Peninsular Spanish

Peninsular Spanish (Spanish: español peninsular), also known as the Spanish of Spain (Spanish: español de España), European Spanish (Spanish: español europeo) and Iberian Spanish (Spanish: español ibérico), is the set of varieties of the Spanish language spoken on the Iberian Peninsula and outlying islands, as opposed to the Americas and the Canary Islands. The related term Castilian Spanish is often applied to formal varieties of Spanish as spoken in Spain.[1][2] According to folk tradition, the "purest" form of Peninsular Spanish is spoken in the Castilian province of Valladolid, although the concept of "pure" languages has been questioned by modern linguists.[3][4]

Dialects of peninsular Spanish and other languages of Spain

Spanish language
A manuscript of the Cantar de mio Cid, 13th century
Overview
Pronunciation stress Orthography Names
History
Old Middle Influences
Grammar
Determiners Nouns gender Pronouns personal object Adjectives Prepositions Verbs conjugation irregular verbs
Dialects
Peninsular Pan-American Standard New Mexican Andean Rioplatense Chilean Castellano Judaeo-Spanish Yeísmo Loísmo Philippine
Dialectology
seseo yeísmo voseo leísmo loísmo
Interlanguages
Belgranodeutsch Llanito Portuñol Spanglish Castrapo Creoles Roquetas Pidgin Chavacano or Chabacano Palenquero or Palenque
Teaching
Hispanism RAE Instituto Cervantes

Phonologically, the most prominent distinguishing element of Peninsular Spanish, except for the southernmost varieties, is the use of a distinction between the phonemes /s/ and /θ/, represented respectively with the letters ⟨s⟩ on one hand and ⟨z⟩, or ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e / i⟩, on the other. In other varieties, the two phonemes are realized as a single /s/. The distinction is usually simply labelled distinción, while the lack of distinction between the two is called seseo or ceceo, depending on the phonetic outcome ([s] in the former case, [s̟] in the latter).

Morphologically, the most notable distinguishing feature of Peninsular Spanish is the use of the pronoun vosotros (along with its oblique form os) and its corresponding verb forms for the second person plural familiar. In virtually all other varieties of Modern Spanish (with the exception of Equatoguinean Spanish), for the second person plural, the familiar and the formal are merged in ustedes, with its verb forms. Again, the use of vosotros is uncommon in the Canary Islands and only partially introduced in Western Andalusia.