One of the most frequent questions that producers ask us is: What is neutral Latin American Spanish and why is it important?
In “The Importance of Marketing to Hispanics Online in Spanish” by Walter Godinez, he explains that, “Historically, the U.S. Hispanic population has been predominantly Mexican (2/3 of the population) and while these numbers are not changing dramatically, the diversity of 1/3 of the Hispanic population has increased.”
Each country in Latin America has it’s own form of Spanish with differing pronunciations, terms for words, and slang. One way of looking at the different forms of Latin American Spanish is like comparing American, British, and Australian English. While these three forms of English utilize similar words, they are also very distinct from each other. If a commercial was shot in British English, with colloquial British terms, most Americans wouldn’t fully understand the advertisement and, therefore, will not be fully engaged by the content. By creating media that accurately portrays the language of the target audience, the advertisement can reach the largest audience.
The changing Hispanic ethnic demographic is increasing the different forms of Spanish spoken in the United States. To accurately create content targeting the wider Hispanic population, it is necessary to use neutral Spanish. This form of Spanish is dialect-free, accent-free, and does not use words that belong to a certain Latin American country, making it accesible for a diverse Hispanic audience.
To read more about neutral Latin American Spanish, check out Brian’s blog post “Neutral, Standard, North American“!