Panamanian Spanish - Phonology and Phonetics

Phonology and Phonetics

The main characteristic of Caribbean Spanish is the aspiration of the /s/ sound at the end of a syllable or word, such as in the word cascada, pronounced (more like an English "h") instead of . This aspiration is also observed in the coastal regions of Peru and Ecuador and in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, and in Andalucia and the Canary Islands of Spain.

Another change observed in Panamanian Spanish is the substitution of a sound (as in the English word "she") for words containing a "ch" spelling; e.g., muchacho, primarily among less educated speakers, although it can sometimes be observed among better educated speakers; this is common to Andalusian Spanish. In the later case both the "ch" and the sounds can be heard in the same phrase.

The letters /g/ (before /e/ or /i/) and /j/ are pronounced as /h/; this is common to Caribbean and other Latin American Spanish dialects, Canarian, and Andalusian Spanish dialects.