Do Spanish speakers in America pronounce S different?

Morticia   Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:19 pm GMT
It seems to me that they pronounce the S letter like Z in zoo ( English) . What do you think?
Guest   Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:04 pm GMT
You mean America the continent or America the country (the US) ?? Be more specific
Morticia   Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:27 pm GMT
There is no country called America. I'm quite specific.
Guest   Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:59 pm GMT
"Be more specific"
I think that Morticia means Latin America (Central + South America)
Guest   Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:53 pm GMT
Latin America = Mexico + Central America + Caribbean + South America

Anyways... he said America and that can only mean the continent.

Answering your question, if you mean the letter Z, like in English, the only ones I can think of that pronounce S and C's that way would be the caribbeans.
Guest   Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:35 am GMT
If you mean different from the way most Spaniards do that sound, the answer is yes, but I don't know if the S sounds the same though all the American continent. Usually they are Latin Americans who perceive the Castillian S as different, even unpleasant, rather than the other way round. Most Spaniards don't even notice it when they listen to people form the other side.
Guest   Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:06 am GMT
Every time Latin Americans want to immitate Spaniards they would pronounce all the S's as SH's, i.e.

[text] Como has estado, tenia semanas de no verte, el lunes nos vemos en tu casa, vale?

[immitation] Como hash eshtado, tenia shemanash de no verte, el lunesh nosh vemosh en tu casha, vale?
Morticia   Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:41 am GMT
<<Every time Latin Americans want to immitate Spaniards they would pronounce all the S's as SH's, i.e. >>

Spaniards don't pronounce S that way. The SH sound does not exist in Castilian Spanish.
Guest   Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:46 am GMT
Spaniards pronounce the S letter like the English speakers in "six" for example.
Morticia   Tue Oct 14, 2008 4:12 pm GMT
<<Answering your question, if you mean the letter Z, like in English, the only ones I can think of that pronounce S and C's that way would be the caribbeans.>>

I did notice this pronunciation in an Argentinian.
Gomez   Tue Oct 14, 2008 4:44 pm GMT
Spaniards in north and central Spain pronounce their S's with a slight whistling sound, which outsiders mistakenly hear as 'sh'.

I've never heard of Latin Americans pronouncing 's' as /z/ but that's not to say that this phenomenon doesn't exist at least somewhere in the Americas.
Morticia   Tue Oct 14, 2008 4:53 pm GMT
"Spaniards in north and central Spain pronounce their S's with a slight whistling sound"

Rajoy is a good example. XD . I thought it was simply a kind of a speech problem.
JGreco   Tue Oct 14, 2008 7:17 pm GMT
"Spaniards in north and central Spain pronounce their S's with a slight whistling sound"

This pronunciation of the "s" sound native to Northern Spain and Catalonia is a apical alveolar pronunciation. The sound is produced by positioning the tongue at the roof of the mouth away from the teeth. it is typically very hard to pronounce this sound for Latin American including the Portuguese where this sound does not exist.
Thatoneguy   Thu Oct 16, 2008 1:56 am GMT
Spanish speakers say everything with less of a hard edge to them like English speakers.
Guest   Thu Oct 16, 2008 3:14 am GMT
What? Que?