D Matters

I include here a guide to the different renditions in Spanish of /d/ which I have encountered, found throughout the language's extensive territory. The first line in each entry is what would be considered standard, at least by the RAE (Spanish Language Academy).

• In sentence-initial position, and after consonants:
  -It is pronounced [d]:
  dia [dia], doy [doj], donde [donde]
  -Colloquially, in some parts, it is lost in some words as in donde ['onde].
  
• Intervocalically, and before R and L:
  -It is pronounced [ð] and is the one that is dropped more frequently:
  dedo ['deðo], andado [an'daðo]
  -Or, in most of the Hispanic World, especially in Spain, Chile and the Caribbean, not being pronounced, particularly in the participles ending in "-ado":
  cansado [kan'sao], amado [a'mao], estado [es'tao]
  but also in words such as:
  venido [be'nio], , dedo [deo], partido [par'tio], toda [toa], todos [tos]
  -In a few regions, like Andalusia, it is even lost in words like madre and padre rendered respectively as ['maɾe] and [paɾe], pronunciations socially disregarded outside of that region.
  


• In syllable-final position:
  -It is generally pronounced [ð]:
  Madrid [ma'ðɾið], verdad [ber'dað], salud [sa'luð]
  -In parts of Central and Northern Spain, it is devoiced and pronounced [Ɵ]:
  Madrid [ma'ðɾiƟ] verdad [ver'daƟ], salud [sa'luƟ]
  -In Southern and parts of Northern Spain, and most American countries, it is dropped:
  Madrid [ma'ðɾi], verdad [ber'da]
  -In Catalonia, it is common to hear people render it as [t], due to Catalan influence:
  verdad [ber'dat] (Ct. veritat), virtud [bir'tut] (Ct. virtut), salud [sa'lut] (Ct. salut)
  -The RAE says that in a word like usted, the D is pronounced, but if the following word begins with a vowel, then the final D is supressed, i.e.: usted [us'teð] usted es de aquí[us'te es] or [us'tes]
  In some regions, though, it is pronounced intervocalically: usted es de aquí [us'teð es] or even sounding [us'teðes] pronounced exactly like ustedes, as I have heard it inconversations coming from Mexico, i.e. Usted es americano [us'teðes a'meɾikano].
  

Even if the RAE discourages some of these pronunciations in formal speech, they are used everyday in those regions, serving as a token of identity in these people. As I said in one my previous posts, in Spain, the lost of intervocalic D is complete, even in cultivated speakers, as well as the devoicing of this one is syllable-final position, especially in Madrid and surrounding areas. The loss of it causes hypercorrections at times, so that instead of bacalao (cod), one would hear [baka'laðo], or a joke that the Spaniards have for this: bacalado de Bilbado, when the correct words are bacalao de Bilbao. I also have heard some children on television program, of about four to eight years of age, saying [ta'ɾeða] for tarea, and, [kuɾa'saðo] for Curaçao ([kuɾa'sao]).
Based on my experience, in America, probably the only regions where the D is maintained in all cases is in Central Mexico and parts of Colombia. The process of losing it is complete as well in the Caribbean, Chile, and most of Argentina. In other places, there is fluctuation on it dropping or being maintained.