Can An Italian Understand Spanish? Madrid

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

For a person who hasn't studied Spanish you are pretty great at reading it.

[@metatronacademy]

Thank you!

[@cheeveka3]

@@metatronacademyyou should listen to Galician and Catalan one time. Galician more similar to Portuguese and Catalan more similar to French and Italian.😁

[@coquimapping8680]

@@metatronacademy You should listen to Puerto Rican Spanish! It’s very different from South American Spanish, but very similar to Canarian Spanish.

[@silverkitty2503]

and listening!

[@FirstSynapse]

Also at understanding. Honestly the things he didn't get were very specific expressions. Also, famous spanish youtubers can't enunciate to save their lives. This is a pretty common issue in Spain in general but at least normal people breath between sentences. Not sure Madrid's accent, or Spain's Spanish in general was the best choice to start for him. I would imagine Argentinian would be easier as they already have some Italian influence.

[@UnbrokenWillll]

This is a criminally underrated channel .

[@seamussc]

The hardest part of Spanish hands down for me has been learning how to understand it spoken by a native speaker at full speed in its natural rhythm. But, the best thing about learning Spanish is that native speakers tend to be extremely patient, non-judgemental and supportive of people learning their language.

[@tylere.8436]

Same, I can read and write in Spanish fine, but speaking is a whole new beast.

[@hedleypanama]

Agree!

[@davidbraun6209]

That is especially so if the native speaker swallows any s at the end of a syllable where the next syllable does not begin with a vowel. I can understand Mexican technocrats' "español de-efense" (D.F. Spanish -- Distrito Federal is to Mexico what D.C. is to the U.S.) all day (I heard it on NPR), but full-on Cuban Spanish is a wholly different matter.

[@mejsjalv]

Well, you're probably doing good then, because even for us native speakers it can get difficult to understand as well when we hear accents and slang from a different Spanish speaking country. Not so much when speaking TO someone, but listening when they speak with each other, if you're not acquainted with the accent and the slang, it gets from hard to impossible understand. Much like say, sending an American from Appalachia to a rural town in Scotland.

[@Alkis05]

Understanding spoken language is the most difficult skill in the vast majority of cases, except with you are learning languages that have a completely different writing system than yours.

[@C_B_Hubbs]

Raf has been pumping out these great language videos on the new channel here very rapidly. Impressive.

[@metatronacademy]

Doing my best!

[@Leftyotism]

Some pump weights, others pump lingo.

[@almerindaromeira8352]

Spanish people do speak amazingly fast in actual conversations. It's not just because he is a gamer.

[@drefhill]

because spanish is very easy to pronounce. You never get stuck on a word.

[@TheBathroomIsCarpeted]

As a native speaker of Rioplatense, I'll also vouch for you to look into our variant. In all honesty, I think we often overexagerate the influence Italian (or more acuratelly, the Italic dialects/languages) have had on us. Still, many of us have a soft spot for Italians, so I think it would be cool nonetheless hahaha.

[@ventu2295]

Igual te das cuenta cuando visitas una familia descendientes de italianos hace dos generaciones jajaja

[@angeloo7162]

As an Italian who have traveled quite a few times to Buenos Aires, I completely agree. I didn’t notice any particular similarity between the Rioplatense and any of the Italian dialects, except for a few words. Rioplatense is definitely not “Spanish with an Italian tonada” as I have heard while there 😅 Anyway, it is the variety of Spanish I like the most.

[@TheBathroomIsCarpeted]

@@angeloo7162Well, just to give some credit to the people who told you about the "tonada", it might have been truer in the past, when there were many more Italian natives in the country. The thing is, since many spoke mainly in dialect (sometimes they didn't even know standard), and Spanish was already so similar, their descendants were brought up just in Spanish. Which is sad, because a lot of us remain endeared to Italy, but not much is being done about it, seeing as contact between both of our countries seems so scant.

[@wyattwahlgren8883]

I'm learning Spanish, and I can confirm that "la playa" is "the beach."

[@drefhill]

I'm not sure, it depend of the context.

[@marna_li]

This is why I love Romance languages! They have not diverged very much thanks to the historical cultural ties and trade between the different parts of the Mediterranean. If you know one language, then you can easily figure out how the others work. I do think that Venetian sounds a lot like Spanish. But what fascinates me is Romanian.

[@lellab.8179]

My sister spent a year in Munich for her Erasmus. She met some Spanish guys and, despite living in Germany, they had never bothered to learn German and they were terrible at English, so they went along speaking Spanish and Italian (my sister did'n know Spanish and they didn't know Italian). They never had any problem understanding each other.

[@justinherrera3722]

Why is it that Spanish people get away with not learning English or any foreign language and the other europeans have to learn Spanish instead 😂 lol

[@tewkewl]

@@justinherrera3722 they don't. europeans have to learn english everywhere. only in the US is Spanish a required foreign language. this is due to 20% of the population being native spanish speakers and 40% being secondary speakers or having learned it at some point.

[@tewkewl]

And even then, the spanish taught is governed by the North American Academy of Spanish... which means it's almost all Mexican spanish. you can tell when you hear a spanish as a second language fluent spanish speaker from the US... they basically talk like a mexican. which makes complete sense. That is unless they have a GF from latin america... then they can speak like a colombian, DR, argentine, etc...

[@alpacamale2909]

@@justinherrera3722 I don't think Spaniards force other europeans to learn it

[@McLarry88]

@@alpacamale2909 Mexicans have a deep resentment towards Spain, it is something that was instilled in them from a young age, they built their national identity like this. And they do not waste the opportunity to speak ill of Spain. But yes, they speak Spanish, they pray to the Spanish god, and they have all the customs of the Spanish.

[@Jorell420]

I am a native Spanish speaker and I had a hard time understanding that far cry review lmaooo! You did great brother

[@joseademar6821]

Damn, as a random Latino Noble One, I'm impressed that you only made some minor mistakes throughout the whole video, Metatron. Italian must be overpowered, I guess, as we can't understand you guys the same way (Ironically; Italians speak too quickly for us and we do not use like half of your vocabulary, lol). Pretty fun to watch, anyways. Saludos desde Costa Rica

[@totetoresano]

You can't? I'm from Spain and I can understand quite a lot of Italian.

[@tewkewl]

Untrue. 80% of the vocab is essentially the same. An additional 5% or so can be understood as other words that are similar in nature although different in meaning. the problem is italian IS a lot harder to understand because words MUST end in a vowel 99% of the time. as a result, the words sound like they are strung together whereas spanish has definitive stops at the end of each word. Italians understanding Spanish is probably 90% of most conversations if spoken slowly. For spanish understanding italian, it's about 75%

[@johndoes7569]

Next is Romanian?

[@bigzed7908]

I hope so ☺️

[@mrtrollnator123]

Inshallah

[@Avram_Orozco]

Galician and Asturian

[@Nissardpertugiu]

Corsican would be funny

[@SammonPuolustaja]

And French (🤢)

[@KrlKngMrtssn]

Every single Italian should learn Spanish, just for the sake of art, literature, universality, history, science, common knowledge and self respect.

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

We need a part 2 with the porteño accent of Argentina. It is a variety of Rioplatense accent, which is also spoken in Uruguay, but the porteño accent is from the people of the capital Buenos Aires (porteño meaning people of the port, since Buenos Aires is a port city). You will hear a lot of the Italian-esque cadance and even the mannerism in their body language if you see them talk. I suggest clips where Argentines are ranting or complaining passionately, because that's when the inner Italian really manifests itself. Clips like Carmen destroza a Moria, or Moria contra todos, or el Tano Pasman viendo el River vs Belgrano are good examples, though the latter is really a bunch of profanities. Esperando por la Carroza is also a good reference to see the stereotypical porteño family dynamic of the 80s, with a lot of iconic Uruguayan actors there too. For more calm videos, maybe El Cabezon Ruggeri se emociono recordando a Maradona junto el equipo de ESPNF90 is a good clip.

[@Hun_Uinaq]

You’re going to kill him with laughter if you keep recommending things like esperando la carroza. such a funny movie! Argentine cinema at its finest.

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

@@Hun_Uinaq It is a cult classic.

[@mejsjalv]

No soy argentino, y me costó entenderle a Maradona en el clip con Ruggeri. Por cierto, que el acento napolitano de Italia me suena como argentino. Y me cagué de risa oooootra vez con el de Tano Pasman.

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

​@@mejsjalv Jajaja. Bueno, los futbolistas no son los que mejores hablan, ya que crecen mas en la cancha que en el aula. Ruggeri también es de Rosario, igual que Messi. El acento de Rosario se considera una variedad de rioplatense, y es parecido al porteño, pero aún se diferencia en la manera de donde aspiran la S. Y obvio, el Tano Pasman ya es un icono de la Argentina. Nos representa la pasión que tenemos por el fútbol. Y vos, de donde sos?

[@norielgames4765]

Your spoken and read Spanish is very good. As a native, I can say I hear some quirks in your accent but it's definitely very good. I know other Italians living in Spain long term and they don't get to sound even half as good as you do, so props for that!

[@oleksandrbyelyenko435]

Pelicula in Spanish is same as Film in English. Means both the material and the content.

[@Epsilonsama]

I think the dude was saying the phrase "de película". Which means like awesome in slang. But I didn't hear them right cause as a Latin American when Spaniards start talking 100mph it's sometimes hard for even me to understand everything.

[@REOGURU]

As a Spanish speaker I also had that giddy feeling of amazement the first time I listened to spoken Italian and understood most of it. The slower they spoke the more and more I understood. It brought to light the familial connetions between the two languages. It made me feel like Italians were distant relatives.

[@SoiledWig]

My friend from Mexico, when we were in Europe, he communicated with Venetians very easily without making adjustments to his Spanish, or they to their Italian, communicating with anyone in Barcelona required no adjustments, but when we got to Madrid, he STRUGGLED! That accent was harder than a different language.

[@GabrieleZecchini02]

To be fair Venetian has some similarities to Spanish (more than regular Italian at least) in pronunciation and vocabulary

[@serfin01]

Weird thing, because Venetian is indeed one of the closest Italian dialect to any Spanish dialects. In fact, Venetian is closer to Spanish from Spain than Spanish from LatinAmerica.

[@kevindasilvagoncalves468]

Metatron, there are Easy Portuguese videos too, you could have used them. And in Ecolinguist's channel he makes lots of comprehension tests among many languages.

[@pirangeloferretti3588]

Once I had a conversation for about 2 hours with some Spanish tourists, I spoke Italian, they spoke Spanish and with some clarifications here and there we went along very smoothly. Yes, it's fascinating!

[@RobertRod818]

Great video. And to think that many Hispanic Americans complain that Madrid's accent is difficult to understand.

[@NicolasRomeroVilla]

"He leído muchas veces la Comedia. La verdad es que no sé italiano, no sé otro italiano que el que me enseñó Dante y que el que me enseñó, después, Ariosto cuando leí el Furioso". Jorge Luis Borges recordando aquella vez que leyó la Divina Comedia en su idioma original sin saber ni una pizca de italiano. ¡Saludos, Metatrón!

[@HighLight43]

Great work, Metatron, this was a fun video. There were a few instances where you misunderstood some things, but that's normal... All languages have some tricky false friends. I think you should do Catalan next. It is often closer to French and Italian than it is to Spanish, so it could be interesting to see how much you understand.

[@cobracommander8133]

Do Catalan next, I think you will understand almost everything, even more than Spanish. Molt bon vídeo!

[@RobertRod818]

Don't do Catalan, it's a Boeing language

[@MichaelScheele]

I took three years of Spanish in high school. Ten years after high school, I was in Rome and encountered a Spanish high school teacher from Madrid who was on a field trip with some students. He wanted me to take a picture of him and his students in the Roman Forum. He didn't know much English, but my Spanish was sufficient to communicate. Earlier in my trip, I had relied on some Italian language basics in a travel guide to talk with people. One person asked me where I was from as I spoke Italian with a Spanish accent. I realized I had fallen back on using Spanish pronunciation rules and did my best to correct that based on my limited knowledge. That did the trick, I assume I just sounded like I had an English accent in Italian after that... I found I could handle tourist level conversations based on my limited knowledge of Spanish. I could understand more written Italian than I could spoken Italian. I could piece together the meanings of some classical Latin inscriptions too. On the other hand, French stumped me in either spoken or written form.

[@justlikethesimulations6895]

It was entertaining cause I am fluent in English and Latin currently learning German love your video's but the gamer I said out loud "DAMN IT BREATH." The exact same time you said it haha.

[@fixer1140]

Bro, your spanish pronunciation is so clear, almost perfect. Keep up with the great content.

[@alejandrodelatorre2240]

i'm from madrid born an raised and when i was youger i thought we didn't have an accent but it took me some travels around spain to notice it wasn't the case. It got definetly proved when i went to the netherlands to compete in a tournament that there i've met some girls asking for directions while waiting for the bus because they saw me exit the airbnb i was renting there and thought i was living in the city. After just a couple of words i looked them in the eye and said, "sóis de madrid?" and they all freaked out in unison, it was a really fun experience.

[@impressions9558]

As an anglosaxon that speaks fluently Spanish, Catalan and French, I sometimes follow news and documentaries in Italian. Once Italians go slang then I am lost. The more formal the easier for me.

[@thrice1987]

The hardest part about understanding that "gamer" wasn't the speed but the fact that he barely vocalized. It felt like he was speaking while holding something in his mouth.

[@JuanHernandez-zp8ie]

You are a genious bro! Love your videos! I'm a fan of yours, from Ecuador. Love it man! I love how close italian and spanish are!

[@thorthewolf8801]

I am learning spanish, and recently I went to Italy for holiday. It was very cool to understand a bunch of things, and mind you, my spanish is only B1, so the things I didnt understand could stem from my lack of knowledge of spanish, which is exciting! Obviously that is just part of the explanation, the other part being just the difference between the two languages.

[@Ureta93]

One of the most remarkable things about the accent of the spaniards that we share with Greek people is the "S" pronunciation, unique for both countries not even shared in South America. Really difficult to "lose" when trying to pronounce another language with a good accent or the other way around, a foreigner trying to sound native in spanish will find it difficult to pronounce the "S" correctly. Something very subtle but detectable if you listen carefully.

[@nickwysoczanskyj785]

If I remember correctly, weren’t there a lot of Greek colonies in in Spain during ancient times? It would be interesting if that characteristic of Greek pronunciation has persisted since Hellenic times.

[@raparigo]

​@@nickwysoczanskyj785 that "s" was also used in Latin, it was probably used in all romance languages at some point in time, even today some Portuguese dialects use it, as well as all of noethern Iberia, so it's just a conservation of the original sound already used for millenia

[@nickwysoczanskyj785]

@@raparigo Ah, I see. Thanks, that’s really interesting! My knowledge of Latin is very limited. I’ve only really had really limited exposure to Ecclesiastical Latin. I’m aware there’s marked differences in pronunciation between it, and Classical Latin, but my knowledge of those differences is also very limited.

[@Hun_Uinaq]

Some Colombian accents do have it. They sound a lot like Spaniards in that regard except that they have seseo and they do not talk so fast that it sounds like they think they will die if they don’t get to that period in record time.

[@jandeolive6007]

@@raparigo Most dialects in Portugal use variations of that 'primordial' 's' (more or less retracted).

[@karliikaiser3800]

10:59 German speaker from Austria: I understand more dutch than swiss dialects and dutch is considered its own laguage. I can read most in dutch never studied it. So no wonder. Germanic and Romance languages are partially intelligible within the language family and through english even over the border of the language family. They are at least both indogermanic languages.

[@neyuriiart]

You did so well!! There’s a few things you weren’t sure like “seco”, but you were right. We do actually literally call some accents dry! And most things you got! I love how similar Spanish and Italian are, I’ve had conversations in Spanish with Italians talking back in Italian and if we spoke slow enough, we could communicate for the most part. To your question about our speed talking, yes, we speak that fast and even faster in the south 😂😂😂😂

[@daenew2765]

I just wanted to express how much I appreciate your videos. It was not only informative but also incredibly entertaining. I've watched a bunch of others break down languages, but the way you explain I find is a way better way, and it really helps people to understand the differences, and these vids is truly commendable. Keep up the fantastic work, and I can't wait to see more of your language exploration adventures!

[@ChanyeolsHaneul]

You should do Spanish from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Is a known fact that we are called the child of Italy that went to Spanish school 😊

[@Hun_Uinaq]

Buenos Aires Spanish has a rhythm and sound to it that reminds me very strongly of Napolitano.

[@MarcoS-jo3df]

The Argentinian accent sounds similar to the piedmontese accent to me

[@tysonl.taylor-gerstner1558]

This is something that more peopel need to do. People think you need English to travel, but the reality is that if you travel into countries that speak languages from the same language family, very little english would be needed. It can all be figured out from context. Funny enough Dutch people hate it when Germans come here and speak German but are leniant with English speakers to the point of accomodating, They claim they don't understand. but it is usually a lack of will to understand that leads people to not understand when languages are so closely related

[@cosimoalbaster]

Great video as always! I really hope Romanian is next!

[@cahallo5964]

I actually discovered your main channel from that older video about this same topic on the main channel.

[@magyarbondi]

As somebody said in one of those clickbaity language/word comparison videos: Spanish is like Italian with an 's' added to the end of nearly every word. Salutos amicos mios! 😂

[@petrkurfurst8796]

You pronounce surprisingly well when reading Spanish, only your stressed syllables are a tad too long 🙂 The Italian effect, I supposed. Beautiful video, thank you. You inspire me to try doing some Slavic cross-linguistic comprehension myself (a Czech person here). Ciao.

[@khelian613]

9:05 In French we use a similar word to say cutscene: cinématique. (And we have machette too, though said a la french, /maʃɛt/.) 13:20 In French pellicule is also only the film in a camera ; but in Spanish it has broader meaning and it mostly means "movie". 17:00 French word, as you saw in your other video, is "Bouclier", but "Écu" is an older fashioned way to say it which is more transparent.

[@UnbrokenWillll]

I don’t know if I’m right but from what understand French is like a mixture of Germanic (franks) and Latin . So can you understand some German words as well ?

[@khelian613]

@@UnbrokenWillll It's more like Latin influenced by Frankish than a mixture, the vocabulary and grammar are still very romance. I don't speak German so I couldn't think of many related words, but I know some words of Germanic origin that have a common origin and meaning in French and English, like war/guerre, shock/choquer, crayfish/écrevisse, gay/gai, lick/lécher... And these words sometimes do come from French into English, but sometimes they're simply cognates. I don't know german enough to know if there are equivalents, but I know I couldn't understand a person speaking german at all, and I can't understand anything when it's written (compared to other romance languages where it's very easy).

[@UnbrokenWillll]

@@khelian613 thank you , had no idea . I always wondered about that

[@armandobroncasegura5170]

1st video: Alcalde = mayor, it's taken from western Arabic al-qadi which means judge (it's a long story). In Old Spanish it was burgomaestre. In the video, the guy mentions the mayor's accent. 3rd video: "es un auto de película" = (colloquial expression) it's an amazing car (just like those you can watch on a film, "espectacular" conveys the same meaning) Pelicula is used for movies/films either old ones or new ones. Película also means "a thin layer of sth, like paint". If you ever try with Chilean Spanish, just keep in mind that neutral Chilean is quite similar to those accents from southern Spain, particularly Andalusia and Extremadura. Although, Chilean people/youtubers rarely use neutral REGISTER, unless you watch a video from the TV.

[@outremer91]

What's more impressive about the reading portion is that you're translating it into Italian then into English immediately.

[@qazedout]

Hey Metatron, long time follower here. As a native Spanish speaker I find Italian pretty easy to understand, but you end up making the same types of mistakes you make here, being one thinking that he understands perfectly but you change the fundamental meaning of things, kind of like a broken telephone. If you try Latin American you will probably have an easier time with Argentina as they speak a variant called lunfardo which is basically Spanish Italian creole, pretty similar to what you are used to in Italian. Conversely if you try to understand someone from Chile you will not even think it's Spanish. Colombians from the coast are something else as well, I've had people from Spain complain that people were speaking some sort of regional language , but really it was just the thickness of the Cartagena accent. Mexico is pretty easy for Latinamericans as it's the standard dub for cartoons. All in all it's much easier than Portuguese. Once you get used to the original pronunciation changes you can get into it, basically if you want to go half way listen to people speaking Galician and after a while go to Portuguese and you will probably find your groove and understand it.

[@iberius9937]

As a spanish speaker currently learning Italian, I approve this video. 👌

[@EstNix]

Awww yes so happy you made this video!! I would love to hear since you asked for you to listen to puerto rican spanish

[@toast_bias]

You should absolutely react to Rioplatense Spanish. Besides all the European influence, it's its own standardized dialect which means you'll hear significant grammatical and lexical differences compared to Peninsular Spanish.

[@jayvil8583]

Te informo que a mi (siendo hispanohablante latinoamericano) tambien cuesta un poquito entender el acento y forma de hablar de los jovenes. Si lograste entender gran parte de lo que hablaban te felicito pues tienes un buen nivel de compresión. Pronuncias muy bien el español, tu acepto es castizo de España. Me encantan tus videos

[@Grashcoy]

Try chilean spanish, Metatron! It's the most distinctive spanish dialect, so much so that many native speakers of other dialects often don't think it should even be considered spanish. It definitely is spanish and if you listen to people speaking it formally you'll realize it relatively quickly. It's just that there's a wide variety of diversity in how it is spoken. ¡Saludos desde Chile, weón! Chao!

[@hedleypanama]

I follow you!

[@totetoresano]

Soy español y creo que entiendo mejor a unos italianos hablando entre ellos que a unos chilenos jajaja. En mi experiencia escuchando a amigos chilenos, habláis muy deprisa y omitís muchos sonidos, por lo menos de manera coloquial, pero luego escuchas hablar por ejemplo a Boric o a Piñera dando una entrevista y se entiende todo perfectamente, porque hablan mucho más despacio y vocalizan más. Personalmente, creo que el acento que más le costaría entender es el de Guinea Ecuatorial.

[@Octa9on]

un chiste que le conté a un amigo mío chileno: ¿cómo sabes que un chileno está enojado contigo? ¡porque puedes entenderlo!

[@fixer1140]

​@@totetoresanoque tan cierto, yo a veces le entiendo más a los italianos, aunque a veces a los andaluces no les entiendo ni jota. Aquí un super reto sería ponerlo a entenderle a un reggaetonero, pero no seamos tan crueles.

[@ivanmolero7829]

@@totetoresano Pues no es tan difícil de entender a la gente de Guinea Ecuatorial. Mira vídeos en KZbin con gente de ese país y te darás cuenta de lo que digo.

[@raulelumano7902]

Saludos desde España, lo que es mágico es que entiendo tu inglés como si fuera nativo pero tendría serios problemas en entender a un francés hablando inglés con la misma fluidez que tú.

[@danielmoreno3083]

Hey, great video! Cool to see that you actually got that much, although I gotta say that I was really expecting that outcome, not only because of your Italian, but also because of your knowledge of Latin and English. That definitely helps to fill some gaps sometimes. However, I am pretty convinced that there are no big (in population) romance languages (or rather sets of dialects) that are so mutually intelligible as Spanish and Italian for those who have not studied one but are natives to the other. This is actually a non-trivial thing since Italian and Spanish are less closely related than Spanish and Portuguese or French, and for me Portuguese has always been much harder to understand than Italian, and I can't get jack of French. I think that the reason is definitively a very similar pronunciation. Pretty much the same consonants (with some differences and the almost complete absence of geminate consonants in Spanish) and almost identical vowel quality. I think that, depending on the person and the level, at least for a Spanish speaker, after some formal education Portuguese might become as easy or easier to understand to Italian with no training. In the end, the cool thing is that what is really needed for functional understanding of the language is really just learning where things evolved different in both languages (like many f's in Italian became an aspirated "h" and then a mute "h" in Spanish, or that the future ending in Spanish for the first person is a "-é" while in Italian is an "-ò".). I am not Argentinian, but I agree with other comments. You should definitely try the accent of Buenos Aires to see if the heavy Italian influence makes it even easier for you to understand.

[@65fhd4d6h5]

The woman in the last video is Catalan. The interdental fricative is also used in Catalonian Spanish. In fact, Catalonian Spanish is very close to standard Castilian Spanish, with very few exceptions.

[@carlosalbin7706]

Que bueno que sí le entiendes al español. Así, si algún día nos encontramos cara a cara, no habrá ningún problema en comunicarnos. Y como siempre El Metatron ha desplegado sus alas.

[@claimhsolais3466]

Congratulations! Looking forward to see you featured on Ecolinguist's future video!

[@nahuelcutrera]

as a native spanish speaker that is perfect comprehension right from the start. I kind of understand italian too but not like that, you got it perfect there.

[@boxerfencer]

Metatron, next do Gallego. It's a Spanish language that's sister to Portuguese. There's more than one variety, but I'm willing to bet you'd understand much more than Portuguese, almost as much Castilian/Spanish, and it goes to show how much the Portuguese have changed or twisted Romance. Leonese/Austurian and Catalan would be interesting too. I guess, southern Spanish and the variety spoken in the Canaries might really bewilder you as a non native speaker, though.

[@leocomerford]

The ‘language continuum’ idea seems to suggest that Occitan (which is apparently pretty close to Catalan?) would be more comprehensible to Metatron than Spanish or Portuguese.

[@boxerfencer]

@@leocomerfordyou'd expect so, but language comprehensibility doesn't necessarily work like that. For instance, French ani Italian are more closely related than Italian and Spanish, yet the mutual comprehensibility between the later is greater.

[@boxerfencer]

@@leocomerford yeah, Occitan and Catalan were considered the same language till recently. I can't help feeling that's politically motivated, what with the independence movement and all; it's just too convenient.

[@LuDa-lf1xd]

I've studied in Catalonia and actually got to read old catalán texts and occitan. They're both different languages. I would understand if you say Valencian and Catalan, but occitan NO.

[@boxerfencer]

@@LuDa-lf1xd i haven't had the opportunity to do that, and I must admit that the Occitan I've heard sounds quite different from Catalan I've heard, sometimes in that Occitan sounds like it's "Mediterranean Romance" spoken with a heavily weighted Parisian accent, while Catalan sounds like it's spoken with a Spanish accent. In any regard, there are various videos on KZbin showing a very high level of mutual comprehensibility between speakers of both languages, which doesn't mean they're the same language but suggestive, or at least supporting evidence for it. There's at least one, I believe two, done by the Couch Polyglot and there's a cute one done by or with two kids, one a Catalan speaker, the other Occitan, on their bicycles on, presumably, the boarder. What's noteworthy to me, is that there's no sign of having to speak slowly to facilitate comprehension, that I can detect, as is common with Spanish and Portuguese communication, or any other strategy such as limiting vocabulary to words held in common that I can detect, although I must admit the later difficult to ascertain. What it reminds me of, and I say this as someone who doesn't speak either Catalan nor Occitan, is English and Scots, which might suggest either a close sister language or dialect relationship, or perhaps Gallego and Portuguese. If the latter is true, then it would qualify as the same greater language. As for the redefining of previously held common languages, I've noticed this phenomenon in regards to Occitan into and nearing Italy, where some local romance variants were once, as best I recall, called Occitan but now not so. Anyway, this could get much longer and I have nothing more to advance, as I'm not a linguist nor speaker of these languages, just someone who knows Spanish, English, and studied French for years as a lad.

[@mrtrollnator123]

Great video bro

[@sweethistortea]

Metaton, if I may, I would like to suggest the Prince of Egypt Deliver Us song as part of a review for pronunciation? The actress for Moses' mother, an Israeli women named Ofra Haza, spoke Hebrew and English but did the part in various other languages such as Italian, Czech, and fifteen other languages but she sang the songs phonetically. My mother's first language is Czech, and she was surprised that Haza was not a native speaker. My dad was also surprised to learn Haza was not an Italian speaker either.

[@rat0n683]

Honestly, you could make your Spanish language videos into an entire series of its own, given that there are so many verities of it, and even more within each country. I will say that as a native Puerto Rican, when I first started to learn Italian, I ended up learning just as much Spanish from Spain as I did Italian given that some grammatical particularities and vocabulary of both countries are much more similar to each other than Spanish from Latin America and the Caribbean. Keep up the great work Metatron!

[@abc4607]

Película = film, movie. Sei veramente bravissimo!

[@thisfloridagirl5280]

You did great!!!!

[@metatronacademy]

thanks!

[@canalasmr5516]

6:48 No te preocupes, el chavo del segundo video habla bastante rápido, en muchos videos de KZbinrs es común que hablen demasiado rápido. Muchos de ellos están en un estado constante de dopamina y por eso están todos acelerados. 😁

[@insanemakaioshin]

*Latin derivatives:* Spanish: Mexican French: France, Canada & Louisiana Romanian Italian: Compare Sicilian to Neapolitan *German derivatives:* English: American, British & Australian Proper German: Pennsylvania, Germany, Swiss, Poland Dutch Afrikaans Scots Low German Yiddish Swedish Danish Norwegian Icelandic *Celtic derivatives:* Gaelic: Scottish, Beurla Reagaird, Shelta & Irish Brittonic: Welsch & Briton

[@paulwalther5237]

My English / Spanish bilingual latin American friends told me a story how they were treated terribly at some Italian restaurant when they spoke English but when they switched to Spanish everything was normal. (I assume the staff couldn’t understand English and decided to ignore them.. but Spanish they could understand)

[@christopherrobinson1390]

I loved your talking like a machine gun. I listen to Spanish every day as a non native speaker. It can sound like a machine gun to me too. Creo que es el segundo idioma más rápido del mundo. El Japonés es el número uno?

[@gazlator]

Absolutely brilliant, Raff! Could "seco" perhaps best be translated as "flat" - as in, lacking variety and colour??

[@DarkSamus100]

This is a fun series, and I hope that you will make more of them. Really interesting how Portuguese was difficult to you, but Spanish was easier. I look forward to you reacting to others languages, like maybe French, Greeks, and many more, of course if you want to. I have a Swiss friend, who has a gaming channel, Zepalkia, and he does his videos in French, so you could possibly use it to check your French comprehension from a Italian perspective, and maybe even compare Swiss French to French, to see if there is some differences. Just an idea. Anyway, keep up the good work, thank you for the video, and have a good day.

[@danbarbosa6940]

as a brazilian who's learning french and love languages, i got interested on it and i'm gonna check it out

[@eldrstarsong4085]

The problem with Portuguese is the pronounciation, closer to French than to Italian. I have the same problem: I understand nothing in Portuguese but a lot in Spanish.

[@WeissM89]

14:25 We do have a standard accent in Barcelona when we talk Spanish. This girl has in fact a faint Catalan accent. Some Catalans maintain their Catalan accent (the intonation, not the pronunciation), but overall, we speak each language with a separate accent. And only Southern Spain pronounces Cs like Ss. The guys behind the camera in the car video had a very rough southern accent. I don't think you would be able to understand them that much.

[@abc4607]

The "th" sound is pronounced in all Spain except in the Canary islands and in some parts of Western Andalusia (so far south in the Iberian Peninsula).

[@pumbar]

Great stuff, Raf; thank you.

[@alansmithee8831]

Hello Metatron. I learned French from nine years old in school in England. My neighbours included several Italian women. I did my best in Italian, untaught, as a visiting seventeen year old, but my friend thought my efforts uncool and I used German more often, as I commented on a live show. My next trip was to US, where I stayed with another friend's family in Texas. His sister married a Texan. His Spanish and Mexican ancestors were there before the English speakers. He was embarrassed that I could understand Spanish better than his kids and was determined to teach them. A couple of years later my girlfriend's parents moved to Valencia province in Spain. I was surprised to find Valencian more like Catalan and struggled to be sure what to say from just picking up the language. It was like being back to uncool. As if to emphasize this, as a typical Englishman, I worked right through the midday sun to dig holes for a lemon and an orange tree. Having finished the second hole, I jumped out, took a few steps back to admire my work and fell straight down the first hole. Your attempt at this language was more like a hole in one.

[@crbgo9854]

truly my favorite channel of yours please dont let it stop but id love for you to speak about greek more

[@martialhistory2354]

You should try Irish, its not a romance language but I've noticed that it has some pretty intense similarities with Latin and its descendants. For example in Irish the word for mother is máthair and the latin word is mater.

[@DanSolo871]

That's a good idea! There is one theory that the proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic languages stem from a similar root and split when the Celts settled in Gaul and the Italic people settled down to the Savoy and Lombardia area. Though I'm thinking Breton might be a good first step, since Brythonic might be closer and it has more influence from Gallo-Romance.

[@internetual7350]

I wanted to suggest Irish as an Irishman and one who's understanding of the language is decent. My dialect, the Munster dialect, in particularly has the most Romance influence due to the presence of Norman French settlers in the region from the 12th century onwards.

[@internetual7350]

​@@DanSolo871Brittany's Catholic identity would've also led to the adoption of a number of Latin words I imagine.

[@largedarkrooster6371]

Spanish is one of my native languages, but not my most dominant (with English filling that role, as I have had to relearn Spanish in my preteen and teenage years). I remember when I was a wee lad, my family went on vacation to Italy. None of us spoke a word of Italian, only English, Spanish, and some limited French. We got around the country just fine only using Spanish. They understood us and we understood them. More recently however, I worked at a pizza place and an entire Italian family came in. I could understand everything they were saying to each other, but had that same moment of not knowing what to do because I couldn't speak back. It was trippy af. Then, about a year later I worked at a coffee shop and two Italian men came in. I guess they noticed I could understand their conversation and asked me if I spoke Italian, so I responded in my broken Italian-Spanish "non, parlo solo un poco, pero parlo español". They then taught me a few words, we had a short chat, and they left. I'd like to see you try Puerto Rican Spanish as that's my dialect. A lot of slang and sound changes, but also more English words and exposure in mainstream media. I don't think I'll ever actively learn Italian because my brain starts defaulting back to Spanish and it's too trippy, but I do have fun speaking with Italians and understanding almost everything and y'all are great people

[@mebpoli01]

You probably know some Italian otherwise, it’s impossible to understand everything no matter how clear and slow both sides speak.

[@largedarkrooster6371]

@@mebpoli01 no I don't know/speak any Italian aside from a few key phrases and what I know from studying music. Having context is definitely helpful in these conversations, plus I'm pretty good at languages and seeing patterns and differences in grammar and sounds

[@Jam0023]

Ja, ja.... Buongiorno = Buena jornada = buenos dias

[@alfrredd]

The girl from EasySpanish is actually Catalan (from Barcelona i believe) so no, she does not have a Madrid accent, and yes Catalans also have a pretty standard accent (central castillian), so Barcelona is pronounced the same when they speak Castillian (but it's easy to notice the subtle differences for Spaniards). Other Accents like Andalusian or Canarian (from Canary Islands) are further apart from Central Spanish.

[@inaleyen2737]

Your accent is great!

[@EdgardoPlasencia]

I can understand what Georgia Meloni says ! and I love it !

[@mgray82]

Great content Metatron! As someone who speaks fluent spanish and B level Italian, the Romance Language content is great! Keep it coming. Also, I'm curious on your thoughts on German..

[@Merisu_Sheep]

I have a friend from Spain who can speak Spanish, English and Catalan and I asked her what Italian sounds like and she said she can kind of understand a bit of all of those languages. At least that's what she said.

[@alysfaure]

this was great! it would be great to see you do this with catalan, we call it a "bridge" between spanish and italian since it's so similar to both (and also to written french)

[@pcongre]

14:40 Us Barcelon-ites lisp too, we only say "Barça"-lona when speaking Catalan! : ) It's like you said in your video about Neapolitan - it's a continuum: Some people might begin a conversation in 'pure' Catalan and if they think you're not fully understanding switch to standard European Spanish (...or what they/we think is 100% standard ; ) ) Edit: judging by how she pronounces the placenames - she's probably a local, too ^^

[@rubenguirado4766]

Buen trabajo tio!

[@andreasarnoalthofsobottka2928]

Alcalde is the Major of the city, and one of the 1800 arabic immigrants. Being fluent in latin will help you in combination with knowing the vowel- and consonant shifts. Basically the consonant clusters vanished completely or became fricatives, the f became h and then silent, and the vowels became lighter ( factum -> hecho, farina ->harina, furnus-> horno, ferrum-> hierro) And yes, they do speak that fast even when talking to a foreigner at the phone. That's why I always switch to english. Btw in Porsche the e is pronounced.

[@oscarf5433]

2:43 He's saying that Madrid people do have an accent but it is a very dry (seco) accent, he means it is not as exotic and flamboyant as other Spanish dialects in the country. I lived in Madrid a couple years

[@weedwacker1716]

I want you to do a music appreciation video. Something tells me that you appreciate great musica.

[@ElmerEscoto]

Great video, Metatron. Grazie!. Try with Chilean Spanish, or Dominican, that should be fun! The intonation, vocabulary and pronunciation are so different from other varieties of Spanish in the Americas...

[@javifontalva7752]

Buen trabajo muchacho. Continua así.

[@upyr1]

I'd love to see you do Argentinan Spanish

[@malahamavet]

Clarification: Madrid speaks castillian, the dialect of Castilla, but they have a particular accent so its not neutral castillian. Instead of saying Madrid like everyone else they say "Madriz" for example, making other castillian speackers mock them, because even though is the capital, their accent is not neutral, basically regionalisms. Everyone speaks castillian, catalans do it whith a catalan accent, influenced by the catalan language, same whith gallego, another language in spain closer to portuguese. Euskera, the language spoken in the Basque Country is not indoeuropean so its the most unique one, but basks themselves also speak castillian, in my opinion the most neutral castillian since they dont have regionalisms, they learn the language as it is. Another spanish dialect of spanish besides castillian is the andalusian dialect spoken in the south. Which also has a lot of accents. That is the dialect of flamenco and comes in like three variants, either not saying the S, only pronouncing the S, so no th sound, or only pronouncing th everywhere, a very thick accent.

[@Glossologia]

You should keep the Iberian series going! Galician and Catalan especially. You could also try an 'easy portuguese video', you might find street interviews somewhat more comprehensible than youtubers haha.

[@The_One_With_The_Bowtie]

I listen to people speak Spanish every day and I understand 1 out of every 9 words

[@alysfaure]

btw that c (th) sound is pronounced in most of spain's spanish, exceptions being some places in the south. in catalan for example we don't have that sound, it becomes an s sound even if it's spelled with a c, but it doesn't affect our accent when we speak spanish, we can do the same c (th) sound

[@thebusinessfirm9862]

As an Italian I find Spanish very easy. That Portuguese video you did the other day was much more difficult though. I wonder if Spanish speakers understand Italians as easily? Love your work, mate.

[@totetoresano]

Yeah, I'm Spanish and we can understand quite a bit of spoken Italian and almost all of it if it's written.

[@salasrcp90]

la lengua italiana es super facil de comprehender amigo mio. la respuesta a tu demanda es SI!! 👍

[@MiguelParajon-m7v]

The only regions of Spain that don't use the /theta/ are in Andalucía, some parts of Extramadura and the Canarie Islands. Maybe some parts of la Mancha , but they aspirate initial vowels.

[@someacolyte5626]

To my understanding as a second-language Spanish speaker, “seco” is used with regards to speech how “flat” is used in english

[@elimalinsky7069]

Romanian is often claimed to be relatively easy for Italians to understand. Should try that one =P

[@Leftyotism]

Words are fun! 🥰