maybe you are confusing "vos" with "vosotros" :jeje:

or maybe they are argentinian wannabes :jeje: :jeje:

saludos,
jer...

actually, Jer, vos is a Spanish word. Vos was used as a word of respect but it slowly became watered down to be more or less on the same level as tu. Usted came from using "vuestra merced" over time. Some countries adopted tu, some vos, some parts of Colombia use both PLUS usted.

But it remains that there ARE people in Spain who DO use vos and it DOESN'T mean they're latinos. It may not be common, but it happens.

Melinda

yes, Mel, i have a masters + in hispanic lang. and lit. but thanks for that

gotta run, meeting miguel (de cervantes saavedra) for a beer :jeje:

saludos,
jer...

I learnt Spanish from a Colombian (from Medellin, specifically; excellent, clear accent) and probably had a pretty good accent at first. I also had a Bolivian girlfriend but her accent never rubbed off on me; it was too hard. Like Andalusians, the people from her city don't pronounce the "s" (the just "breathe" it, more or less).

Then I came to Spain and tried to pronounce things like a Madrile�o and a year later I think my accent is worse than ever! I'm hoping that in a few years I might get it to sound better but for now it's just terrible. When I hear recordings of myself (like in my voicemail greeting, for example) I just feel like crawling under a rock!

Count me in as another underemployed sociolinguist...

I read an account of the Spanish Civil War that mentioned that in some remote regions some old timers and aristocratic types still used "vos" as an archaic and condescending form of address toward "the help". Incidentally, the whole "tu" vs. "usted" thing played out interestingly during the Civil War, with both sides using it to try to establish solidarity and/or authority.

I also remember Christian's grandmother telling me that some of their family from a really remote and isolated part of Asturias still used "vos"--but this was back in the 1940s and 1950s. Her perception was that it was both uppity and provincial.

It's hard to imagine that anyone in Spain would want to evoke either of these meanings. I think more questioning of these "vos" using folks in Madrid is warranted... I wonder if it is being used in an ironic/literary/cutesy sense...

It certainly a very, very archaic usage in modern-day Spain. I think most Spanish people only become familiar with "vos" by reading "siglo de oro" Spanish literature or/and(?) watching telenovelas from South America.

About speaking Spanish with an Argentine accent and grammar... it's always best to put it into your own cultural terms. Say a Spanish person learned English with a strong Scottish influence. This Spaniard then moves to Chicago. Would it make sense for the person to hold on to the most divergent Scottishisms? Would it even be possible given the huge amount of new dialect-specific language and accentuation to learn?

There are definitely lots of little phrases from Latin American Spanish and Catalan that are ingrained in my brain--and I keep discovering what they are one-by-one by the funny reaction that I get when I use them here.

I think you'll be amazed at just how much Madrid-specific slang and interesting grammatical quirks there are. Just mastering the palabrotas/tacos will set your head spinning and require some serious study and practice...

Hola everyone, thanks for all the replies/advice- by the way, yesterday I went to the video store and cleaned out all of the Almod�var movies they had (even though they didn't have any that I haven't seen already) just so I could "study" them & pick up the slang. Of course, I got that advice from this board.

Regarding this topic, I have two last questions:
1) If a foreigner while learning/absorbing/perfecting his Spanish, were to attempt to speak using a Madrile�o accent, would Madrile�os either appreciate the effort or would they think he was "trying too hard/being a copy-cat"?

2) Are there any other movies or Spanish directors that have good examples of Castilian/Madrile�o Spanish that anyone could recommend? I'm already familiar with Almod�var & I've seen everything that's available in the stores here, but I'm not acquainted with other movies/directors. (I did recently see Km.0 and enjoyed that very much.)

Thanks again everyone- I can't stop singing the praises of this board! :m:

Saludos,
Vincent