Mexican Spanish

Historically, the evolution of Mexican Spanish coincides in great part with the development of Peruvian Spanish. Mexico City was for centuries the hub of one of the great viceroyalties of colonial America.

The first impression which produces the Spanish of Mexico is that it is a conservative speech. Mexican Spanish has conserved old ways of saying, without letting influence itself by innovations from other zones of the Hispanic linguistic world. Archaisms like “se me hace” (it seems to me) or ¿qué tanto? (how much?) are a visible characteristic of Mexican Spanish. These archaisms were once commonplace in the Spanish empire. For example, in requesting repetition of something not understood, the most common Mexican response is ¿Mande? (a mandar ‘to order’). Other commonly heard Mexicanisms include the following: ándale ‘let’s go/I agree’, chamaco ‘small child’, charola ‘tray’, chingar ‘to screw/to ruin’ (vulg.), enjarocharse ‘to get amorously involved’, güero ‘blond’ , híjole ‘wow!’, mocharse ‘to help out’, órale ‘come on’, popote ‘straw’.

Although the Spanish spoken in Mexico is very conservative with respect to the one of the metropolis Spain, it cannot remain stationary. Like all languages, it is subject to evolutionary tendencies, following a parallel development to the Spanish of Spain, but in different ways. Some of the changes that Spanish of Mexico experienced are the development of the gerund periphrasis: "voy llegando" (I am just arriving), "vamos haciendo una cosa " (lets do something);

Some differences are the use of the adverb ‘siempre’ (always) with the meaning of ‘definitively’: "siempre no voy a ir al partido” (Definitively I am not going to the game) or the abundance of constructions with the verb “andar” (to walk).

The Spanish of Mexico was also influenced by a strong indigenous substrate, mainly náhuatl. In Mexican Spanish, vowels lose strengths while consonants are fully pronounced. Maybe this is explained by the influence of the consonant-complex Nahuatl language. Nevertheless, although its influence is undeniable in the lexicon, it is also feeled in the grammar land. In the vocabulary, in addition to the mexicanisms with which the Spanish language has become richer: tomato, chocolate or coyote; the Spanish of Mexico counts on many nahuatlisms like cuate, tecolote, milpa, jacal, ixtle, huacal, metate, etc.

There are also many words from English language in the Mexican Spanish, more anglicisms than in other hispanic regions: carro, checar, folder, overol, réferi, closet…