YEÍSMO

 The yeísmo is a way of pronunciation characteristic of various regions consisting of pronouncing the LL ( "elle" ) in the same manner as Y ( "e" ). In this way, Yeísmo leads to saying “cabayo” instead of “horse” and “zapayo” instead of “pumpkin” , to name two examples.

Yeísmo can be defined as a phonetic alteration, since the articulation of a phoneme is changed . The process implies that two phonemes that were originally different are now confused and used in the same way.

In the Spanish of the Middle Ages, LL and Y represented the representation of two different phonemes. Over the years, this differentiation was lost in many countries, although it is still maintained in others.

According to specialists, the causes of yeismo are various. On the one hand, in Spanish there are few terms that are distinguished only from the appearance of the Y instead of the LL ( callus / cay , stream / stream , etc.). Therefore, for convenience, the pronunciation difference was gradually eliminated from speech, as it was not necessary to understand the concepts.

Many other examples of yeísmo are found when pronouncing words like the following:

-Arrollo y arroyo.

-I shut up and fell.

-Chair and siya.

-Hair and head.

-Gallo and gayo.

-Call and yamar.

In addition to all the above, it is considered that in Castilian Yeísmo is much more evident in some areas than in others of Spain. Thus, for example, it is determined that Andalusia is the region of the country where there is a full Yeísmo.

On the other hand, in the Canary Islands it is established that they use Lleísmo and in some specific points of the same, as would be the case of Tenerife or Gran Canaria, it alternates with Yeísmo.

In the same way, there are studies carried out that come to determine that there are three sources of yeísmo:

• The Catalan-Balearic.
• The Asturian-Leonese
• The Andalusian.

In addition, these research works, specifically those carried out by the expert Tomás Navarro, establish that the Galician area and closest to Portugal is the one that is identified because it is the only one in Spain where Yeísmo does not exist.

Other important data about Yeísmo are the following:

It is considered that it is increasingly present in Spain and that it is expanding more and more. Hence, there are those who consider that in the future it will be the general trend.

-Analysis carried out in different autonomous communities and between different population groups have determined that the oldest people tend to Lleísmo and the youngest to Yeísmo.

The Spanish spoken in the Río de la Plata area ( Argentina and Uruguay ) includes the so-called yeísmo con rehilamiento, which refers to a buzzing or a vibration that is included in the articulation point of certain consonants . Thus, "horse" is pronounced as "cabasho", because the term does not sound exactly the same as "cabal".