African Influences on Dominican Spanish

Lucas61 · May 31, 2015

I'm an amateur, long interested in the African influenced languages of the (black) diaspora. I would like to point out two shared features commonly existing in AAV (African-American Vernacular) but also, suprisingly, existing in Dominican Spanish
and Haitian Krey?l.

The first example is the deletion of terminal consonants and the second is the deletion of medial consonants. Here is an American English example: ?His friend sells insurance.? in Standard English becomes in AAV ?His [fren] [sell_] [in-shoo-ance.]
The terminal ?d? in friend is deleted, the medial ?r? in the second syllable of insurance is deleted; however, [He sell_], minus the ?s? is also the correct AAV conjugation, so I'm not certain if both the conjugation and the consonant termination rules apply here.

Now let's look at and compare the same examples in Spanish of the Dominican Republic. The D.R. is contiguous to Haiti, and Haiti's African influences can be found diffused into various aspects of Dominican culture.

The interjection in Standard Spanish ??Es la verdad!? is spoken as ??E_ la verda_!? This is the same final consonant deletion as found in AAV. And here is an example of medial consonant deletion: Standard Spanish ?Estoy acostado.? is pronounced as ?Estoy [acos-TA-O]? the ?ta-o? as a one syllable dipthong deleting the ?d? just as [in-shoo-ance] deletes the ?r? in AAV.

For those living in the D.R., if you listen carefully, you will here many examples of these African influenced rules. In fact, you will be hearing phonemic deletion rules of West African languages X and Y that have become a permanent feature of Dominican spoken Spanish via Haiti. What the identity of these West African languages are, I would like to know. If anyone with scholarship can shed light . . . As an aside, when I was in Ghana, W/A, I did hear in the Twi (Ashante) language an example of the AAV rule where a final ?th? is pronounced as an ?f? (teeth becomes teef.), i.e., I hear this used in English examples of native Twi speakers.

Now let's move on to Haitian Krey?l. To my non-native ears I have heard two frequent examples of final consonant deletion. In fact I have heard only these two examples, whereas in Dominican Spanish there are many. However the two Haitian examples I've heard are very strong, i.e. no exceptions. ?Li koute dis goud.? is always pronounced as ?Li koute [Z_] goud.? where the ?s? in dis is deleted and there is also a modification of the initial ?d.? The second example is also with a number. ?Sir?t yo koute senk goud pou twa.? will always be spoken as ? Sir?t yo koute [ZAIN] goud.? where the ?k? in senk is deleted and there's
also a modification of the initial ?s.? Now, these Africanized pronunciations of these numbers occurs only when they are used as adjectives. When used as nouns, as in counting, dis is pronounced as dis and senk as senk.

And, finally, one always hears that Krey?l's vocabulary, besides being mostly derived from European Romantic languages, principally French, also includes African language vocabulary. But what are these words? I don't know, but I would speculate that these might be candidates: kalalou (okra), also known as gonbo and pwa kongo (pigeon peas.)

Xavier_Onassis · Jun 1, 2015

Some of the African influence in Caribbean Spanish goes back to Spain. The Spanish of Andaluc?a (the Southern part of Spain that was influenced longer by the Moors) dominated the Spanish settlements around the rim of the Caribbean, because people from Africa tended to be less likely to die of malaria.
Malaria is spread by mosquitoes and mosquitoes are far more common in warmer climates, as freezing kills the larvae. Over the centuries, people in Southern Europe and North Africa where is rarely freezes have adapted to the prevalence of malaria and fewer of them die from it. Moroccans conquered almost all of Spain at one time, but dominated Southern Spain the longest, and the inbreeding meant that Andalucians were more resistant to malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases than people from Leon and Castilla.
This explains why people from Veracruz and Cartagena have a similar accent, different from people in Mexico City and Bogot?.

Some of the characteristics are to drop the final S and the intervocalic d, pronouncing t? eres as "t? ere" and casado as "casao".

I am sure there are many words from African languages that have been included in Dominican Spanish as well.
Okra (molondr?n, quimbombo) and other words used to refer to it are all African in origin. The word okra comes from Igbo/Ibo: other words for it come from other African languages.
I think that it is also grown in India and Bangladesh.

Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican Spanish were all influenced by both Andaluc?an Spanish and pronunciation and various African languages.

Marianopolita · Jun 1, 2015

Broad topic...

If you are interested and curious about this area of study in Spanish research dialectology and sociolinguistics. These are specialized areas of study in Spanish and language after obtaining two or more degrees in university. An undergrad degree definitely does not suffice because of the scope and depth of the topics and one does need to have a strong understanding of grammar and language to study and become versed on the topic.

I find it?s a broad discussion for an internet forum, therefore, I tend to limit my responses but just to comment in brief, the Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries Cuba, DR and PR as well as the Caribbean basin countries- Panama, the coast of Colombia, and Venezuela as well as parts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica have features of African influences in Spanish and they are noticeable. As well, Peru has African influences because of their history. As a Spanish speaker this is something I don?t miss nor will you or others. There are many aspects of language that have noted features of African influence such as vocabulary, syntax (sentence structure) and speech patterns (for example what you mentioned- acostado vs acostao or some cases the /s/ in the middle is dropped as well, acotao).

Other than your own observations which are important there?s a wealth of information available on the web by specifying the topics I referenced above. As well, don?t forget a great resource compiled by Grupo Leόn Jimenes- Cόmo hablamos los dominicanos which is a sociolinguistic research on Spanish in the Dominican Republic and the book addresses the topics you mentioned and many others that are a part of the research on the Dominican vernacular. It?s a great reference.

If you know any Cubans or are familiar with the Cuban vernacular, their vocabulary and speech patterns are heavily influenced by African elements. It?s incredible and also because many practice Santer?a, so the vocabulary used has its roots. If you like reading may I suggest a book just for its fine display of African influences in the Cuban speech population- ??cue-Yamba-?! by Alejo Carpentier. Incredible.

Here is the link:
http://www.glj.com.do/a/d/doc-comohablamos.pdf

It?s totally worth the read and more than once.

-MP.

Xavier_Onassis · Jun 1, 2015

I have read Carpentier's book, I have attended santer?a ceremonies here in Miami. I am afraid that I found them to be rather silly.
Of course, there is rather a lot of silliness in other religions as well.

That does not mean that Santeria has not affected the language.

I have heard that there is only one dialect of Spanish, Cura?ao Papamento. But there seems to be another spoken in northern Belize around Orange Walk.

Marianopolita · Jun 1, 2015

Xavier_Onassis said:
I have read Carpentier's book, I have attended santer?a ceremonies here in Miami. I am afraid that I found them to be rather silly.
Of course, there is rather a lot of silliness in other religions as well.

That does not mean that Santeria has not affected the language.

I have heard that there is only one dialect of Spanish, Cura?ao Papamento. But there seems to be another spoken in northern Belize around Orange Walk.

My reference to Carpentier's book was about the speech patterns as it relates to language and the topic of the OP.

I can?t comment on santer?a the religion itself because I really don?t know about it and as well religion is not discussed in the forum so I will leave it at that.

-MP.

Lando calrisian · Jun 1, 2015

Dominican Republic has long had it's own quite significant population of African diaspora living here since the 16th century. They lived and thrived in the valley's and river areas. They also mixed with the remaining Taino. These are my ancestors, the continous blacks in DR are there as a result of Haiti generalization is false and needs to be corrected. While there has always been a Haitian presence, this has not always been the majority. The current situation is an anachronism for us Dominicans, it is akin to the Serbs and the Croats, Sunni and Shia, the Jews and the Palestinians; While being incredibly similar, they both are examples of cultural incompatible inspite of cases where oasises of cohabitation do appear these are not the norm. Attempts to force them to unite only cause problems. PLEASE STOP.
LC

K-Mel · Jun 1, 2015

African influences are surely present in the Dominican Spanish, and in all the culture ( dancing, singing, religion, traditions like the "reso"...). Bachata for instance is an African word, with many others like Mondongo (See the full list in Carlos Esteban Deive " El indio, el negro y la vida tradicional dominicana ").

Even Merengue is an African rhythm coming from the Congo /Angola region. In Cabo Verde they call it "Funana" and they dance it like merengue and it sounds like Merengue too.

[video=youtube;xJsPZNKfy3U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJsPZNKfy3U[/video]

Now as I always say, having African influences doesn't mean that you are African ( argument valid for Haiti, DR, Colombia etc). The only Spanish colony where black people are still speaking African languages is Cuba.

Soverihn · Jun 1, 2015

There are apparently some Mande words in Dominican Spanish if I remember correctly.

Africaida · Jun 2, 2015

K-Mel said:
African influences are surely present in the Dominican Spanish, and in all the culture ( dancing, singing, religion, traditions like the "reso"...). Bachata for instance is an African word, with many others like Mondongo (See the full list in Carlos Esteban Deive " El indio, el negro y la vida tradicional dominicana ").

Even Merengue is an African rhythm coming from the Congo /Angola region. In Cabo Verde they call it "Funana" and they dance it like merengue and it sounds like Merengue too.

[video=youtube;xJsPZNKfy3U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJsPZNKfy3U[/video]

Now as I always say, having African influences doesn't mean that you are African ( argument valid for Haiti, DR, Colombia etc). The only Spanish colony where black people are still speaking African languages is Cuba.

They don't speak it in Cuba either in my experience. They know many words of Yoruba due to Santeria but they cant have a conversation. Think about it after 100 years removed, it would be virtually impossible to speak the language (plus the reality is that it is a mix of languages/people that came together).

Stomy is in the video! Lol

Naked_Snake · Jun 2, 2015

K-Mel said:
The only Spanish colony where black people are still speaking African languages is Cuba.

I think Pacific Coast Colombians have them beaten with Palenquero.

Xavier_Onassis · Jun 2, 2015

Africaida said:
They don't speak it in Cuba either in my experience. They know many words of Yoruba due to Santeria but they cant have a conversation. Think about it after 100 years removed, it would be virtually impossible to speak the language (plus the reality is that it is a mix of languages/people that came together).

Stomy is in the video! Lol

=====================================
Cubans use words from Yoruba and other African languages to describe some foods, rituals and the like, but I don't think there are many typical Cubans who a=can carry on a conversation in any African language.
Yoruba is used a bit like the Irish use Latin in Church ritual. It is essentially high sounding, mystical gibberish.

I do not claim to be an expert on Cuban linguistics, though I did write my dissertation on Cuban theater.

GWOZOZO · Jun 2, 2015

Lucas61 said:
Now let's move on to Haitian Krey?l. To my non-native ears I have heard two frequent examples of final consonant deletion. In fact I have heard only these two examples, whereas in Dominican Spanish there are many. However the two Haitian examples I've heard are very strong, i.e. no exceptions. ?Li koute dis goud.? is always pronounced as ?Li koute [Z_] goud.? where the ?s? in dis is deleted and there is also a modification of the initial ?d.? The second example is also with a number. ?Sir?t yo koute senk goud pou twa.? will always be spoken as ? Sir?t yo koute [ZAIN] goud.? where the ?k? in senk is deleted and there's
also a modification of the initial ?s.? Now, these Africanized pronunciations of these numbers occurs only when they are used as adjectives. When used as nouns, as in counting, dis is pronounced as dis and senk as senk.

And, finally, one always hears that Krey?l's vocabulary, besides being mostly derived from European Romantic languages, principally French, also includes African language vocabulary. But what are these words? I don't know, but I would speculate that these might be candidates: kalalou (okra), also known as gonbo and pwa kongo (pigeon peas.)

Your non-native ears are deceiving you.

There is nothing african in the examples you gave about Haiian Kreyol.

Final consonant (silencing) is also done in French.

Li koute dis goud is spoken as Li koute di goud.......just as you would say di francs in french and not dix francs.

It depends on the next word. So "dis elev" is pronounced "dis elev" and not "di elev"

The world by itself is fully pronounced in both Haitian Kreyol (dis) and french (dis).

And no the K is not deleted in senk and it is not pronounced as ZAIN.

By itself it is pronounced SENK. When followed by Kob which starts with K, it is still SENK KOB but because of the successive K's it sounds as SENG KOB.

Many letters are silenced while speaking and it happens in many languages, especially French.

Nothing african about silencing or contractions, it's universal.

Haitian Kreyol vocabulary is derived from the old dialects of northern france....normandy and old koine french.

A few words have been borrowed from other languages, mostly modern french followed by english.

GWOZOZO · Jun 2, 2015

African words are found in Haitian Vaudou songs and prayers.

This collection of words is called "langaj"

Ayibobo = Amen

Africaida · Jun 2, 2015

GWOZOZO said:
Haitian Kreyol vocabulary is derived from the old dialects of northern france....normandy and old koine french.

A few words have been borrowed from other languages, mostly modern french followed by english.

There is certainly more to it. The sintax and grammar has nothing to do with French, nor English and is said to be derived from African Languages (not a linguist though, could be something else). That is why native French speakers can only understand words here and there.

It is said that dialects of northern France such as Picard and/or Normandy have influenced quebecois (and I can hear it) but creole ?? How come we understand the quebecois then?

Naked_Snake · Jun 2, 2015

Africaida said:
There is certainly more to it. The sintax and grammar has nothing to do with French, nor English and is said to be derived from African Languages (not a linguist though, could be something else). That is why native French speakers can only understand words here and there.

It is said that dialects of northern France such as Picard and/or Normandy have influenced quebecois (and I can hear it) but creole ?? How come we understand the quebecois then?

Could it be Carib? A lot of the buccaneers that ended up in Saint-Domingue originally hailed from Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia et. al. at a time when the Amerindian population was still significant enough.

Africaida · Jun 2, 2015

Naked_Snake said:
Could it be Carib? A lot of the buccaneers that ended up in Saint-Domingue originally hailed from Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia et. al. at a time when the Amerindian population was still significant enough.

Could be. The lexicon (words, not sure it is the right term) is definitely derived from French and old french but I tend to believe that grammar/syntax is derived from African languages, but it could be Native Indian as you said. But then, why Dominicans don't have a similar syntax in Spanish (if we assume it is the Amerindian presence that is)
Linguistic is interesting

GWOZOZO · Jun 2, 2015

Africaida said:
There is certainly more to it. The sintax and grammar has nothing to do with French, nor English and is said to be derived from African Languages (not a linguist though, could be something else). That is why native French speakers can only understand words here and there.

It is said that dialects of northern France such as Picard and/or Normandy have influenced quebecois (and I can hear it) but creole ?? How come we understand the quebecois then?

Actually it is quite simple.

You can understand Quebecois because it is Canadian french. The difference between French and Quebecois is similar to the differences between UK, US, NZ and Australian English.

Haitian Kreyol is not Haitian French.
Haitian French is Haitian French.

Haitian Kreyol evolved from the old dialects of northern france into a new language. The first linguistic shift took place among the french bucanners and pirates, it further developed among the plantation whites, mullatos and blacks, it was adopted by the later arrivals from different parts of africa.

it is not a mixture of languages.

Remember the majority of the speakers had no written knowledge of french. It was a spoken new language which did not have to follow the established gramatical rules.

Haiti's early separation from France allowed even more separation from the mother tongue.

That's why Trinidadian french creole sounds closer to haitian Kreyol than even the creoles of the french west indies, because both haiti and Trinidad lost that contact early.

It is a process called creolization and there is also a process called de-creolization, where the creole shifts back towards the mother language.

You can take any phrase in haitian Kreyol and de-creolize it back to its early french roots.

You CANNOT de-creolized any of the french creoles to any african language(s).

I have conversed in Kreyol to people from as far as the indian ocean island of Seychelles. But both the Haitian Kreyol and the Seychelles creole speaker must have a knowledge of french for it to flow.

Basic knowledge of French makes it easy for different french based creole speakers to understand each other.

Some linguists have argued that the africans applied an african structure in speaking the french based kreyol, but others disagree and see it sipmly as a result of language local adaptation.

A good example is how the french Boeuf became Beef in English and Bef in Haitian Kreyol.

In Canadian "joual" which is different from Quebecois, you see some of that shift.

The french "ce soir" becomes "a swer" in joual and "aswe-a" in haitian kreyol.

Some observers looking for an african link...after all haitians are negros.....noticed that the "a after aswe" appears similar to some word order in some african languages.

Then they found that in old french a similar thing took place.

Example:

Old french: C'est ma becanne a moi.
Modern french: C'est ma becanne.
Haitian Kreyol: Ce becanne a mwen...shortened to Ce becanne mwen...written phonetically as Se bekann mwen.

Also many Haitian Kreyol words derived from old french words no longer used in modern french making it more difficult for the novice to see the french origin.

Hope that helps.

GWOZOZO · Jun 2, 2015

Africaida said:
Could be. The lexicon (words, not sure it is the right term) is definitely derived from French and old french but I tend to believe that grammar/syntax is derived from African languages, but it could be Native Indian as you said. But then, why Dominicans don't have a similar syntax in Spanish (if we assume it is the Amerindian presence that is)
Linguistic is interesting

Absolutely ZERO Arawak influence on Haitian Kreyol.

New Orleans, Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyanne, Seychelles.

Different african origins, different native tribes...yet they can hold a conversation with different levels of ease/difficulty.

The simple reason, the common french base.

That's why they call them French creoles and not igbo or mandinke creoles.

Africaida · Jun 2, 2015

GWOZOZO said:
Actually it is quite simple.

You can understand Quebecois because it is Canadian french. The difference between French and Quebecois is similar to the differences between UK, US, NZ and Australian English.

Haitian Kreyol is not Haitian French.
Haitian French is Haitian French.

Haitian Kreyol evolved from the old dialects of northern france into a new language. The first linguistic shift took place among the french bucanners and pirates, it further developed among the plantation whites, mullatos and blacks, it was adopted by the later arrivals from different parts of africa.

it is not a mixture of languages.

Remember the majority of the speakers had no written knowledge of french. It was a spoken new language which did not have to follow the established gramatical rules.

Haiti's early separation from France allowed even more separation from the mother tongue.

That's why Trinidadian french creole sounds closer to haitian Kreyol than even the creoles of the french west indies, because both haiti and Trinidad lost that contact early.

It is a process called creolization and there is also a process called de-creolization, where the creole shifts back towards the mother language.

You can take any phrase in haitian Kreyol and de-creolize it back to its early french roots.

You CANNOT de-creolized any of the french creoles to any african language(s).

I have conversed in Kreyol to people from as far as the indian ocean island of Seychelles. But both the Haitian Kreyol and the Seychelles creole speaker must have a knowledge of french for it to flow.

Basic knowledge of French makes it easy for different french based creole speakers to understand each other.

Some linguists have argued that the africans applied an african structure in speaking the french based kreyol, but others disagree and see it sipmly as a result of language local adaptation.

A good example is how the french Boeuf became Beef in English and Bef in Haitian Kreyol.

In Canadian "joual" which is different from Quebecois, you see some of that shift.

The french "ce soir" becomes "a swer" in joual and "aswe-a" in haitian kreyol.

Some observers looking for an african link...after all haitians are negros.....noticed that the "a after aswe" appears similar to some word order in some african languages.

Then they found that in old french a similar thing took place.

Example:

Old french: C'est ma becanne a moi.
Modern french: C'est ma becanne.
Haitian Kreyol: Ce becanne a mwen...shortened to Ce becanne mwen...written phonetically as Se bekann mwen.

Also many Haitian Kreyol words derived from old french words no longer used in modern french making it more difficult for the novice to see the french origin.

Hope that helps.

I am not convinced as the old French I have studied would not have a double possessive pronoun as it is derived from Latin and they came before the verb as in Latin.

C est ma b?cane (one n) ? moi sounds more like argot (slang) then old French.

On the syntax and grammar level, I fail to see the connection with modern French, nor old French. I don't know enough Haitian creole for sure, but as a native French speaker I can read an old French text, yet have limited understanding of creole.

Where is Marianopolita ? LOL

GWOZOZO · Jun 2, 2015

Africaida said:
I am not convinced as the old French I have studied would not have a double possessive pronoun as it is derived from Latin and they came before the verb as in Latin.

C est ma b?cane (one n) ? moi sounds more like argot (slang) then old French.

On the syntax and grammar level, I fail to see the connection with modern French, nor old French. I don't know enough Haitian creole for sure, but as a native French speaker I can read an old French text, yet have limited understanding of creole.

Where is Marianopolita ? LOL

Africaida, maybe I have confused you by using the term "old french".

It is mainly from the SPOKEN dialects of normandy and of Koine paris...not just the old french you studied.

So yes, you could call it (argot/slang) french. The point is that it is from the old way of speaking.

The early settlers and the petit-blancs that had the most contact with africans and halfbreeds were not schooled.

So their version of the dialects was the one adopted by the locals.

It has evolved in the antilles meaning it did not retain everything from the old dialects.

It was only spoken for centuries allowing gramatical freedom.

I am sure you are aware that French and the other romance languages evolved mostly from the vulgar latin of the roman soldiers and not from classical latin.

African Influences on Dominican Spanish

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