Spanish Translation Service

The Blue South Spanish translation service covers both English into Spanish and Spanish into English. Most importantly, dependent upon the target market, we distinguish between European (Castilian) Spanish  and Spanish spoken in the Americas. For the latter, we then recognise that there are many variations of Spanish within the Americas.

All Blue South translators are native speakers who Translate in Location™ which means they live and are immersed in the culture of the language that they translate into. As business translations typically involve a specific subject area, we use Topic Targeted Translators™ who specialise in the subject matter of your business.

Spanish in the Americas

Spanish has a status of official language (along with English) in the state of New Mexico and in Puerto Rico, which is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States. Although Spanish is not the most spoken language in any state, it is the second most spoken language in 43 states and the District of Columbia.

Generally, US Hispanics (13.4% of the population in 2002) are bilingual to some degree. A study by Simmons Market Research found that 19% of the Hispanic population speak only Spanish while 9% speak only English, 55% have limited English proficiency and 17% are fully English-Spanish bilingual.

For companies targeting the Hispanic segment of the market in the USA, e.g. for consumer durables, Mexican Spanish is the preferred variant.

In Latin America, Spanish is spoken in all countries with the exception of Brazil. These Spanish speaking countries have a combined population of about 355 million with Mexico being the largest of these with around 106 million. Full list of Spanish speaking countries »

Spanish in Europe

Spanish (español) or Castilian (castellano) is an Iberian Romance language. Linguistically, Castilian means Spanish, as it is the medieval Spanish language of the Kingdom of Castile that spread across Spain and became the national language known virtually always as Spanish in English. But in Spanish itself, the term castellano is often used to refer to the language, at the expense of the term español (Spanish).

Spanish language variations

There are significant variations both between European (Castilian) Spanish and South American Spanish and between the South American countries themselves. In a broad sense, the Latin American Spanish can be grouped in five sets of variants, according to the pronunciation. The first group, the Caribbean is spoken in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela (the Caribbean part, which is the principal part of the country), the Colombian Caribbean and Panamá. The second one is the South American Pacific, which comprises Peru, Chile and Guayaquil, Ecuador. The third is the Central American (just Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador). The fourth is the Argentinean-Uruguayan-Paraguayan. The fifth, which probably is not a group, but a cluster of places that resisted changes in the pronunciation of the s sound in the end of a syllable, has been called the Highland Latin American Spanish, and is spoken in México, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Andean Colombia, Andean Venezuela, Quito, and Bolivia (except in Santa Cruz).

The different dialects and accents do not severely block cross-understanding among the educated. The basilects have diverged more. As an example, early sound films were dubbed into one version for the entire Spanish-speaking market. (Disney Pictures used educated Puerto Rican speakers). Currently, non-Spanish (usually Hollywood) productions are dubbed separately into each of the major accents, but productions from another Spanish-language country are never dubbed.

Latin America quick facts »

Examples of translation into the languages of the Americas »

How do I get started?
To discuss your Spanish translation project call us on 0508 443 613 or Email Us