Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Cada hablante tiene su propio acento.

Todos los hablantes tienen su propio acento.
= All speakers have their own accent (focus on the group as a whole; still implies individuality, but grammatically plural).
Cada uno tiene su propio acento.
= Each one has their own accent (you don’t repeat the noun; it’s understood from context).

So in your sentence, cada is a natural choice because you’re emphasizing that every single speaker, taken individually, has their own accent.

What does hablante mean exactly? Is it just “speaker”? Could it refer to an object, like a loudspeaker?

Hablante is a noun that means “speaker” as a person who speaks a language.

hablante nativo = native speaker
hablante de español = Spanish speaker

It does not normally refer to devices like loudspeakers. For a loudspeaker, you’d use words like:

altavoz
parlante (especially in much of Latin America)

So Cada hablante tiene su propio acento is very clearly about human speakers, not equipment.

Why is it tiene and not something like es or hay? Could I say “Cada hablante es su propio acento”?

Here tiene is the verb tener = “to have”. The idea is:

Cada hablante tiene su propio acento.
= Each speaker has their own accent.

Using ser (es) would change the meaning.
“Cada hablante es su propio acento” would be odd and almost philosophical (“Each speaker is their own accent”), not natural Spanish.

Hay means “there is/there are,” so:

Hay muchos acentos. = There are many accents.
That doesn’t express possession.

So tiene is the correct verb to express that the accent belongs to the speaker.

What exactly does su mean here? Is it “his,” “her,” “their,” or “your”? Why not sus?

Su is a third‑person (and also formal “your”) possessive adjective. It can mean:

his
her
its
their
your (formal usted / ustedes)

In this sentence, it’s generic:
Cada hablante tiene su propio acento.
= “Each speaker has their own accent.”

We use su, not sus, because acento is singular:

su acento = his/her/their/your (formal) accent (one accent)
sus acentos = his/her/their/your (formal) accents (more than one)

The number of su/sus agrees with the thing owned, not with the owner’s gender.

What does propio add? Could I just say “Cada hablante tiene su acento”?

You could say:

Cada hablante tiene su acento.

It’s grammatically correct and understandable, but it sounds a little incomplete or “bare” in many contexts.

Propio means “own” and emphasizes that the accent is distinctively that person’s, different from others:

su propio acento = their own accent

So:

Cada hablante tiene su acento.
= Each speaker has their accent. (OK, neutral, but less emphatic.)
Cada hablante tiene su propio acento.
= Each speaker has their own accent. (Highlighting individuality/difference.)

In natural speech, su propio acento is a very common collocation when talking about the uniqueness of accents.

Why is it su propio acento and not su acento propio? Where do I put propio?

In Spanish, propio often appears between a possessive and the noun:

mi propio estilo = my own style
tu propia casa = your own house
su propio acento = his/her/their/your own accent

You can say acento propio in other contexts:

un acento propio de la región = an accent typical of the region

But in the sense of “one’s own accent,” the standard, very natural word order is:

[possessive] + propio + [noun]
su propio acento

Su acento propio is technically possible, but it sounds unusual or marked in this particular meaning. Native usage strongly favors su propio acento.

Does propio agree with hablante or with acento? Why is it masculine and singular?

Propio agrees with the noun it modifies, which here is acento:

acento → masculine, singular
so: propio → masculine, singular

If the noun changed, propio would change:

su propia voz (voz = feminine singular)
sus propios acentos (acentos = masculine plural)
sus propias voces (voces = feminine plural)

It does not agree with hablante here, because grammatically it’s inside the noun phrase “su propio acento”, modifying acento, not hablante.

Could I say “Cada hablante tiene acento propio” instead? How would that sound?

Yes, Cada hablante tiene acento propio is grammatically correct and understandable. It means essentially the same thing.

Differences in feel:

Cada hablante tiene su propio acento.
– Very natural; slightly more explicit; everyday phrasing.
Cada hablante tiene acento propio.
– A bit more compact and slightly more formal or written-sounding; the idea of “his/her/their own” is still understood.

Including su makes the possession very clear and sounds more like ordinary speech.

Does acento mean a spoken accent or a written accent mark (´)? How do I know?

Acento can mean either, depending on context:

Spoken accent / way of pronouncing
- Tiene un acento argentino. = He/she has an Argentinian accent.
Written accent mark (´) on a letter
- La palabra “inglés” lleva acento. = The word “inglés” has an accent mark.

In Cada hablante tiene su propio acento, the context (“each speaker”) clearly points to pronunciation/accent, not a written accent mark.

How do you pronounce hablante and where is the stress in this sentence?

Key pronunciation points:

h in hablante is silent: it sounds like ablante.
hablante is stressed on the second syllable:
ha-BLAN-te → /aˈβlan̪.te/ (roughly: ah-BLAN-te)

Stress in the full sentence:

CÁ-da ha-BLAN-te TI-e-ne su PRO-pio a-CEN-to

Syllable by syllable (stressed syllables in caps):

CÁ-da
ha-BLAN-te
TI-e-ne (sounds like TYEH-neh)
su
PRO-pio (PRO-pyo)
a-CEN-to

No word in the sentence carries an accent mark (´), but they all have a natural spoken stress as marked above.

Could su here be understood as formal “your,” like talking to a group politely?

In isolation, su is ambiguous; it can mean:

his/her/its/their
your (formal singular or plural: usted / ustedes)

So grammatically, Cada hablante tiene su propio acento could be interpreted as:

“Each speaker has their own accent.” (generic statement)
“Each (of you, formally addressed) has your own accent.” (talking to an audience)

Context decides which reading is intended.
If you want to be explicitly generic and avoid any “you” reading, speakers often keep it as is and rely on context, or rephrase:

Cada persona que habla tiene su propio acento.
Cada uno tiene su propio acento.

Is there any Latin American–specific way to say this, like cada quien?

Yes, in much of Latin America, especially in Mexico and Central America, you’ll often hear:

Cada quien tiene su propio acento.
= “Everyone has their own accent.”

Cada quien is very common in spoken Latin American Spanish and is close to “each person / everyone” in meaning. Your original sentence:

Cada hablante tiene su propio acento.

sounds neutral and is perfectly fine everywhere (Latin America and Spain). It’s just a bit more formal/technical because of hablante (“speaker”).

How would I say this in the plural, like “Speakers have their own accents”?

You can pluralize it in a few natural ways:

Keep the idea of individuality, but use plural:
- Los hablantes tienen su propio acento.
  → “Speakers have their own accent.”
  (Here su propio acento is still understood per person.)
Make everything explicitly plural:
- Los hablantes tienen sus propios acentos.
  → “Speakers have their own accents.”
  (More literally plural; could suggest multiple accents per person or across the group.)
Keep cada for stronger “each”:
- Cada hablante tiene su propio acento.
  → Still the cleanest way to say “Each speaker has their own accent.”

Your original sentence with cada is usually the clearest if you want to insist on individual uniqueness.