Speech of Central America

Here goes my first true entry to this blog.
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The other day I had the oportunity to converse with some people who came to the U.S. from El Salvador. They are actually my friend's neighbor's. He had told them that I spoke several languages. They found that rather interesting, and began to ask me about the languages themselves and how to say a few things in this and that. I did not miss the chance myself to informally "interview" them about their own language: Spanish. Like I said in my previous entry, dialectology is within the range of my linguistic interests as well. I always pay close attention to the way someone new speaks, and try to the determine what features in the language that person has, and its relationship to the person's region of origin.
In Spanish, the pronunciation differences from region to region aren't as drastric as those found in English. Generally, within the Hispanic world, there a few sounds, generally consonants, that tend to diferentiate, but the difference as a whole isn't 'that big'. It is this (most of the time) 'slight' change, accompanied by a marked intonation. In Spanish, it is usually the latter what gives a person's origin away: his intonation.
I had always been aware that Central Americans aspirate S in syllabe-finaly position. These three people to whom I talked did just that. That is, they pronounce the word "escuela" (school), /ehkuela/. Instead of /s/, there exists a sound similar the 'H' in English, i.e. hello. This feature of aspirating syllabe-final S is one shared by many in the Spanish-speaking world. In America (e.g. the continent), it would be fair to say that there are more people who aspirate syllable-final S's than people who don't. To point out the areas that don't aspirate, but rather stress it (some would say overstress it), are most of Mexico, Peru and Colombia. In the rest of the American countries, one finds chiefly aspiration, particularly in Chile and the Caribbean countries. This happens in Spain as well, most notably in Andalucia and the Canary Islands. The aspiration, in some areas, could lead even to the dissaperance of S and the gemination of the following consonant. For example, in Andalucia, Canary I., and the Caribbean, many people would pronounce "esto" (this), /etto/. The three people with whom I had the conversation did not do this.
I am also aware of the usage of 'vos' in Central America (in a phenomenon known as "voseo", where the usual "tú" is displaced by "vos"). Two of these people used it as their regular second person singular pronoun, along with its conjugation. Instead of saying, "¿De dónde eres tú?", they would say, "¿De dónde sos vos?". "Vos sos" being the ancient form of modern "vosotros sóis", the latter being exclusively used in Spain as second person plural familiar. So, in Spain, the use of "vos" may be seen as an archaism, while in America, the use of "vosotros" is sometimes regarded as just that, an archaism only found in the bible, or, as being highly formal.
I always thought that "vos" enjoyed good social status in the countries where it was used. These include mainly all the countries in Central America, and the Rio De La Plata regions (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay). However, I found out otherwise. Like I said, two of these people used "vos", while one of them, D.M., didn't. I asked, then, D.M. for what reason she did not use "vos", but "tú" instead. She told me that ever since she came to the U.S., she adopted the use of "tú" because, she says, if she uses "vos", she will be regarded as ignorant by the people who don't use it. She referred to the people of Mexican origin, who make the majority of Hispanics in California. I asked her then if she used it back in her country, El Salvador. She said that she did, but that saying "para ti" (for you), sounds 'prettier' than "para vos". She added that using "vos", even in El Salvador, gives the person an air of coming from a rural background, with not much education; that the people in the cities don't use "vos", but rather "tú". She said that to move up the social ladder, one can't do so using "vos". I was awed at what she said. I was totally not aware of that. So, according to her, saying "Vení si tenés dinero" (Come if you have money [with "vos"]) gives an impression of being 'lower' in the social ladder in Central America, while "Ven si tienes dinero" (its equivalent with "tú") says that of being from the city, and ranking higher in society. The other two people present there confirmed what D.M had said. The other female there said that she adopts her speech accordingly: if she talks with someone of Central American descent, she will use "voseo", if not, she will use "tú".
In pronunciation, I noticed the same thing that occurs with other people who aspirate this type of S: they will aspirate this S in normal speech, but will pronounce it in careful speech. So, when in conversation, one of them said, "Vos tenés que venir" as /voh tenéh que venir/. That is, pronouncing those S's as aspirated ones. Nonetheless, when I wrote down a few minutes later that same sentence, the S's had fully come back. I did not tell them anything; I simply wrote that down, along with other words, and asked them to read them. I've noticed this same thing in, for instance, Cristina Saralegui, the famous presenter from the Spanish U.S. network Univision. Cristina is originally from Cuba, and would say something like, "Tú puedes hacer lo que quieras" (You can do what you want), as /Tu puedeh aser lo que quieras/ (aspirating the first S but not the second). But with a little inversion, if she were to say, "Lo que quieras ver, puedes" (What you want to see, you can), /Lo que quierah ver, puedes/. Now we notice that in the same word where she aspirated the S in the first sentence, "puedes", she pronounces it on the second one. The same happens with "quieras", which is subject to the same conditions as the last-mentioned word. This confirms what I just said: Aspiration of S in syllable-final position is not quite fixed or stable. It will be aspirated in rapid speech, but will reappear in a careful or emphatical one. Exactly what I noted in these three Salvadorian people.

I must add that in the Rio De La Plata region, the «voseo» seems to have acquired quite some prestige. On the media, the Argentinians pride themselves on using «vos». This, unlike the Central Americans who will never use it under the same circumstances. That is to say, it seems that in Argentina the use of «vos» is not limited to rural areas; it is rather widespread, and people from all social levels use it. Contrary to what the Central Americans do, who will abandon it outside their natives countries, the Argentinians will keep their «voseo» and happily show it to the world anywhere they find themselves.