The seseo consists of pronouncing, in certain cases, the C and the Z like the S..
Seseo is the act and result of sesear . This action , typical in the speech of Latin American countries and some Spanish regions, consists of pronouncing the C (when it is joined to the E or the I ) and the Z as the S.
In this way, all the phonemes that are represented with the letters C (in the aforementioned situations), Z and S are identical in their pronunciation . This phenomenon began to develop in the 16th century when a process of phonetic change linked to these sibilant consonants took place.
Origin of seseo
We can establish that seseo began to occur in Seville and its surrounding territories. Little by little, this phenomenon began to spread and thus reached many other corners of Andalusia , Badajoz , Murcia , the Canary archipelago and even Alicante , without forgetting that it is also considered that from here it reached Latin America .
In the same way, Spanish scholars establish that seseo is also present in certain enclaves of Catalonia , the Basque Country , Valencia and Mallorca . Specifically, it is stated that in many areas of these autonomous communities or cities it is used by their inhabitants when they speak colloquially in Spanish .
However, where seseo is most used is in the Andalusian provinces of Huelva , Seville , Málaga and Córdoba , as well as in the Canary archipelago.
Heseo is common in the speech of many regions.
Some examples
Due to seseo, when a person from Montevideo or Buenos Aires pronounces words like “zorro” , “sociedad” , “zona” and “soldado” , for example, they do not make any distinction between the Z and the S. In other words: both phonemes are pronounced the same way. This means that, to the ear, “zo” and “so” sound the same as a result of the sound.
The same happens with other expressions : “zero” , “sede” and “zen” ( “ce” , “se” and “ze” are equivalent); “cilantro” , “silo” and “zinc” ( “ci” , “si” and “zi” sound the same); “holy” and “carrot” ( “sa” and “za” are the same); and “sumo” and “zumo” (in this case, “su” and “zu” are pronounced the same way).
As can be seen in the last example ( “sumo” and “zumo” ), seseo can lead to confusion . Many people, depending on the region, can pronounce the term that refers to the traditional Japanese sport and the word that mentions the juice of a fruit or plant in the same way.
The seseo in literature
No less interesting is knowing how deeply rooted seseo has been in the world for years that we even find some literary works in which their authors do not hesitate to resort to using it in the text in order to record the characteristics of the characters and even from the narrator. Thus, for example, the Nobel Prize in Literature Juan Ramón Jiménez uses it in one of his most emblematic works: “Platero y yo” .
In that 1914 narrative, the Spanish author refers to the famous Platero with the expression: “tien» asero” , which means “he has steel” .