Spanish Dialects: Get to Know 13 Popular Varieties Around The World

Learning Spanish opens doors for easily communicating with people from the southern tip of South America all the way to Europe. And that’s not counting the millions of Spanish-speaking immigrants living all over the rest of the world! Here in the United States, Spanish is the second-most-spoken language in the country with some 40-50 million native speakers. In fact, we even have certain concentrations of Spanish dialects like Caribbean Spanish in New York City and Miami and Mexican Spanish, which serves as a standardized Spanish all over the United States.

Whether you want to travel, do business, or watch the latest telenovela, mastering Spanish with Rosetta Stone’s dynamic immersion learning program is a great way to communicate with Spanish speakers around the world.

What is a dialect? 

Generally, a dialect is a regional variety of a particular language that can vary in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. Dialects are still part of the larger language, and generally speaking, anyone who speaks that language can understand someone who speaks a different dialect. It’s common to group dialects from large regions, such as the Spanish spoken in Latin America versus Spain, by smaller geographic regions like Central America or the Caribbean.

Why are there so many Spanish dialects and variations?

Curious about how many people speak Spanish across the world? Well, it’s the official language of 20 countries and over 500 million people. Spanish disseminated across the world through colonization efforts, but it certainly didn’t happen immediately, consistently, or easily. As any language spreads, its dialects change over time in each region. Each area is different, so locals need a variety of ways to speak about its land, customs, food, and so on. And in many Spanish-speaking countries, indigenous culture influenced the Spanish spoken in that region.

What are the 13 Spanish dialects?

Spanish has many dialects, but we have grouped them into 13 main dialects for you, though some estimates have higher or lower numbers. The two major geographical divisions are Latin America and Spain, but people from those general regions still understand each other since the core language is similar!

Spanish dialects of Latin America 

A great deal of Latin America was colonized by the Spanish, mostly in the sixteenth century. Just as the majority of these nations became independent from Spain approximately three centuries later, they also developed a unique culture and dialect somewhat different from Spain. 

Broadly speaking, Latin America can be divided into two regions: Central America and South America. The Spanish-speaking countries in Central America are Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. (Mexico is typically considered part of North America.) There are nine Spanish-speaking countries in South America, each with their own slightly different variety of Spanish. Let’s explore these differences now.

Mexican Spanish 

Mexican Spanish, while not homogenous, has some distinct features that make it easy to compare Mexican Spanish vs Spain Spanish. It’s the standard Spanish dialect taught across the U.S., and is considered an unofficial second language due to the high number of Spanish speakers. Although there are a wide variety of dialects spoken throughout Mexico, we find the following general characteristics:

• The use of tú for “you” singular
  • Tú eres mi mejor amiga. = You’re my best friend.
• Employing ustedes for the third person plural “you”
• ¡Ustedes comieron todo el pastel! = You ate all the cake!
• Numerous words that come from Nahuatl
  • Aguacate (avocado), the Mexican term, comes from the Nahuatl ahuacatl.

Caribbean Spanish

What we know as Caribbean Spanish is not just from the islands of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. The Caribbean dialect also extends to areas along the coast of Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. Remember that it was on the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) that early Spanish explorers first landed and to which inhabitants from the Canary Islands migrated. 

Since slave traders frequently stopped in the Caribbean, this area’s Spanish dialect was influenced by native African languages and the Caribbean area itself. Still, the majority of the region’s dialect was impacted by Andalusian Spanish, since many of the colonists were from that area. Its main features include:

• The seseo in pronunciation, which means the s and the z sounds are pronounced the same.
• The existence of yeísmo, meaning that the ll sound and the y sound are pronounced equally.
• The l and the r can sometimes sound the same.
• S at the beginning, end, or middle of a word may be debuccalized, meaning softened or even dropped.
• Vocabulary particular to this region, for example: la guagua = the bus.

Central American Spanish

Central Americans can understand each other but their vocabulary may differ from country to country and even region to region. Overall, the distinguishing aspects of Central American Spanish include:

• The voseo, or the use of vos for the second person singular but ustedes for the third person plural.
• The use of the seseo (see above).
• A tendency to soften the pronunciation of some consonants.

South American Spanish

The huge continent of South America has many Spanish-speaking countries, so it’s only natural that its Spanish would vary depending on the country. That said, there are a few overarching particularities of this dialect:

 As mentioned, the areas close to the Caribbean Sea have their own linguistic features. Peruvian Spanish is closer to Mexican Spanish but with influences of Quechua. Like Mexican Spanish, it tends to be spoken slower than other dialects. Since South America is so extensive, we tend to divide the area by country or by geographic region, linguistically speaking.

Colombian Spanish

Known for its beautiful dialect, the Colombian Spanish dialect still differs depending on the region. As we’ve seen, there’s the Spanish from the Caribbean area on the coast, yet highland Spanish can be different. Overall, in Colombia, we find:

• The use of the seseo (the s and z sound the same) and yeísmo (the ll and y sound the same).
• The consonants g, d, and b tend to be pronounced weakly.
• The use of usted even for the friends and family, and ustedes for the third person plural.

Rioplatense Spanish 

Rioplatense Spanish is Spanish spoken within the area around the Río de Plata or the River Plate in English. This area includes Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The interesting aspects of this dialect of Spanish are:

• The use of žeísmo. That’s when words with the ll are pronounced with a slight j sound. However, more recently, that sound has tended to be pronounced with a slight sh sound, known as sheísmo. See how language is constantly evolving?
•  The voseo is widely applied in this dialect.
•  The preterit (past tense) is sometimes employed to indicate the present perfect, for example: Abel no comió could mean “Abel has not eaten” or “Abel did not eat.”

Andean Spanish

We have already mentioned some aspects of Peruvian Spanish, but Andean Spanish also comprises parts of Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador. This Spanish has considerable influence from Quechua and Aymara. Among its characteristics we find:

• The seseo and quite often the voseo.
• Vowels are weakly pronounced and sometimes merged in speaking.

Spanish dialects of Spain

Not only are there different dialects of Spanish spoken in Spain but there are many other official languages spoken, such as Catalan, Valencian, and Gallego. The Spanish dialects are divided into north (Castilian) and south (Andalusian), and east (Murcia) and west (Extremaduran). Let’s explore the differences of what is also known as Peninsular Spanish, the Spanish spoken on the Iberian Peninsula where Spain is located.

Castilian Spanish

As noted in the linguistics book “Lenguas de España,” some essential features of Castilian Spanish are:

• The use of leísmo. This refers to employing the pronoun le as a direct object, whereas in other regions it is used as an indirect object.
  • Le vi en la mañana. = I saw him/her in the morning.
• The existence of laísmo, which means using la and las, often thought of as direct object pronouns, for indirect objects.
  • La voy a dar el dinero. = I am going to give her the money.
• The existence of yeísmo as discussed above.
•  The use of vosotros as the second person plural.

Andalusian Spanish

Andalusian Spanish is particularly interesting because it is the Spanish that influenced Latin American Spanish. Here are some of its distinctive features:

• The seseo in pronunciation means the s and the z are pronounced the same.
• However, in the southern areas of Andalusia, we find the ceceo, where the s and z are pronounced distinctly.
• The use of ustedes for the second person plural.

Extremaduran Spanish

You might guess that Extremadura is located in the extreme west of Spain and closely related to a dialect called Leonese. However, the Extremaduran Spanish dialect should not be confused with the Extremaduran language. Some features of Extremaduran Spanish include:

• The existence of vocabulary originating from Portuguese due to the geographic proximity to Portugal.
• Certain words like aceite (oil) can be considered masculine or feminine
  • el aceite or la aceite = the oil.

Murcian Spanish

Due to the history and southeast location of Murcia, Murcian Spanish has a variety of influences from not just different regions of Spain. Although Spanish has a heavy influence of Arabic due to the presence of Arabs for many centuries on the Iberian Peninsula, the Murcian Spanish dialect has a more abundant use of words originating from Arabic  It’s also influenced by different languages such as Aragonese. Some of its most interesting characteristics are:

• The loss of the b and d sound when these letters are found between two vowels:
  • caeza instead of cabeza = head.
• The Arabic influence is seen in similar words:
  • alhábega (from the Arabic al-hábëqa) = basil.

Spanish dialects of Africa 

Parts of Africa share a close border with Spain—so close that Spain still has territories in Africa across from the Straits of Gibraltar. They’re called Ceuta and Melilla. Aside from the current proximity, Spanish spread across parts of Africa and the nearby Canary Islands during the colonial expansion era. The two most prominent African-Spanish dialects are Equatoguinean and Canarian.

Equatoguinean Spanish

It may come as a surprise that the official language of Equatorial Guinea, on the west coast of Africa, is Spanish! A former Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea became an independent nation in 1968. It’s the only official Spanish-speaking country in Africa, (though other countries heavily use it) and Equatoguinean Spanish has several fascinating features, including:

• The lack of articles such as el, la, los, or los.
• The use of both the ustedes and the vosotros form for second person plural. ¡Muy interesante!

Canarian Spanish

The Canary Islands, still a protectorate of Spain, were conquered in the fifteenth century by the Crown of Castile. As a stopping point for travelers going to and from the Americas during the colonial period, we can find influences from Andalusia and the Americas, especially the Caribbean. Some of its features are:

• Canarian Spanish uses the ustedes form for the third person plural, and some vocabulary from Latin America such as papa for potato.
• As in Latin America and most of Andalusia, Canarians speak with the seseo.

Master Latin American and Peninsular Spanish with Rosetta Stone 

A dialect is a regional variation of a language, and when it comes to Spanish, there are a wide number of dialects. But even if you learn one dialect, you can generally understand a different one. Now that you’ve informed yourself about Spanish dialects, perhaps it’s time to tackle learning one of the Spanish dialects yourself? Then try Rosetta Stone’s dynamic immersion program, which gives you options for Latin American or Peninsular Spanish. 

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Written by Rowena Galavitz 

Rowena Galavitz is a Spanish translator, bilingual copy editor, and language and literature instructor with three master’s degrees who loves Spanish and all things Mexico.