Yeísmo

Content

• History of yeísmo
• Rules
• Yeísmo problems: homophony
• Examples of yeísmos

Theyeísmo is a phonetic alteration, typical of some Spanish-speaking regions, which consists of pronouncing the combination of letters LL in the same way as Y.

The phenomenon had its origin in the demographic movements within Spain, especially with the trips of the great rural masses to the cities: it is currently very widespread in the Latin American region that uses Spanish in its own particular way, almost occupying all of the pronunciations of LL in those countries.

• It can serve you: Words with LL and Y

History of yeísmo

In the origins of the Spanish language, the LL and the Y represented two different phonemes. Over time, the differentiation was lost in many countries and that explains that in the places where the language arrived less time ago (South America), the difference is almost nil, while in the country from which the language originates ( Spain) the use of yeísmos, is reduced only to some regions such as Madrid, Andalusia or La Mancha.

• See also: Voseo

Rules

One of the implications that the generalization of the Yeísmo phenomenon may have is that of confusion in the grammatical use of each of the two letters:

• They carry Y: words that contain the syllable 'yec', those that have the prefix 'ad', 'des', 'dis', or 'usb', plurals of nouns whose singular ends in 'y', and all forms of the verbs to err and err.
• They carry LL: words ending in ‘illo’ or ‘illa’, as well as those ending in ‘it’ or ‘she’ and all forms of the verb ‘find’

Yeísmo problems: homophony

There are times when Yeísmo can cause confusion: when two words with different sounds and meanings become homophones, acquiring exactly the same sound. For example: go, fence and berry.

In that situation, the context It will allow us to understand what word it refers to, since the examples are not too many and they almost never belong to the same word family.

• See also: Homophone words

Examples of yeísmos

Here are some examples of words that contain LL and that lend themselves to the appearance of a yeísmo.

• Continue with: Vices of diction