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The story goes like this: a medieval king of Spain spoke with a lisp. Wanting to imitate royalty, courtiers picked it up. The resulting
th
sound wormed its way into the Spanish language.
It would be a great tale of linguistics, history, and idolization of the ruling class?if it were true.
The myth of the Spanish king’s lisp has been attributed to at least two monarchs:
Ferdinand III
, king of Castile from 1217 to 1252 and of Leon from 1230 to 1252, and
Peter the Cruel
, king of Castile and Leon from 1350 to 1369. In court historian
Pedro Lopez de Ayala
’s
Cronicas
, the latter is said to have “spoken with a slight lisp,” an observation often taken out of context to support the theory of a Castilian speech impediment. But Ayala never claimed that others in court mimicked Peter’s way of speaking, nor was the lisp at all the subject of his writing. Rather,
his intention was exposing the king’s abuse of his people
:
King Don Pedro lived thirty-five years and seven months. He had a large body, was pale and blond, and spoke with a slight lisp. He was a proficient bird hunter. He suffered many travails. He was measured and well mannered in his eating and drinking. He slept little and loved many women. He was an avid warrior. He was greedy for treasure and jewels.…And he killed many throughout the land, which caused the turmoil you readers have heard about. This is why here we repeat the words of the prophet David: ‘
Now kings listen and learn, all who judge the world will someday be judged.’
Ayala is one of Peter the Cruel’s only contemporaries to mention the king’s lisp; no historical evidence exists that suggests that it?or Ferdinand III’s alleged lisp, of which no record survives?influenced other Spanish speakers. Claims that
Castilian Spanish
is spoken with a lisp are based on rumor, not fact.
But if that extra
th
sound isn’t a lisp, what is it?
What non-Spaniards may hear as a lisp is actually just a typical
linguistic
variation. Like all languages, Spanish naturally evolved through time as Spanish speakers migrated across the world and encountered different outside influences. (You might think of the
s
-versus-
th
debate as akin to the varying American and Canadian pronunciations of “sorry” or “about.”) To think about it technically, there are three linguistic terms that describe the pronunciations in question:
- Pronouncing the
c
before
e
and
i
,
s
, and
z
like the
s
in
sale
is called
seseo
.
- Pronouncing the
c
before
e
and
i
,
s
, and
z
like the
th
in
booth
is called
ceceo
.
- Pronouncing the
c
before
e
and
i
and
z
like the
th
in
booth
but
s
like the
s
in
sale
is called
distincion
.
While Latin American Spanish speakers almost exclusively use
seseo
, most Spaniards use either
ceceo
or
distincion
. (Which they use depends on the region of Spain the speaker originates from;
ceceo
and
seseo
are most common in
Andalusia
, while most other regions tend toward
distincion
.) This explains why many North and South Americans, accustomed to Spanish without the
th
sound, identify use of
ceceo
and
distincion
as incorrect.
But, while these three linguistic elements are different, no one is more “correct” than another. They are simply the result of a language’s natural evolution through time and distance?not a gaffe or a goof or an obsequious imitation of a lisp.