Distinción, seseo, and ceceo: sibilant pronunciation in Spain

This video discusses how s, soft c, and z are pronounced in Spain and compares the pronunciation of sibilants in Spain and Latin America.

Intro and extro music credits:
Track; LAKEY INSPIRED - In My Dreams
Music provided by FlyingTunes

[LMPV]

I'm from southern Spain. I speak with ceceo to my mum, with seseo to some of my friends and with distiction most of the time. Basically, it depends on the person I'm talking to and what that person does.

[OliverVIII]

The best and clearest explanation of differences between seseo, ceceo and distincion I have found on the internet so far. Good job!

[alfredogallegosrey]

Soy chileno de nacimiento y español por ascendencia materna. Es bonito poder ver las diferentes formas de pronunciar la misma palabra a uno y otro lado del Atlántico. Me crié de pequeño con la pronunciación hispanoamericana sin embargo creo que la pronunciación española que distingue entre la S, la C y Z es mucho más práctica .Cuando la utilizas nunca tienes problemas de ortografía!!!

[TheMC]

Bravo. Well done. As you, I am bilingual: North American English & Latin American Spanish. I have lived in LatAm and travelled throughout, and travelled many times to Europe, with some extended time in Spain. My father-in-law is a Spaniard. I have not seen a better explanation.

And kudos for repeatedly pointing out to folks that you are not making a judgment with respect to what is right or better. Social prestige is what it is and varies geographically. In Spain it’s different than in, say, Argentina or Mexico. The easiest way to tell is by watching a national news program or serious documentary from a country.

I think people get very defensive about this for no reason. Dialects are dialects. I don’t change my dialect when I travel to another state in the US (not much, at least). But there are always exceptions. I don’t speak the same way when I am making a legal argument in court as I do when I am speaking with an unsophisticated client. The point is communication. How can I best communicate to my audience?

Again. Well done. Thanks.

[JorgeGarcia-lwvc]

I wish you had also included the Canary Islands since they are pretty much also another seseo part of Spain. Also the other part of the world where distincion spread to is Africa. Philippines Spanish was/is seseo. Nice video.

[samuelgomez]

Es increíble que el video mejor explicado sobre la distinción entre el seseo y el ceceo esté en inglés.

[smileface]

Distinción sounds amazing! It sounds very like Greek. It's Beautiful!

[piofernandez]

I was 'lectured' years ago by an American, & later by a Welsh friend, about our "lisping" in Spain and the stupid story of how It was adopted centuries ago by the people, in order to comfort a beloved Spanish Queen who had this pronunciation defect in her mouth.
Even better, both of those guys could speak "Absolute Zero" Spanish, but that didn't seem to matter at all at the time of condescendingly explain to me why I could not properly articulate my 'S' sounds (¿!!?).
¡Graziaz, zeñorez!!
Unbelievavable...!

[RedBarD]

Thanks for clarifying. I've found it hard to come by reliable information on this topic. I've been referring to distinción as ceceo.

[gabiiiuuu]

Loved it! Much more useful than 99% of the videos in spanish talking about this topic. Gracias!

[OneAdamAdam]

Flawless presentation. Most accurate on the interwebs. Thank you.

[jesssee]

This video is exactly what I was looking for. I’m learning Spanish from scratch and trying to figure out whether or not I want to implement distinción. Thank you

[eliechavarria]

This man taught me in 4 minutes what my professor was trying to teach me in 2 weeks

[orfrisbee]

Best spanish teaching youtube channel!
Muchas gracias por hacer estos videos!

[georkost]

This is the most helpful and informative video about the accent in Spain. Thank you so much 😁😁

[ianlogan]

Thank you - Very clear explanation to a previously confusing area.

[vequite]

This was a very clear, fun, and to the point explanation. Thank you.

[fonto]

Perfect explanation thank you! I've wondered myself about this issue since the first time I've heard spanish music - at that time I've heard some hits by Alejandro Sanz. Nowadays, you hardly hear anything like that anymore.

[TheMaru]

In areas of seseo in Spain and ceceo, usually s and z in the end of words or before consonant are done aspirated or just not pronunced. Even, in some rural varieties, a lot of s or z in any position will be done like an aspirated sound, it is known as heheo . In Canary Islands, usually they use a pure seseo, not alternating with distinción, unlike in Andalucía. I liked your video lot . Thank you !

[JairoOrtizT]

Excelente explicación. Yo soy seseante de Sudamérica.