexistent with distinción and seseo. It is a largely rural pronunciation and is often stigmatized
Register (linguistics)
In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...
. Note that although these dialects make no distinction between the letters ⟨s⟩ and ⟨c⟩/⟨z⟩, they are never pronounced as in English in this case.
Seseo
Seseo is the merger in the opposite direction: the original phonemes /s/ and /θ/ are both pronounced as [s]. Seseo is the most widespread pronunciation among Spanish speakers worldwide. Although a minority pronunciation in Spain, virtually all speakers in Hispanic AmericaHispanic America
Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
are seseantes, and seseo is considered standard in all varieties of Latin American Spanish. This also employs with most of the Spanish speakers in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, the lone representative of the Hispanic World in Asia. It does coexist with distinción and ceceo in parts of Spain (e.g. in Canary Islands and in some areas of Andalusia), and again in the Philippines. Traditional dialect atlases (e.g.) show one variant or another used in adjacent regions. In Spain, seseo is considered "more socially acceptable or perhaps 'less substandard' than ceceo."
The following table gives an example of the three pronunciation patterns discussed so far:
| la casa "the house" | la caza "the hunt" | |
| distinción | /la ˈkasa/ | /la ˈkaθa/ |
| ceceo | /la ˈkaθa/ | /la ˈkaθa/ |
| seseo | /la ˈkasa/ | /la ˈkasa/ |
Ceseo or seceo
Many speakers of ceceo and seseo dialects in Spain show sociolinguistic variation in usage. In some cases, this variation may arise when a ceceo or seseo speaker more or less consciously attempts to use distinción in response to sociolinguistic pressure (hypercorrectionHypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
). However, as, for instance, in the case of the variation between the standard velar nasal and alveolar pronunciation of the nasal in -ing in English (walking versus walkin), the switching may be entirely unconscious. It is perhaps evidence of the saliency of three-way ceceo-seseo-distinción variation that inconsistent use has elicited evaluative comments by some traditional Spanish dialectologists. For instance, discussed it as "sporadic or chaotic switching [between /s/ and /θ/] and the use of intermediate sounds impossible to determine with precision". proposes the synonymous terms ceseo and seceo to refer to these "mixed" patterns, and notes surprise at a speaker who produced all four possible pronunciations of Zaragoza within the space of a few minutes. In fact, sociolinguistic variation is typically highly structured in terms of how often each variant will appear given various social and linguistic independent variables.
Origins
Castilian lisp
A persistent urban legendUrban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
claims that the prevalence of the sound /θ/ in Spanish can be traced back to a Spanish king who spoke with a lisp
Lisp
A lisp is a speech impediment, historically also known as sigmatism. Stereotypically, people with a lisp are unable to pronounce sibilants , and replace them with interdentals , though there are actually several kinds of lisp...
, and whose pronunciation spread by prestige borrowing to the rest of the population. This myth has been discredited by scholars for lack of evidence. traces the origins of the legend back to a chronicle of López de Ayala
Pero López de Ayala
Don Pero López de Ayala was a Castilian statesman, historian, poet, chronicler, chancellor, and courtier. Ayala were one of the major aristocratic families of Castile; they were later claimed to be of the Jewish converso descent, but Pero's own father composed a genealogy tracing the family from...
stating that Pedro of Castile
Pedro of Castile
Peter , sometimes called "the Cruel" or "the Lawful" , was the king of Castile and León from 1350 to 1369. He was the son of Alfonso XI of Castile and Maria of Portugal, daughter of Afonso IV of Portugal...
"lisped a little" ("ceceaba un poco"). The timeline is totally incorrect, however: Pedro reigned in the 14th century, but the sound /θ/ only began to develop in the 16th century (see below). Moreover, it is clear that a true lisp
Lisp
A lisp is a speech impediment, historically also known as sigmatism. Stereotypically, people with a lisp are unable to pronounce sibilants , and replace them with interdentals , though there are actually several kinds of lisp...
would not give rise to the systematic distinction between /s/ and /θ/ that characterizes Standard Peninsular pronunciation. For example, a lisp would lead one to pronounce both siento "I feel" and ciento "hundred" the same (as [θjento]), whereas in Standard Peninsular Spanish they are pronounced [sjento] and [θjento], respectively.
Nevertheless, for speakers of seseo varieties of Spanish, where /θ/ is absent, and for people who are more familiar with seseo pronunciation (e.g., learners of Spanish in North America), the use of /θ/ by Peninsular speakers is striking, and does indeed give an impression of "lispiness". The misnomer
Misnomer
A misnomer is a term which suggests an interpretation that is known to be untrue. Such incorrect terms sometimes derive their names because of the form, action, or origin of the subject becoming named popularly or widely referenced—long before their true natures were known.- Sources of misnomers...
"Castilian lisp" is used occasionally to refer to this aspect of Peninsular pronunciation (in both distinción and ceceo varieties).
Historical evolution
In the 15th century Spanish had developed eight sibilant phonemePhoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s, more than any current variety of Spanish. Those eight phonemes merged differently as they evolved during the 16th and early 17th centuries into the pronunciation of the modern dialects. There were four pairs of voiceless
Voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of...
versus voiced
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
sibilants: dental/alveolar
Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
affricates /t͡s/ vs. /d͡z/ (spelled ⟨c⟩/⟨ç
Ç
is a Latin script letter, used in the Albanian, Azerbaijani, Ligurian, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Kurdish and Zazaki alphabets. This letter also appears in Catalan, French, Friulian, Occitan and Portuguese as a variant of the letter “c”...
⟩ vs. ⟨z⟩); dental/alveolar fricatives /s/ (spelled ⟨ss⟩ when intervocalic, ⟨s⟩ otherwise) vs. /z/ (intervocalic only, spelled ⟨s⟩); postalveolar
Postalveolar consonant
Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate...
affricates /t͡ʃ/ vs. /d͡ʒ/; and postalveolar fricatives /ʃ/ vs. /ʒ/ (⟨x⟩ vs. ⟨j⟩ and ⟨g⟩ before ⟨i⟩/⟨e⟩
Hard and soft G
In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages , a distinction between hard and soft ⟨g⟩ occurs in which ⟨g⟩ represents two distinct phonemes...
). Most likely, /dʒ/ deaffricated and merged with /ʒ/ before the year 1500. The main difference between the prestige dialect of North Central Spain and dialects to the south (such as Andalusian Spanish
Andalusian Spanish
The Andalusian varieties of Spanish are spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla and Gibraltar. They include perhaps the most distinct of the southern variants of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern varieties, and also from Standard Spanish...
) was that, in the north, dental/alveolar continuants were more retracted than the affricates (the former pair can be represented as /s̺/ and /z̺/ and the latter as /t͡s̪/ and /d͡z̪/) but homorganic in those to the south such as in Andalusia
Andalusian Spanish
The Andalusian varieties of Spanish are spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla and Gibraltar. They include perhaps the most distinct of the southern variants of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern varieties, and also from Standard Spanish...
.
The first step away from that system was the deaffrication of /d͡z̪/ a couple of decades after 1500. Because of a differing place of articulation
Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator , and a passive location...
, this still contrasted with /z̺/ in the prestige dialect of North Central Spain, though it was a complete merger for southern dialects.
| pronunciation | orthography | ||
| voiced affricates → fricatives | voiced | /dʒ/ → /ʒ/ | ⟨j⟩ or soft ⟨g⟩ |
| voiced | /d͡z̪/ → /z̪/ | ⟨z⟩ | |
| voiceless affricates | voiceless | /t͡ʃ/ | ⟨ch⟩ |
| voiceless | /t͡s̪/ | ⟨c⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩) or ⟨ç⟩ (before ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩) | |
| apicoalveolar fricatives | voiced | /z̺/ | intervocalic ⟨s⟩ |
| voiceless | /s̺/ | ⟨s⟩ (syllable-initial or -final) or ⟨ss⟩ (intervocalic) | |
| postalveolar fricatives | voiced | /ʒ/ | ⟨j⟩ or ⟨g⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩) |
| voiceless | /ʃ/ | ⟨x⟩ |
The second step was the devoicing of voiced sibilants. In the north, /z̺/ and /ʒ/ were lost, though /z̪/ remained contrastive as there had been no voiceless /s̪/. This sound contrasted with two acoustically similar sounds: dentoalveolar /t͡s̪/ and apicoalveolar /s̺/. By 1600, /t͡s̪/ had deaffricated and merged with /s̪/. Subsequent changes to the sound system of Spanish retained the contrasts while enhancing the segments by increasing articulatory distance amongst their rather subtle acoustic contrasts, an appropriate step due to the high productivity of these phonemes in differentiating frequently used minimal pair
Minimal pair
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings...
s. The dentoalveolar one was moved "forward" to interdental /θ̟/, losing its former sibilance in the process (which increased its acoustic distance to the remaining sibilant ⟨s⟩), and the prepalatal one was moved "backward" to velar
Velar consonant
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
/x/ also losing its former sibilance. All in all resulting in the three-way distinction found in modern Standard Peninsular pronunciation:
| original 6-way contrast | deaffrication 1 | devoicing | deaffrication 2 | modern distinción | orthography |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /d͡z̪/ – /t͡s̪/ | /z̪/ – /t͡s̪/ | /s̪/ – /t͡s̪/ | /s̪/ | [θ̟] | ⟨z⟩ or ⟨c⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩) |
| /z̺/ – /s̺/ | /s̺/ | [s̺] | ⟨s⟩ | ||
| /ʒ/ – /ʃ/ | /ʃ/ | [x] | ⟨j⟩ or ⟨g⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩) | ||
In the south, the devoicing process and deaffrication of /t͡s/ gave rise to new fricatives that were indistinguishable from the existing ones. The process of increasing articulatory distance still applied, however, and /ʃ/ retracted to /x/ in the south just as it did in the north. In a number of ceceo areas (particularly the southernmost provinces like Cádiz
Cádiz (province)
Cádiz is a province of southern Spain, in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia, the southernmost part of continental Western Europe....
) /s/ developed into a non-sibilant apico-dental [θ̺], perceptually similar to the interdental /θ̟/ used by Standard Peninsular speakers for orthographic ⟨c⟩/⟨z⟩. In seseo areas (particularly in the westernmost provinces like Seville
Seville (province)
Seville is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Málaga, Cádiz, Huelva, Badajoz, and Córdoba.Its area is 14,042 km²...
and Huelva
Huelva (province)
Huelva is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by Portugal, the provinces of Badajoz, Seville, and Cádiz, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is Huelva....
), the resulting phoneme developed a predorsal alveolar realization [s̻] (like English ⟨s⟩), perceptually similar to the apicoalveolar [s̺] used by Standard Peninsular speakers for orthographic ⟨s⟩. This seseo variety was the pronunciation that most impacted Latin America, as many emigrants to the Americas were from Andalusian and Canarian ports. In addition, several generations of Spanish speakers had lived and grown in the Americas before /θ/ appeared in Castilian.
| original 6-way contrast | deaffrication 1 | devoicing | deaffrication 2 | modern ceceo | modern seseo | orthography |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /d͡z/ – /t͡s/ | /z/ – /ts/ | /s/ – /ts/ | /s/ | [θ̺] | [s̻] | ⟨z⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨s⟩ |
| /z/ – /s/ | ||||||
| /ʒ/ – /ʃ/ | /ʃ/ | [x] | [x] | ⟨j⟩ or ⟨g⟩ (before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩) | ||
The development of the sibilants in Ladino (which split off from Castilian and other Peninsular varieties in the 15th century) was more conservative, resulting in a system closer to that of Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
.
See also
- History of the Spanish languageHistory of the Spanish languageThe language known today as Spanish is derived from a dialect of spoken Latin that developed in the north-central part of the Iberian Peninsula in what is now northern Spain. Over the past 1,000 years, the language expanded south to the Mediterranean Sea, and was later transferred to the Spanish...
- Spanish dialects and varietiesSpanish dialects and varietiesSpanish dialects and varieties are the regional variants of the Spanish language, some of which are quite divergent from one another, especially in pronunciation and vocabulary, and less so in grammar....
- Spanish phonologySpanish phonologyThis article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Spanish language. Unless otherwise noted, statements refer to Castilian Spanish, the standard dialect used in Spain on radio and television. For historical development of the sound system see History of Spanish...
External links
- Articles on seseo and ceceo in the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas of the Real Academia EspañolaReal Academia EspañolaThe Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
- An explanation of the development of Mediæval Spanish sibilants in Castile and Andalusia.
- A recording of the sibilants, as they would have been pronounced in medieval Spanish.