The Andalusian dialect (also called andaluz) of European Spanish is spoken in Andalusia (including Gibraltar). There are several phonetic differences from Castilian Spanish, some of which are reflected in Andalusian-influenced Latin American Spanish. There are many regional differences within the dialect, but all varieties share certain features. Within one province, there may also be large differences in speech between rural and urban areas. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... Motto: Dominator Hercules Fundator Andalucía por sí, para España y la humanidad (Andalusia for herself, for Spain, and for humankind) Capital Seville Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 2nd  87 268 km²  17,2% Population  â€“ Total (2005)  â€“ % of Spain  â€“ Density Ranked 1st  7. ... Spanish () or Castilian () is an Iberian Romance language. ...

Features

In Andalusian we find a series of features such as:

• Seseo (pronunciation of 'c' (before e and i) and 'z' as a 's', or more formally: the phonemes /s/ and /θ/ of standard have mixed into a single phoneme articulated [s]), although ceceo (pronunciation of 's' as 'th', or more formally: the phonemes /s/ and /θ/ of standard have mixed into a single phoneme articulated [θ]) still exists in some parts of Andalusia, mainly in Cadiz, Malaga, Huelva, Granada and some rural areas.
• Intervocalic 'd' is elided in certain suffixes, especially past participles.
• Final 'consonants' are usually aspirated (articulated [h]) or just omitted. In the last case, the vowel 'opens'. To understand how an Andalusian tells 'la casa' from 'las casas', think of the difference in French between 'de' and 'des'. There is absolutely no difference, however, between 'cortad' and 'cortar'. In fact Andalusian has developed a new vowel system with 10 vowels: 5 short vowels (the same as in Spanish) and 5 long or open vowels (in spite of final consonants such as "s"). For example: El niño (the boy). Los niños (the boys) in Andalusian is "Lò niñò", a long vowel instead of a plural "s".
• 'ch' is usually pronounced as the English phoneme 'sh' in some areas, including big cities like Seville, as in 'ècusha' instead 'escucha'.
• 'l' may be pronounced 'r' if it comes after the vowel inside the syllable, as in 'arma' instead of 'alma', or 'er coshe' instead of 'el coche'.
• 'j' is usually pronounced as the English phoneme 'h', becoming soft, as opposed to the hard Castilian sound.
• Words of Latin origin starting with 'h' in writing (that is, that have kept the etymological 'H' in writing) are pronounced with an initial 'j' [h] sound. However, this characteristic is limited to rural areas and the flamenco culture.
• Many words of Andalusi Arabic origin that have become archaisms or unknown in general Spanish, together with multitude of sayings: eg. 'Haciendo morisquetas' (from the word 'morisco', meaning pulling faces and gesticulating, historically associated with Muslim prayers).

Andalusia is the most populated region of Spain, and there are other regions which have very similar dialects to the Andalusian such as Extremadura, Murcia, La Mancha, or Canary Islands. There are a series of significant differences in the way the Spanish language is spoken in the 20 or so countries and territories where it is an official language. ... Ceceo is a phenomenon in the Spanish language whereby the voiceless interdental fricative (International Phonetic Alphabet , the th in think) is used in place of the voiceless dental fricative . ... Relaxed pronunciation (also called condensed pronunciation or word slurs) is a phenomenon that happens when the syllables of common words are slurred together. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ... Rhotacism may refer to several phenomena related to the usage of the consonant r: the excessive or idiosyncratic use of the r; conversely, the inability or difficulty in pronouncing r. ... Flamenco dancer Belén Maya, photograph taken by Gilles Larrain at his studio, 2001 Flamenco is a song, music and dance style which is strongly influenced by the Gitanos, but which has its deeper roots in Moorish and Jewish musical traditions. ... Andalusi Arabic was a dialect of the Arabic language spoken in Al-Andalus, the regions of Spain under Muslim rule. ... Capital Mérida Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 5th  41 634 km²  8,2% Population  â€“ Total (2003)  â€“ % of Spain  â€“ Density Ranked 13th  1 073 050  2,6%  25,77/km² Demonym  â€“ English  â€“ Spanish  â€”  extremeño/a, castúo Statute of Autonomy February 26... Murcia () is a city and municipality on the river Segura in southeastern Spain and the capital of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia. ... Thanks to Miguel de Cervantes, La Mancha is now famous for its windmills. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Social status

Andalusian is the language of Flamenco music. While its use is generalized across the classes of the Andalusian society, in the rest of Spain it lacks the prestige of the Castilian variant. An Andalusian accent is often the mark of the comic characters. Often, Andalusians who want to succeed in Spanish media learn to speak in the Castilian variant. An example is Malagan actor Antonio Banderas who keeps his accent in interviews and everyday life but switches to Castilian (considered the unmarked pronunciation) when playing roles not specifically Andalusian or when dubbing his Hollywood performances. Flamenco dancer Belén Maya, photograph taken by Gilles Larrain at his studio, 2001 Flamenco is a song, music and dance style which is strongly influenced by the Gitanos, but which has its deeper roots in Moorish and Jewish musical traditions. ... Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character or scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. ... Location within Spain Malaga redirects here. ... Banderas as Zorro in The Legend of Zorro José Antonio Domínguez Banderas (born August 10, 1960), better known as Antonio Banderas or Tony Flags, is a Spanish film actor. ... In filmmaking, dubbing refers to the recording of voices for a movie. ... ... A street musician with accordion in Bremen A performance comprises an event in which generally one group of people (the performer or performers) behave in a particular way for the benefit of another group of people (the viewer or viewers, or audience). ...

Influence

Some words pronounced in the Andalusian way have entered general Spanish with a specific name. Examples are juerga, "debauchery", that is the Andalusian pronunciation of huelga (originally "leisure", now "strike"). The Flamenco lexicon incorporates many Andalusisms: cantaor, tocaor, bailaor ("Flamenco singer, player, dancer", respectively) where the non-Flamenco generic terms are cantante, músico, bailarín. The seguidilla Flamenco genre is similarly dissimilated from the siguiriya. Flamenco dancer Belén Maya, photograph taken by Gilles Larrain at his studio, 2001 Flamenco is a song, music and dance style which is strongly influenced by the Gitanos, but which has its deeper roots in Moorish and Jewish musical traditions. ... The seguidilla is a quick, triple-time Spanish folksong and dance form. ... Siguiriyas (also seguiriyas, seguidilla gitana) is a form of flamenco music belonging to the cante jondo category. ...

The Gibraltarian code-switching Llanito is based in English and Andalusian. Code-switching is a term in linguistics referring to alternation between one or more languages, dialects, or language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common. ... Llanito (IPA: ) is a mixed language spoken in Gibraltar. ...