A Guide to Languages Spoken in Argentina

If you are planning on moving abroad to South America to live and maybe even take up employment in Argentina you will want to familiarize your self with the languages that are spoken through out the country. You may think that Spanish is spoken in Argentina and you would not be mistaken, however there are many more languages besides Spanish that are spoken through out the country of Argentina. And the Spanish that is spoken in Argentina may not be the Spanish that you are expecting to hear.

The official language that is spoken in Argentina is indeed Spanish. Note that is means Espanol and not Castellano Spanish. However the Spanish that you will hear spoken in Argentina is not like the Spanish that you will hear spoken in other Spanish speaking countries. In fact, the most distinguishing features about the Spanish that is spoken in Argentina are the different verb conjugations that are used for the second person singular form of verbs and the Italian sounding intonations that are used when speaking Spanish.

In Spain and most other Spanish speaking countries of the world you will hear the word "tu" used for the second person singular form. That is not the case in Argentina. Instead you will hear the "vos" form instead of the "tu" for second person singular verb conjugation.

You will quickly notice the Italian sounding annunciation of certain things in the Spanish that is spoken in Argentina. You will not hear this in the Spanish that is spoken in the rest of the world. For instance, in the River Plata area the pronunciation of "ll" and the letter "y" are quite distinct as it becomes a "sh" sound. In traditional Spanish the "ll" sound is pronounced more as a hard "j" or "y" sound as in "jump" or "yak." While you will notice the difference when you hear it, communication is not typically a problem.

There are also languages other than Spanish that are spoken in Argentina. There are several indigenous languages that are spoken in the country. Depending on the region you might hear Mapucha, Quechua, Toba or Guarani. There are also various languages spoken by the immigrants that have settled in Argentina over the years. It varies by region but you are likely to hear Welsh, German, Italian, French, Polish, Russian or Chinese in Argentina. There are also some large communities of Koreans, Iranian and other Asian countries through out the land of Argentina.