This is a tricky question, since every Spanish resident will answer something different. We are not here to take any position on which is the best Spanish accent, so what we will do for our Spanish Courses in Madrid, is to list all the accents that we can, to explain them to you.
Dialecto andaluz, Dialecto andaluz oriental, Dialecto extremeño., Dialecto canario., Dialecto manchego, Dialecto madrileño, Dialecto murciano... do they ring any bell?
Multiple accents in Spanish
Of course, where we live shapes the way we talk. But something funny things occur in Spain when, for example, someone is born in the south of Spain but then goes to study and live in Madrid and adopts local expressions from the capital city, such as“mola mazo” (meaning “this rocks!”). Some accents are stronger than others and make it inevitable for people to recognize our origins, a beautiful thing when we are among strangers since it creates community. Most Intensive Spanish Course students won’t recognize an accent at first, but after some months studying the language, you can really notice the differences. That is why at the school we put some much effort in including Listening exercises. Also, it is really helpful to listen to national musicians to grasp slight nuances: flamenco singing will have a southern flavor, while the indie new sounds of Madrid will sound familiar if you have seen Almodóvar films, where this city is one of the main “characters”. If you listen to pop singers from Cataluña, you will find a different language directly. The same happens with Basque country (we really recommend Basque rock from the 80s!) or Galicia. The Galicia region was also really famous for having rebellious rock bands some decades ago. Now, there’s a tendency to value their Gallego language through contemporary girl “neotradi” bands like the Tanxugueiras, who jumped into fame during the 2022 Eurovision contest.
One of the sounds that has the most variety in our language is the S, since in the south of Spain we “ceceamos”, that is, we do not say casa but ca[z]a. In the same way, there is the opposite process, that is, the “seseo” that consists of pronouncing the sound C instead of S, for example, instead of saying cine one says [s]ine. Another of the most widespread phenomena is yeism, that is, pronouncing the LL sound as if it were a Y,[y]ave. Another of the most characteristic elements of the southern part of Spain is the loss of the intervocalic D, if you go to Andalusia you will hear few people say “llamado”, “jugado”, “comido”..., most people will say “llamao”, “jugao”, “comio”.
Latin American and Canary Islands
There are Latin American countries that resemble the Canary Islands to a certain extent (culturally and linguistically) such as Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, due to the emigration of Canary Islanders to these countries from colonial times until the 1950s - especially to Venezuela and Cuba. So when you hear a native “canario” speaking, you may find it hard to distinguish from a Southamerican until they reveal their origin. Of course, Spanish people are more used to these nuances in the accents, but we assure you that for a foreigner it can be really embarrassing when someone speaks to them fast for the first time!
Classes to learn best Spanish accent
That is why we created our Intensive 20 + 5 Spanish Course; because we felt it was a good idea to add private lessons in which to learn all this if you are interested. During private lessons, teachers use colored maps with different visual textures to indicate the virtual areas in which Spanish changes its form and pronunciation.
All in all, the BEST real-life exercise you can do, provided you can, is to travel throughout Spain! Travelling around Spanish territory is dreamy: you change landscapes from the humid and green of the North, to the central, dynamic area, down to the most glorious sunny beaches almost all year long in Andalucía. And do not forget the islands: Spain has 179 islands and 11 are grouped into two internationally known archipelagos, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. However, there are numerous other islands in the territory that almost no one knows about!
