NOT ALL SPANISH IS THE SAME, BUT IN THE END IT ALL IS.

The Spanish spoken in Spain and all its former colonies in the present day, is really called Castilian, because it was born and comes from that ancient region in Spain called Castile. Somehow, this Latin dialect came to dominate all the others in the country and by the time Spain became a world power in 1492, it was considered the official language of the state. Even within Spain however, the language is spoken differently, with the southern region of Andalusia having had the most impact on the colonies of the New World, for it was from here that most of the colonists and conquistadores came from to rape and plunder the native peoples.

So here we are, some five hundred years later, with some twenty Spanish-speaking countries worldwide speaking all kinds of different Spanish dialects. It's only fitting, due to the large areas that were colonized by the Spaniards, that regions within each country and from one border to the next speak Spanish differently. It's the same thing that happens with the English-speaking world. There's the Queen's English, American English, Australian, Canadian, etc. And even within a country like the United States, there's differences between New York English and Southern English as we all know.

This exists in the Hispanic world too. Spaniards from central Spain have a distinct "lisp" when they speak and sound very poetic; many consider this to be the King's Spanish. Southern Spaniards have a Caribbean sound to their speech and this is why Cubans and Puerto Ricans sound like them, because they were heavily influenced by the speech of Southern Spain and the Canary Islands. Mexicans, Central Americans, and South Americans all have their distinct peculiarities, phrases, slang, and speech patterns which usually identifies them to the trained Spanish-speaking ear. Argentines sound as though they are speaking Italian, because so much of their ancestry is rooted in Italy. This is all a hybrid of the languages of the native peoples, uprooted/imported African slaves, and immigration to all regions of Latin America.

I can usually tell where someone is from by the way they speak Spanish. Of course, the most well-known accents to the world are Mexican and Spaniard Spanish, due to film, music, and telenovelas which often seem to come from both of these countries. Plus, most Spanish speakers in the U.S. come from Mexico, which is why Mexican expressions and slang are so well-known here.

But an in-depth study of this very spread out and diverse language reveals many different shades and thousands of oddities which cannot be taught in school out of a basic textbook. This can all be a bit confusing.

As different as it may all be, we somehow can still understand each other.

All 450 million of us.

¡Dios mío! ¿Qué diablos le pasa a la loca de la Britney Spears?