I find this transposition of L and R frequently with dominicans When I am texting. But it also represents a subtlety of pronunciation. Being an outsider it is impossible for me to equate it with regional or social origins.
In writing it can be an matter of literacy. Do you have an opinion about the spoken distinction of the soft R that almost becomes an L? That seems to lead the R being used for L when writing. Is it regional? is it Cibeno?
This is a big topic but here is my response in brief.
There are three distinct speech concepts in relation to your question:
i)
R to L – common in Puerto and DR and not as common in Cuba although it can be heard in Cuban speech. This speech pattern has its roots in Spanish brought over from the Canary Islands. It’s also deemed as uneducated which could explain why it’s so prevalent in some areas of the Caribbean Spanish-speaking islands.
Examples-
amor is pronounced as
amol,
por favor is pronounced as
pol favol,
perd?n is pronounced
peld?n,
sorpresa is pronounced as
solpresa etc.
ii)
L to R- common in the DR, which means PR as well and parts of Cuba.
Examples have been provided already by Lucifer-
sal pronounced as
sar,
maldito pronounced as
mardito.
This speech pattern is
sure?o meaning common in the south of DR and PR. There are lots of similarities there.
In my experience, I hear R to L much more than L to R which in my opinion is really regional.
iii)
Suppression of R and L– you will hear this from some speakers, Cubans in particular which gives them away when they speak if you don’t recognize accents that well. Listen to how some Cubans suppress these two letters in between words-
algo (becomes aggo),
alguien (becomes arguien).
If you have exposure to Spanish from all over the Spanish-speaking world you can make your own observations (which is my case) and back them up with research and study (my case as well).
Note- it’s
el cibae?o which is a true dialect in Spanish specific only to the DR.
For good measure and because it’s the same topic you may have heard the Dominican speech pattern of adding /s/ to words where it does not belong. Once again this is uneducated speech and for these speakers in their quest to sound more refined end up just sounding even more uneducated.
I've heard folks from Ban? (Provincia Peravia) use 'R' instead of 'L'.
Once heard a mother yell to her 2-year-old son: "Sar de la cocina, mardito. SARRR!
."
I have a very good friend from Ban? however, a very educated Spanish speaker. Since we both love the topic of Spanish and language in general, we always talk about our observations about how the language is used in the DR correctly and incorrectly.
-MP.
