Mexican Spanish vs. European Spanish

 

 

    Hello! For this blog post, I watched a video from Langfocus titled “Mexican Spanish and What Makes it Notorious.” I was intrigued by this video since I know some Spanish, but my Spanish is more of a Tex-Mex Spanglish, heavily influenced by where I live. I also know that the Spaniards eventually conquered Mexico. Still, I wanted to see what else I could learn from this video that focuses on the Spanish language in Mexico, which is only 9 miles from my house. The video briefly explains how the Aztecs ruled most of central Mexico for many years. In 1521, the Aztecs were conquered by Spain, but their native language, Nahuatl, persevered, resulting in 1.7 million people still speaking Nahuatl today.

    Langfoucs moves on in the video to dissect the Spanish spoken in Mexico. They explain that it's similar to European Spanish, which I found hard to believe. I've watched popular Netflix shows like Elite and La Casa De Papel, and the Spanish those actors speak in the shows is very different from the Spanish my friends and family speak here in the Valley. It's still understandable for the most part, but I can't go on watching without the subtitles! One feature that makes Mexican Spanish stand out from European Spanish is the seseo. That means that in Mexican Spanish, the letter Z or C before I or E is pronounced [s] rather than [Ɵ]. This made sense to me after we reviewed the phonological alphabet in class.The reason the seseo stuck with Mexican Spanish is that most of the settlers were from Andalusia, a part of Spain that utilized the seseo.

     Another example that Langfocus mentioned was the use of the pronoun vosotros. While taking Spanish classes in grade school, learning the forms of the pronouns vosotros and their different verb endings was part of our curriculum. Still, our teachers always mentioned how it wasn't as important as nosotros because the people we live around don’t use it. Langfocus also said that learning vosotros is not necessary for learning Mexican Spanish. 

 

            

     A part of the video that was also interesting was the vocabulary differences between the two Spanish. I didn’t know that car in Spain would be coche whereas I am more familiar with the Mexican version of carro. I am familiar with gafas meaning sunglasses, and lentes meaning reading glasses. Still, in the video, Langfocus explains that they both mean glasses, but lentes is commonly used in Mexico.

 

 

This video was packed full of information, and Langfocus did well at explaining the language.

 

Jorgensen, Paul. “Mexican Spanish and What Makes it NOTORIOUS.” Youtube, uploaded by Langfocus, 31 January 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMTYzQd9FUY. Accessed 23 April 2023.