





El español llega a México con las primeras oleadas de colonizadores.
Hernán Cortés llega a Yucatán en 1519 y funda Veracruz en la línea
costera.
La colonia de Nueva España se expande hacia el norte, hasta la
mitad de los actuales EEUU y Panamá, y hacia Centroamérica.
En 1521 cae la ciudad azteca de Tenochtitlán y en 1535 la colonia se
convierte en Virreinato. El castellano se eleva a lengua oficial,
mientras que el náhuatl es promovido como “lingua franca”.
México se independiza de España en 1821. Hasta el momento, sólo
un 40% de la población hablaba español. Se intenta castellanizar a la
población, sin éxito, suprimiendo la identidad étnica índigena.
Tras la Revolución, 1910-1920, aumenta la proporción de hablantes
de español gracias a la masificación de la instrucción pública.
Actualmente, la mayor parte de la población habla español, pero la
presencia de las lenguas indígenas persiste.





El Virreinato de Nueva España supone un foco de la colonización y el español
se extiende rápidamente por 2 razones: la intervención de la Iglesia y el
mestizaje.
Especialmente en la zona costera caribeña, influyó el español hablado en
Andalucía y en Canarias, pues muchos colonizadores establecidos en esa
zona procedían de allí.
Existían muchas lenguas indígenas antes de llegar el español, como las
lenguas mayas, el zapoteco, el mixteco, el totonaco o el huasteca. Las que
más han influido en el desarrollo del español mexicano han sido el náhuatl,
cuya presencia aún es fuerte, y las lenguas mayas del Yucatán, que dan
nombre a la variante de español “yucateco”.
Texas pasa a formar parte de EEUU en 1846, y tras la Cesión mexicana, en
1847, México pierde los territorios conocidos hoy como Arizona, California,
Nevada, Utah y Nuevo México. Durante el conflicto de la Revolución, mucho
mexicanos emigran a EEUU. De ahí en adelante, existe una fuerte influencia
inglesa en la lengua.
Como consecuencia, la presencia del español mexicano se aplica no sólo a
México, sino también a los antiguos territorios, donde aún es fuerte, y a las
zonas de EEUU donde emigraron los trabajadores mexicanos.



Lipski, J. M. (1996). El español de América. Madrid: Cátedra.
Zamora, Sergio. “Historia del español de América”. (En línea).
http://www.elcastellano.org/histamer.html [09/03/2011]
Zamora, Sergio. “El español de México”. (En línea).
http://szamora.freeservers.com/espmex.htm [09/03/2011]
0.80%
Languages Spoken in Mexico (2005)
0.80%
Spanish only
5.70%
Spanish and indigenous
languages
Indigenous only
92.70%
Source: CIA World Factbook
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/mx.html)
Unspecified

Increasing radio presence, especially online-based
stations

Agreements to distribute Mexican Spanish programmes
through both the US and Mexico

Mexican television is especially noted for the popularity
of telenovelas, which are then exported all over the
world – including Asia and Eastern Europe (thus
exporting Mexican Spanish):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weg3su8nBqU&feat
ure=related

Mexican Spanish is also exported via film (eg Y
Tú Mama También).
Political language in Mexico was usually highregister and not understood by the campesinos.
However, politicians now try to make the
language as accessible as possible:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fuaW8La9y
w

Phonology
General Characteristics
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use of seseo
Use of yeísmo apart from distinguished areas
Retention of consonants. Conservation of voiced
intervocalic /b/ /d/ /g/
Maintain all letters in pronunciation of –ado and other
phoneme consonants like in sequences like /kst/ eg
extraordinario and texto, and /ksk/ exquisito, /nst/
construir, /bst/ abtracto, /ks/ examen, satisfaccion,
/kt/ acto and /tl/ atlas.
It is considered vulgar to pronounce like –cansao,
estremo, escusar, testo, satisfacion, adlas.
In most of country, /s/ is retained in all positions but in
some coastal areas, not all, there is aspiration or elision.
/s/ has been retained in interior.
General characteristics continued…
 Loss of vowels in words with /s/ like ant’s,
noch’s.
 Assibilation of final position/r/
 Assibilation voiced or unvoiced is produced
before a pause /salir’/ /komer’/
 NAHUATL INFLUENCE: pre paletal voiceless
fricative (sordo) /x/
 /rr/ alveolar trill for most of Mexico but for
bilingual speakers tends to be pronounced as /r/
 /z/ in place of /rr/ used by middle and upper
class female speakers.
 As is the affricate pronunciation of /tr/.
 Laxed pronunciation of /e/ in final closed
syllables. E.g después
 Word-final /n/ is alveolar in interior and velar in
the Yucatan and coastal zones.
Central Mexico
 /y/ has palatal friction
 High rates of unstressed vowel reduction and elision.
(mostly in contact with /s/)
 Syllable-final /r/ pronounced as a voiceless sibilant.
 Velar pronunciation of /x/
 /s/ rarely deletes or even aspirates, which gives sibilant
[s] special prominence.
North-western Mexico
 /s/ reduced in most rural areas.
 [ ] interdentalised
 Aspiration of word-initial /s/
 /s/ does not tend to reduce in United States Spanish
dialects of Mexican origin.
Yucatan Spanish
• The Spanish spoken in the Yucatán is readily identifiable
as different due to heavy influence by the Spanish accent
and Yucatec Maya language, which is spoken by a third of
the population of the State of Yucatán.
• The Mayan language is harshly melodic, filled with
explosive consonants (p, k and t) and "sh" sounds
(represented by the letter "x" in the Mayan language).


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


Pronunciation of final /n/ as [m]
Phoneme /y/ is weak and subject to elision in the
north and in Yucatan/Chiapas region.
/s/ usually resistant but sometimes aspirates or is
deleted
/s/ becomes weaker along border with Belize
Tendency for stressed vowels to be extremely
lengthened. Unstressed vowels rarely if ever reduce.
Strong intervocalic /b/, /d/ and /g/ is the rule
Aspiration of /p/ /t/ and /k/ frequent
Voiceless stops often voiced following nasals eg.
Finca becomes [fiŋga] (meaning “farm” in mexico)
Posterior fricative /x/ is a weak aspiration [h]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxMtEyN_
FaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDLVJzZe
PHc&playnext=1&list=PL850C70CEEC82C305







Word final /n/ is velar (ng) ŋ
Syllable final /s/ is weakened on both coasts
Veracruz: prestigious Mexico City dialect has influenced
educated people to maintain sibilant [s] particularly phrase
finally
Lower socioeconomic strata reduction of /s/ common.
Different to typical Caribbean sound.
Acapulco: similar situation; m/c use phrase final /s/ as
[s] and lower class tend to reduce like in Caribbean.
Posterior fricative /x/ as weak [h]
Neutralization of syllable final /l/ and /r/ and loss of final
/r/ in verb infinitives found at lowest socioec strata in
rural areas. But levels of reduction not as dramatic as in
Caribbean and southern spain.



Bibliography
Alvar, M, Manual de dialectología hispánica:El
español de América, Barcelona : Editorial
Ariel, 1996
Lipski, J.M, Latin American Spanish, London:
Longman, 1994
Morphology, Syntax and Lexis

Voseo is only used in the South-East part of Mexico

Use of ‘ustedes’ instead of ‘vosotros’: ‘¿Qué van a tomar
ustedes?’



Duplication of the syllable ‘-si’ in the superlative form of an
adjective: from ‘bellísimo’> ’bellisisimo’; ‘ fortísimo’ >
‘fuertisisimo’; ‘grandísimo’> ‘grandisisimo’…
Verbs which end in –iar become in –ía or –ío in the Mexican
Spanish: from negociar- ‘negocia un asunto’> ‘negocía un
asunto’; diferenciar- ‘no diferencio las letras’> ‘diferencío
las letras’
‘le’ is add at the end of an imperative form: From ‘Juan,
¡corre que pierdes el autobús!’ > ‘Juan, ¡córrele que pierdes el
autobús!’; ‘¡Cántale una canción al niño!’ > ’¡Cantále una
canción al niño!’


The second person singular is always written with a ‘tilde’:
from ‘tú cantas’ > ‘tú cantás’; ‘tú bebes’ > ‘tú bebés’; ‘tú
vives’> ‘tú vivís’
Hiatus become diphthongs: from ‘peor’> ‘pior’; ‘pelear’>
‘peliar’; ‘pasear’> ‘pasiar’



The use of ‘perífrasis del gerundio’ : From ‘acabo de llegar’
> ‘voy llegando’; ‘hagamos una cosa’> ‘vamos haciendo
una cosa’
The preposition ‘hasta’ expresses a beginning in the Mexican
Spanish: from ‘NO viene HASTA las 2pm’> ‘viene hasta las
2pm’
The use of an adjective instead of an adverb expressing the
same idea: from ‘venía rápidamente’> ‘venía muy rápido’



-


Mexicanismos: ‘chamaco’ = ‘niño’; ‘chavo’= ‘chico’; ‘charola’=
‘bandeja’ (tray); ‘¡híjole!’ = ‘¡vaya!’ (it expresses surprise); ‘¡Órale!’=
‘¡vamos!’; ‘muy padre’= ‘muy bueno’ (great); ‘platicar’ = ‘hablar’
Arcaísmos: ‘se me parece’ (‘me parece’); ‘¿Qué TANTO cuestan las
manzanas?’ (‘¿CUÁNTO cuestan las manzanas?’)
Anglicismos: ‘Bye’, ’hobby’, ‘folder’…
Préstamos Lingüísticos: From ‘baseball’> ‘béisbol’; ‘to film’>
‘filmar’…
From ‘I applied to the University’> ‘apliqué para la universidad’
(postulé para la universidad); ‘I suppose not to go’ > ‘yo asumo que
no iré’ (creo que no iré); ‘Cars are not rented’> ‘no se rentan carros’
(no se alquilan coches).
Extranjerismos: ‘¡Qué cool!’ (‘¡está de padre!’ (from the Mexican
Spanish); ‘es genial’ (Spanish)); from Galicia: ‘morriña’ (sadness or to
be sleepy); from The Basque Country: ‘arroyo’ (stream)


“Academia Mexicana de la Lengua” [online]; [10 March 2011]
http://www.academia.org.mx/dicmex.php
“El Español de Mexico” [Online],[10 March 2011]<
http://www.espanolsinfronteras.com/AcercaIdioma04Espanol
deMexico.htm>

Lipski, J.M, El Español de América. Madrid: Cátedra,1996

“Mexican Spanish Vocabulary” [Online],2009 [10 March 2011]
http://www.espanol-ingles.com.mx/mexican-spanish/

Zamora, Sergio. “El Español de Mexico”[online], 2002 [10
March 2011] <http://szamora.freeservers.com/espmex.htm>



Despite the death of the Aztec Empire, the
Aztec culture and language continued to
thrive over the centuries.
1634 – King Philip IV commanded that the
natives learn Spanish in order to help them
better understand the Spanish way of life.
1771, 1776 and 1778 - King Charles III
issued royal decrees in, instructing his
subjects that the Indians should be taught
Spanish.


The states with the largest number of Náhuatl speakers
in 1930 were:
1. Puebla (132,013)
2. Veracruz (70,993)
3. Hidalgo (66,823)
4. Guerrero (45,619), and
5. San Luis Potosí (24,074)
1940 census: Puebla continued to have the largest
number of Náhuatl monolingual speakers in the
Mexican Republic, with 117,917 persons five years
of age and older, representing 32.7% of the total
Náhuatl monolingual population of 360,071. The
other states with significant numbers of Náhuatl
monolingual speakers were: Hidalgo (77,664),
Veracruz (76,765), Guerrero (41,164), and San Luis
Potosí (32,251).
SPEAKERS OF THE NÁHUATL LANGUAGE IN THE
1970 CENSUS (All figures are for persons five years of
age and older)
State
Puebla
Veracruz
Guerrero
Hidalgo
San Luis
Potosí
Tlaxcala
Morelos
México
Oaxaca
Mexican
Republic
Speakers Percentage of the Entire Náhuatl
of the
Speaking Population of the
Mexican Republic
Náhuatl
Language
5 Years of
Age and
More
266,181
199,435
160,183
115,359
72,495
33.3%
24.9%
20.0%
14.4%
9.1%
18,404
14,787
10,366
5,624
799,394
2.3%
1.8%
1.3%
0.7%
100%
Copyright © 2004, John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved
STATES WITH THE LARGEST POPULATIONS OF
PERSONS SPEAKING THE NÁHUATL LANGUAGE 2000 CENSUS (All figures are for persons five
years of age and older)
State
Population
Percentage
Puebla
416,968
28.8%
Veracruz
Hidalgo
338,324
221,684
23.3%
15.3%
San Luis Potosí 138,523
9.6%
Guerrero
136,681
9.4%
México
55,802
3.9%
Distrito Federal 37,450
2.6%
Tlaxcala
26,662
1.8%
Morelos
Oaxaca
18,656
10,979
1.3%
0.8%
Jalisco
6,714
0.5%
Sinaloa
6,446
0.4%
Mexican
Republic
1,448,936
100%
Copyright © 2004, John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved



Although Spanish has greatly influenced the
Náhuatl language over the last five centuries,
the influence of Náhuatl on the Spanish and
English languages has also been profound.
Náhuatl has provided a huge number of words
to the Spanish language, including aguacate,
chile, chocolate, coyote, guacamole, mescal,
peyote, and tomate.
English language has also adopted many words
that have their roots in Náhuatl, including
avocado, chocolate, coyote, ocelot, tomato and
tequila.


The Mayan language family comprises five sub-families and includes
many languages that are spoken in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. In
Mexico, Mayan languages are spoken in seven states: Chiapas,
Tabasco, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche, San Luis Potosí and
Veracruz
The five subfamilies of Mayan languages are: Ch'ol-Tzotzil,
Huastecan , Yucatecan , Chujean-Kanjobal, Quichean-Mamean



The third most common Mexican language
after Nahuatl is Yucatec Maya.
Mayan languages come from Proto-Mayan, a
language that is at least 5,000 years old.
Yucatec Maya uses ejective consonants,
pronounced with a popping sound and does
not have a grammatical category of tense.
Lee Stacy Mexico and the United States (Marshall
Cavendish, 2002 )
http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/nahuatl.html
http://www.sil.org/Mexico/maya/00imaya.htm#CholTzotzil
http://www.mexicoadventure.com/mexicanlanguage.html
Yury Villalonga-Stanton





Due to its geography and extensive history of colonisation, Mexico
provides us with a wonderful array of linguistic traits.
The conquest of the America’s saw a doubtless influence on the manner
in which many of these languages are spoken today, although some
indigenous language speakers maintain they remain unaffected even to
this day from outside language influences.
The Mexican government recognises 62 indigenous languages still in
use today in Mexico – although linguists assert that there are over 100.
Although many languages have to an extent assimilated with Spanish at least certain words and phrases - not many would admit to having
had a grammatical influence.
However, the Mexican-American war resulted in mass movement of
Mexicans across the border. This language contact has undoubtedly had
an effect on the way Mexican-American is spoken
◦
◦
◦
◦
http://globalrecordings.net/en/program/C22830 - Track 106 - Oaxaca Sierra
http://globalrecordings.net/en/program/C22830 - Track 63 - Mixteco, Tututepec
http://globalrecordings.net/docs/mx/MapaMixteco2006.pdf
http://globalrecordings.net/docs/mx/MapaOtrosIdiomas2006.pdf




There is no universally accepted division of Mexico into internal dialect
zones – although all Mexicans regard the chilango speech of Mexico City
as unique
Mexican norteño speech is characterized by its singsong intonation
popularized in ranchera music and Mexican cowboy films – this form of
speech is seen in the Durango region and extends well into the US unsurprisingly, now when the word norteño is heard, one assumes they
are talking about the Mexican country music style
Yucateco pronunciation is typical only of bilingual Maya-Spanish
speakers – the protagonist in Mel Gibson’s film Apocalypto spoke
Yucateco
It is interesting to note that Mexicans base intuitive dialect divisions
mostly on intonation, but dialectologists have primarily relied on
segmental phonetic data, and only secondarily on lexical variables
◦

This implies a subjective form of categorization – a leading problem in defining definitive
boundaries and definitions when dealing with dialects within speech communities
See map to gain idea into how many indigenous languages there are in
Mexico



The Spanish Yucatan belongs linguistically to Central America, as does the
state of Chiapas and neighbouring zones.
In the Yucatan Peninsula, the indigenous populations speak Maya languages
Away from Urban centre such as Mérida, Mayan continues to be the principle
language, although improved rural education is causing an increase in the
number of yucatecos who are fluent in Spanish



In southwest Mexico several languages came into contact with Spanish:
including Zapotecan, Mixtecan, Totonacan and Huastecan
In northern Mexico Otomí is spoken, Tarrascan is found to the west of
Mexico City, and Yaqui is found in north-western Mexico
But the major indigenous contributor to the development of Mexican
Spanish is Nahuatl said to still be spoken by over 2.5 million speakers
today
◦ When Cortés arrived in Mexico, although the Aztec empire only covered part of
Mexico, Nahuatl was spoken far and wide stretching from the Pacific coast of Central
America to as far as Costa Rica
◦ The result was that Cortés and his men used Nahuatl to mediate multilingual
encounters, thus minimising the need to learn other indigenous languages or
variants.

Nahuatl was adopted by Spanish religious personnel and used as a
lingua franca for catechistic and administrative purposes
◦ Thus, further institutionalizing its use
◦ This is one of the first and most influential language contacts in South American
history

It is not clear how many Spaniards ever learned Nahuatl, but in rural
areas where the indigenous population was concentrated, Spanish never
completely displaced Nahuatl, giving rise to long-standing bilingualism,
whose possible effects on Mexican Spanish continue to be debated.



Although there are Nahuatl words present in Spanish today, the Nahuatl influence
is only present in the most superficial level of the linguistic system: the lexical
Nahuatl – alongside other indigenous Mexican languages – and their influence on
the phonological and grammatical domains however, are non existent.
Some of the words used in Mexican Spanish come from Nahuatl which, as a
result, introduces certain phonetic varieties that wouldn’t otherwise normally be
present in Spanish. For example:
◦
Voiceless alveo-palatal fricative /ʃ/ - pronounced like the ‘sh’ in ‘shop’ = found in words
like mixiote, nixtamal, xocoyote
Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate /tʃ/ - pronounced like ‘ch’ in ‘chop’ = found in words
like chichi, chales
Voiceless dental affricate /ts/ - pronounced like ‘ts’ in ‘sweets’ = found in words like
◦
/tl/ pronounced like similar to bottle, but with the /l/ voiceless
◦
◦
Quetzalcóatl, Tepotzoltlán, Janitzio
http://www.mexica.net/nahuatl/nahuawds.html





Racial assimilation of African and Filipino slaves into the indigenous
population as well as high rates of mortality blurred traces of these
Afro-Mexican, but not before they had been remembered in a number of
poems and villancicos or Christmas songs
The most famous representation of the speech of Africans in Mexico
come from poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, who in the late seventeenth
century wrote several villancicos imitating the pidgin Spanish spoken by
bozales – slaves born in Africa.
Although these Afro-Mexican texts reveal to us a little-known facet of
Mexican ethnographic history, given the rapid absorption of Africans in
the Mexican interior it is unlikely that this contact language would have
had an impact on Mexican-Spanish as a whole
Coastal regions, however, display the remnant of a more persistent
African influence through musical and cultural traditions evident in these
zones – the port of Acapulco for example
Much of the music and folklore of the veracruzanos and occasional
lexical items bear an African imprint on certain regions – but today only
the slightest of hints remain

In places like the Yucatan Peninsula, there are words still
used today which are unknown in other parts of Mexico
◦ “Así, en el español de Yucatán se emplean voces de origen maya
que son prácticamente desconocidas en el resto del país” (Molina:
1996)

Examples of such words (taken from Víctor M. Suárez
Molina: 1996) include:
◦ Balac
◦ Chich (abuela)
◦ Holoch – hoja que envuelve la mazorca del maíz. Cigarrillo hecho
con esta hoja, muy popular en la región.
◦ Pibinal – mazorca tierna de maíz cocida bajo tierra o al horno
◦ Tuch – ombligo; Molleja de las aves
◦ Xic

Nahuatl aside, other indigenous languages that have left a
mark on the Mexican Spanish language are Zapoteco,
Tarasco, Mixteco and Otomí.



We can see then that although the influence of
indigenous languages has had an effect on the
lexical domain, it has not affected the
phonological structure or morphosyntactical
structure of the Spanish language per say.
Mexico represents a perfect example of a long
lasting symbiotic relationship between
indigenous languages and Mexican Spanish
whereby they live side by side, not necessarily
benefiting each other but by no means harming
each other.
Considering the number of indigenous
languages, it is surprising that they have not had
a larger impact on Mexican Spanish
Alvar, Manuel - Manual de dialectología hispánica. El español de América Editorial Ariel Barcelona 1996 p84-86
Buesa Oliver, Tomás - Indoamericanismos léxicos en español. Madrid : Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1965
Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition.
Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.
Lipski, John M. - Latin American Spanish / John M. Lipski - - . - London :
Longman, 1994 p275-278
Resnick, Melvyn C. - Phonological variants and dialect identification in Latin
American Spanish - - . - The Hague : Mouton, 1975 Suárez Molina, Victor M. - El español que se habla en Yucatán: apuntamientos
filológicos – 1996