Thanks for all the replies guys and gals. I live in the u.s(california to be exact), and have run into a lot of Mexicans. But I would love to learn Castilian Spanish. I have to agree with some of you who said Castilian is more understandable than Mexican spanish, I agree that Mexican spanish is just spoken too fast! Nevertheless, I believe the movie I saw was Juana la loca, a Spanish movie which was where I noticed the difference.(besides reading up on cultures and histories.) Also, someone mentioned the lisp, is it true?

One more comment, keep in mind the educational level of those you hear around you. The Spanish accent/pronunciation of a Mexican immigrant in Queens New York would most likely be completely different than that of a university student in Mexico, DF. I also think that the same can be said for all languages...

Merovingian (about the lisp):

Well, this is a familiar nonsense that was probably invented to disturb and insult (not meaning that you do but the one who invented it).

They say that some king ¿Philip the Second? couldn't pronounce well, and that's why people in the Court spoke imitating his lisp, and this would be the reason for the pronounciation.

However, there are at least four strongest reasons each of which is enough to show that this is false:

1-If there were a learnt lisp, then ¿why can we pronounce that very lacking sound? We can pronounce it, but we only do in the apropiate cases.

2-The South American colonization was rich in Andalusian, Canarian, and other recently conquered areas who spoke their deficient variety of spanish (Andalusia and mainly the southern part of Spain was under muslim control till decades or even years before Discovery of America, and spoke a diferent language). If you compare andalusian and canarian, pronounciation, you'll see it sounds very like South American. Because that's the spanish they learnt. Pronouncing "s", "c", and "z" the same, among other things is a way to simplify a language if you have to learn it. In fact, many Spanish academies simplify spanish for foreigners nowadays like that (only for beginners).

3- Not only Spain, but all spanish-speaking South America was under the control of the king, so everybody should have acquired that "lisp". If they mean that it only affected Spain, Why don't andalusians and canarians have "lisp"? If it was only in the Court, why peope living 300 miles away like galicians have the "lisp"?

4-If the claimed monarch was Philip the Second, then most of the population of Latin America were learning spanish, for America was discovered under Isabel and Fernando, the Catholic kings, Cortez (Cortés)conquered México (previously the only colonies were caribbean islans) it was under Emperor Charles the First of Spain (Charles V of Germany). With his son, Philip II, Spain had extended its control of all of latin América, but in very recent times by then, so it becomes obvious that the indian and african population (most of which were beginning to learn Spanish by then)would have had to learn the lisp as they learnt spanish.

Wow! I ever wanted to explain this because I knew it would take me a lot! That's why I didn't say anithing although I saw post regarding this in the forum.

So is there actual history behind the adoption of the lisp? Is there a key element attached to only Madrid and north of Madrid that would keep that pronunciation? This is really fascinating.

I just started reading some articles on it and it seems like in Medievil Spanish there were two sounds and as the language evolved they formed into 1 th sound.

Well, my point is that there is not actual History behind this, only bad will, maybe post-independence rancour.

EDIT: Not exactly North of Madrid and Madrid itself. All of Spain has that supposed "lisp" except for Andalucía (like 15 - 20% of the territory) at the very south, maybe Extremadura (¿5%?) South-West, and the Canary Islands.

Hey Merovingian and Mickey,
Poor Felipe, has indeed been maligned by the lisp myth! :p

However, here is a realy good MM thread where the lisp was discussed and a very good explanation was provided by El Cid! I think there are other threads that discus the seseo vs. ceceo differences of pronunciation in different regions of Spain.

Yeah that is the same theory I had seen discussed on various pages on the web.

I don't mean history in the sense of kings and queens, but linguistic/dialectological (word?) history. :p

What I mean is that, because of the reasons I give, there is no kind of history. It becomes evident that it's only an attempt to denigrate (or run down, according to the dictionary, whatever is best) the spanish from Spain, on obviously false premises.

Hold on, I'm pretty sure i've heard the 'thh' in Andaluthhia. Actually I am sure.

Coming from a Latin Amercican background it got on my nerves a bit when people would correct me and say it's not 'cerveza' it's 'thhervethha'.
and it's not 'ABC' but 'ABTHH' etc etc.
If the word is obviously understood why even bother about little things like that. I love the sounds of Castillian spanish as much as Latin American Spanish.
What was it Carlos V said?? (Latin American or Castillian)...

I never try to "correct" my latino friends' promounciation, here, in Spain. I accept theirs and go on with mine.

In fact, there is one of the 8 andalucia provinces, which uses the "thh" sound, But they use it wrong! They use "thh" when it should be "c" and "c" where it should be "thh".

I think those guys, at the beginning of the learning of spanish by the decades I mentioned before, tried to learn the "thh" from the simplified "C" for everything basic spanish. But they learnt it wrong. They use to bring a smile in our face when we hear them, because they neither do it like us northern, and central spanish, nor like the rest of southeners and Latino Americans, but a different way that's just the opposite of what we consider correct.

I personally think educated people of this province doesn't pronounce like that. It's like when instead of saying formal "ustedes" or unformal "vosotros", they use the invented formula "ustedes-vosotros". So many jokes on this... "ustedes-vosotros que sus (os) lo mereceis todo" I think this is a famous expresion by Rocío jurado to her fans.

why even bother about little things like that

True, it would be foolish to try to excavate in History to see who is really right and pure. However, it's normal that people may be curious about accents, but the lisp story... The first time I heard it I got kind on angry, but no more.

After all, I am not exactly a spanish patriot.