How is the letter 's' (or the 's' sound) pronounced in Spain?

Question

I've heard varying things regarding the pronunciation of the 's' sound in Spain. However, no one was willing/able to explain this to me.

How is the 's' sound pronounced in Spain compared to its usage in, say, Mexico?

Answer 1

Dialects

There are three different terms used to describe this dialectal difference: ceceo, seseo, and distinción.

Dialects that are said to have the ceceo use "th" instead of an "s" sound. Dialects with the seseo use the "s" sound. The distinción actually uses both, distinguishing between one and the other.

Example

For example, the words "casa" (house) and "caza" (hunt) may or may not be pronounced the same. When the seseo is used, both are pronounced with an "s" sound. With the ceceo dialect, however, both are pronounced with the "th" sound.

The distinción is a little different in that this dialect distinguishes between the "s" and the "z" or soft "c". Dialects that use the distinción, always pronounce the s as an "s" sound. However, they pronounce the "z" or soft "c" as a "th" sound (such as caza or ciento).

Castillian Spanish

Per the question, Spain has a few dialects. Castillian Spanish uses the distinción, such that "siento ciento" (I feel 100) would be "s"iento "th"iento. However, throughout Spain, the dialects differ and some use the ceceo (using "th" all the time) and other regions use the seseo (using the "s" all the time).

Wikipedia on ceceo

Answer 2

Well the letter "s" has one sound (mostly) but the letters "c" and "z" also have an "s" sound in most regions except most of Spain where "s" sounds like English "s" but "c" and "z" sound like English "th".

Answer 3

From here:

Most of the time, the s of Spanish sounds the same as the "s" sound in English words such as "see" and "bus," although perhaps a bit shorter. However, the sound of the Spanish s is also affected by the sound of the letter that follows it. When an s is followed by a voiced consonant — in other words, a b, d, voiced g, m, n, l, r or v — it is pronounced like a soft "z" sound.

Note that the "z"-like sound occurs in Spanish only before those consonants. It does not occur at the end of words (such as in plurals) or when followed by a vowel. The s sound changes slightly merely because it is blending into the sound the follows.

In some areas, native speakers frequently omit the s sound when it comes at the end of a syllable, so that "¿Cómo está usted?" ends up sounding something like "¿Cómo etá uted?" You should be aware of this if you're traveling in such areas but shouldn't imitate it elsewhere.

Answer 4

As for accents concern I think the best thing you can do is to hear them.

Here you can watch some different people reading the same text. In 1:54 you can hear a woman talking with Spanish accent although in 2:37, the Mexican man who lives in Spain also has Spanish accent (he says: «naθí en México» and the θ sound in the 'c'/'z' is from Spain).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ABe04lt5D0

Answer 5

In Spain is pronounced as a long version of the English voiceless dental fricative "th". It is common in Spanish also a guttural priming of this sound, rendered in the written language as "es" (e.g., escrito).