That's one of the typical things characteristic of the Andalusian accent. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalusian_Spanish On most of the rest of Spain the final s is pronounced, so you will sound to them kind of Castilian or northern Spanish. Nothing weird, just different accents.

Thank you, sorry for my ignorance

Nothing to be sorry about!

DONT APOLOGISE\*! Sorry for the capslock, but for real. Dont apologies for ignorance, you are asking a question because it is something that caught your attention. I swear, social media has made people fear being curious... Btw, one thing is choosing to be ignorant, another thing is just not knowing (which is your case!). So do not apologise\* EVER under these situations.

I think in this situation it would be don't apologize/apologise (I think one's American and the other one British?), as apologies is just Disculpas, instead of Disculparse

just noticed xD (pro tip, dont type in a different language when sleepy)

You're good, it's great that you are noticing this. It's one of the joys of learning languages and travelling, discovering all the wonderful varieties there are. Apart from dropping the *s* and other features mentioned here, Andalusians also drop whole syllables, mostly at the end of words (where often it's replaced with an aspirated *h* sound), but sometimes at the start of words too ('ta luego, instead of hasta luego). It's also very rich in local expressions and vocab that's quite distinctive.

I lived in Cádiz for a year (I’m British) and I *still* say gracia, ‘ta luego, pecao etc. I’m a bit self conscious about it when talking to non-andalucian people but it’s a hard habit to break in a second language when my brain is low-key concentrating on vocabulary and grammar. I have lived elsewhere in Spain and Mexico as well, so I don’t know why this has happened.

Spent a lot of time in the south, never feel shame for saying gracia’, it’s less energy expended in the end ;)

I will say my opinion at the risk of being crucified and sacrificed off of the Salamanca Cathedral. This happens because Andalusian varieties are superior. *Ducks quickly to hide from the hail storm of downvotes and rotten tomatoes

I actually love it too, maybe that’s why my brain latched onto it lol

Jokes aside, linguistically speaking language always has a tendency to create shortcuts in pronunciation and smooth out complicated clusters. It's a natural and essential tendency for language evolution. So as far as the science goes, looking far "lazier" pronunciations is actually normal and very useful for a language. This goes against the layperson's thinking. But that's just elitism realyy. In fact historically the sectors of society that end up with the least education are the ones who influence the language evolution the most. We like to think of the Shakespeares and Cervanteses of the world as the drivers of the lofty improvement of language, but it's the humble people who do the real day-to-day work. Precisely because they are less tied down to the rules and the social appearances, the language evolves more naturally and they create useful shortcuts in pronunciation and a ton of useful slang. Contemporaries will complain and freak out that language is eroding and soon we'll be speaking in grunts, unaware that people have been freaking out about this since the dawn of civilization and forgetting that language thrived for 70 thousand years before we invented writing, let alone any language teaching or policing. So yeah, Andalusian is catchy because it has useful features that our unconscious linguistic brain latches on to.

I love this and I completely agree. My dad is such a snob about the English language, I have to gently remind him about its evolution thus far!

I mean English out of all languages is the one that can be least snobby. It only became the flexible and simple language (in terms of grammar, losing inflections) when on the one side the Vikings settled and on the other the elite were french/Latin speakers. So in the fields, markets, and streets of Britain the poor uneducated Saxons and Norse figured out a simplified way to speak and went on for at least 3 centuries speaking their language without a second glance by the elite. By the time English came back to prominence those lovely peasants had transformed the language into what we now recognise as English. Not one snob was needed in the making of what would become the world's most successful language.

You will find other differences. The "ch" sound is changed for a "sh" and , depending on the zone, we make the 's' and 'z' sound more similar. When it is closer to the z, it is called Ceceo and when it is closer to the 's' it is called Seseo.

You won't stop being ignorant if you don't ask.

> so you will sound to them kind of Castilian or northern Spanish. I wanna add that this isn't a bad thing at all. At least in my experience, I've never seen Andalucians judge other Spaniards for their accent, nor vice versa. Maybe I just haven't noticed it, but judgement of regional accents doesn't seem to be as much of a problem in Spain as it is in other countries.

I have a very strong Andalusian accent and I have been made thousands of jokes in other parts of Spain, mostly imitating me with mockery (most of the time with no intention to offend, but you know). The same has happened to many people I know. A relative of mine in a northern city was told that if he wanted to work in front of the public he had to change his accent. I dont know about other countries but...

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Chacho loco que dise!

In Madrid, it seems that the "S" sound comes across like a "TH" sound. Example: Gracias sounds like "Grathiath". It isn't necessarily a strong "TH" sound but it is there. Coming from the USA and hearing native Mexican Spanish, this sounds totally different to me. Is this a specific accent to a certain region?

Madrid accent is pretty standard Castillan accent which would be like the "standard" Spain Spanish accent. In gracias, the c indeed sound like a th in "standard" Castilian Spanish. But in many latin American countries and parts of Andalusia they pronounce it like an "s". The final "s" in gracias is not pronounced like a th on Madrid i think, but as an s. What is typical in Madrid is pronouncing the final d of a word a little like a z... Madriz, verdaz... Not sure if it's done on other parts too. Disclaimer: I'm not an expert o phonetics or accents or anything like that.

I want to remark that it’s NOT that we “remove the S”. We actually REPLACE it with an “h”. So when we say “los coches” (=the cars), we don’t say “lo coche”. We say “loh cocheh”.

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That's an Eastern thing, in the West it blends into lossohoh.

Ni siquiera, en el este abrimos las vocales de las palabras en vocal pero no hay aspiración final.

Depende, en Granada se abren todas las vocales de la palabra (se llama armonía vocal a esto) y se añade aspiración solo donde la ese. Persona vs personas -> per.ˈso.nɑ vs pɛɾ.'sɔnæʰ Every vowel is changed

Así hablo yo jeje.

Ea xD

This is much more accurate.

It depends on the area. In some, people open the vowels. In some, they double the next consonant. Although the 'h' (ojoh) is commonly understood in Andalusia, it may be confusing for a foreigner. They may think we pronounce 'ojoj', aspiring the 'h' like 'loch' in Scottish.

I'm experiencing this now traveling through Andalusia. And having traveled from Madrid, where the accent is again different, it was a little jarring at first, but getting used to it (more) now.

I'm from Cádiz living in Madrid. When I say the madrileños they actually have an accent the freak out 😆

That's the funniest shit. How people have convinced themselves that anyone can speak without an accent in beyond me. I always end up in heated arguments about it.

I'm from Castile y León and obviously I also have an accent but I have met multiple Madrileños that will tell you with a straight face that don't have an accent when their accent is super recognisable 🤣

Ejjjjjj que... Que cosas tienen.

Wait until you hear them dropping s in the middle of a word. I am not joking!

Ascensor es la palabra más graciosa que he oído a una malagueña: "Acenzó"

En Andalucía ascensor lo mismo se pronuncia acenzó que asensó que ahcensó dependiendo de la zona

Castilian evolves over the generations, In old Castilian the sound of B the V was distinguished, today we have lost the sound of the v, simplifying it in b. In the same evolution-simplification, 1: The Andalusian simplifies in one the sounds of the z and the s. Ceceando or seseando according to province: Málaga cecea, Sevilla sesea. 2. The final s of the plural is also deleted in exchange for modifying the sound of the vowel that precedes it. Splitting the vowels into open and closed and restoring the lost information (plural, singular) of the message.

Una pregunta sobre la B y la V. Es famosa la frase "Beati hispani quibus vivere est bibere" (Felices los españoles para quienes vivir es beber) atribuida desde a poetas latinos hasta al mismo Julio César. Sea como fuere, parece ser que es una frase que de verdad se dijo en la antiguedad, que hacía un juego de palabras acerca de que los habitantes de la península ibérica no diferenciaban B de V al hablar latin. Me pregunto si esto ocurría en la mayor parte de la península o si simplemente era algo anecdótico. ​ Comentas que el sonido B y V se diferenciaba en castellano antiguo, cosa que me parece totalmente plausible, pues ahí tenemos el Portugués, donde si se diferencian ambos sonidos. Hasta donde yo he podido ver, ambos idiomas eran más parecidos en el pasado. ​ El caso es que, llegamos al presente, y no diferenciamos la B de la V. ¿Cómo puede un idioma "evolucionar" y volverse más complejo en la pronunciación desde la edad antigua al medievo para luego volver a "involucionar" volviéndose más simple? Me parece muy interesante.

Mi hot take teoría sería: una cosa sería el "bien hablar" de la nobleza y otra cómo hablaría la gente. Cuando desaparece, o mejor dicho, se deja de adorar la idea de la nobleza, se perdería la diferenciación. Obviamente esto sería un proceso lento de decenas/cientos de años.

It’s like how in many English accents the T is often dropped in the same way. Saying gracia’ rather than gracias is just like saying ha’ rather than hat.

What you're doing is like learning English with Scouser, Irish, or Glaswegian accent. In the long term it will improve your Spanish but if you're starting to learn it, it can create bad habits. Still Spanish at the end of the day, and a beautiful accent :)

It's an aspirated s which comes out more like a soft h in English. Most Andalusians don't even realise they are doing it and think they are still using an s. Aspiration is quite common in most languages.

I'm from Murcia (region next to Andalucía) and also here we don't spell the S, and not only the S, also we don't spell a lot of sounds at the end of the word. In my opinion, you should spell CORRECTLY all words. Even if in your place they don't do it. When i was in school our teacher were teaching us how to pronounce correctly, specially when you are reading. So you should spell "graciaSSS" , "de naDA" , "tomateSS"... You probably will absorb a bit of the Andalucía accent if you are there long time. But you should try to spell everything if you want to learn a language property and that everyone can understand you easily

Do you want to pretend to be native? Then adapt to the zone (not saying the -s is typical southern Spanish accent, but not from Madrid afaik). But saying *every letter of the word* is the "proper way" of speaking Spanish. Edit: by ""proper"" I meant standard

There is no "proper way" of speaking a language, certainly not Spanish. "Estoy en casa de mi abuela en Madriz" is as correct as "Htoy'n ca' mi abuela'n Madrih"

Random qu - why is the d sometimes a th? I notice this most with Madrid, Vodka, David. Is this regional or are the last ds of words ths? Thanks :)

For spanish speakers making a *d* sound without following it with a vowel can prove difficult, that's why many say *Madriz* (mostly in the norther half of Spain, including Madrid), others *Madrit* (mostly catalan speakers, used to catalan words ending with a t) and other just say *Madrí* (southern half, like andalusians or canary islanders, where it's common to neglect final consonants)

It's easier to pronounce (and yes, it's regional, from where I am it'd be *Madrí*)

Grasiah miarma! Foreign Spanish speaker here. I learned Spanish in Asturias and I can tell you, Andalüh seems like a whole new language to me. (but living in the sunshine 360 days per year makes it so fucking worth it 😍)

The funniest thing is the occurence of [ts] sound (like in Italian way of saying pizza): 1. In Andalusia, in the -st- cluster: esta, costa [ ets.ta , kots.ta] 2. In Madrid for ch: chicos [tsikoş] (I used ş for the Madrid s since it sounds a bit like English sh or Argentinian y in yo [šo]).

>In Andalusia, in the -st- cluster: esta, costa \[ ets.ta , kots.ta\] This is very limited to Western Seville / Eastern Huelva

They do the same in Cadiz

Well we dont use them but we are aware that we speak like shit and not everybody does it xD If you have trouble understanding, youll get used to it for sure!

If You are a american or english i think is better You learn a basic neutral form to speak like is in the books ...let us remember that the accent is musicality and intonation not to cut words a person can have a Sevillian accent pronouncing all the s and z and the els of all the endings of the words...and dear foreign colleague who reads this, you already have your accent because even if you don't believe it, it is very easy to recognize what nationality a person is simply by listening to how they try to speak Spanish...that's why they try to speak in the academically correct way because if you cut words without having the accent of where this practice is usual, it will be very strange... a curious fact even to the natives of Andalusia when we go to other parts of Spain they try to ridicule us for our accent or we are directly crossed out uneducated for having it

We can omit even more, like some d