Andalusian Spanish

Andalusian Spanish is the group of Spanish dialects spoken in Andalusia and the adjoining territories of Ceuta, Melilla and British Gibraltar in the far south of Spain. Long treated as the most distinctive of the peninsular Spanish varieties, it differs from the Spanish of northern and central Spain in a wide range of phonological, morphological and lexical features, from the seseo and ceceo patterns that replace the northern distincion of /s/ and /theta/ to a pervasive weakening of consonants at the end of a syllable. Because Andalusia supplied a disproportionate share of the sailors, colonists and administrators who crossed the Atlantic from the 16th century onward, many of its sound changes, including seseo itself, became foundational features of most Latin American Spanish rather than staying confined to southern Spain.