Argentinian pronunciation - EasyTango

Tips

• In Buenos Aires 'll' or 'y' is pronounced 'zh', almost an English 'j';
• a 'cua' is pronounced as in 'quantum'
• a 'qu' sounds like the 'c' in cat;
• a 'z' is pronounced like 's';
• a Spanish 'j' is a hard, throaty 'h' sound.

• Spanish spoken in Latin-America shows two characteristics that are shared all along the continent: a) Pronunciation of /T/ as /s/, that it is called "seseo"; and b) /L/ is always uttered as /jj/, effect that is known as "yei'smo".

Argentina: The characteristic that distinguish the Spanish spoken at Buenos Aires can be summed up as:

1. The "yei'smo" becomes "zei'smo": both /L/ and /jj/ are transformed into voiced palatoalveolar fricative /Z/. After a nasal consonant, /Z/ is produced as /dZ/.
2. /s/ in post-nuclear position is transformed in /h/, except at the end of a word before a pause or a vowel.

However, nowadays the "yeísmo" can also be heard through the "sh" sound (just like in "shut"). Increasingly, the "zh" is morphing into "sh". The "j" and "g" (before an "e" or "i") can also be pronounced like a german "ch" in "ich". There is no "th" sound (as in "thick") in Argentinian Spanish.

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