BBC Mundo- Articles about Spanish

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Marianopolita

Guest
BBC Mundo has articles and videos about Spanish on a regular basis. I have been reading what they post for years and often find the information very interesting and insightful.


I will try something new here. Anything article or video I read or look at that I find interesting from BBC Mundo I will post it.



Aquí les dejo el enlance para que puedan leer el primer artículo. (See the link below for the first article)


'Las curiosas palabras del español de Panamá que reflejan la histórica presencia de EE.UU. y el Canal en el país'


https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-48018759



-MP.
 
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M

Marianopolita

Guest
Here is an article on the influence of Taíno in Spanish.

'Por qué el taíno caribeño fue el idioma que mayor huella dejó en el español'



Aquí tienen el enlance si les interesa leer el artículo.

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-46887091



-MP.
 
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M

Marianopolita

Guest
Why is the H silent in Spanish?

Here is a video about why the letter H is silent in Spanish.








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M

Marianopolita

Guest
El uso de Vos

El voseo or vosear is quite common in Latin America. Most people think of Argentina and Uruguay however, it is not limited to these two countries. Costa Rica is a voseo-speaking country and many others have pockets or regions where it is spoken. The only region where it is not used is in the Caribbean- Cuba, DR, and PR (and I have never heard anyone from these three countries use vos).

Here is a video posted by BBC Mundo a few months ago....a ver lo que dice.





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NanSanPedro

Guest
What an incredibly cool thread. Thanks so much for posting!!!
 
M

Marianopolita

Guest
What an incredibly cool thread. Thanks so much for posting!!!


No problem. There will be more topics posted. BBC Mundo has done a really good job in this regard and with Spanish needless to say there are a wealth of topics that can be explored and discussed.



-MP.
 
M

Marianopolita

Guest
Por qué en español decimos buenoS díaS o buenaS nocheS en plural

Here is an interesting theory why greetings in Spanish are in plural and in other languages like English it is singular- Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening.









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M

Marianopolita

Guest
Signos dobles de interrogación (¿?) y de exclamación (¡!)

Here is an explanation why Spanish uses an inverted question and exclamation mark. Spanish is the only language that uses them at the beginning and end of a phrase.








-MP.
 
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M

Marianopolita

Guest
R to L in Caribbean spanish





My comments and observations about R to L:


Here is an interesting video clip on a language phenomenon that is common in the Caribbean specifically in Puerto Rico but also heard in the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

The change of R to L is very common in the Puerto Rican vernacular (an identifier in my opinion along with the accent itself). For ex, amor is pronounced as amol, hablar as hablal, vender as vendel , manejar as manejal etc.

In my observation, not all Puerto Ricans speak with the R to L change and I also noticed it is more typical of the island as opposed to those who grew up in NYC first generation, second generation etc. There are exceptions especially if the speaker is among other Puerto Ricans who speak that way. However, if the person moved from PR to NYC with that speech pattern it usually remains.

In the DR, in addition to this speech pattern there is another phenomenon associated with it which is L to R. For ex, capital becomes capitar.

In Cuba, the phenomenon is the same as PR, R to L but not all of Cuba. What I observed with Cubans specifically is education combined with the region is really a factor.

For anyone learning Spanish these speech patterns are not recommended as they are not the standard and they will not make you sound more native. The irony is people will ask you- why are you speaking like that. I have witnessed this and the foreigner did not know what to answer.

What is interesting is the history behind the R to L in the video and the incorrect imitations by others Spanish speakers when they try to imitate it. I have heard people try to imitate this speech when talking about how some Puerto Ricans speak and they do it incorrectly almost all the time.

If you have not heard this speech phenomenon just go on You Tube. There are plenty of examples and I will tell you there is a trend that is noticeable among those who speak this way and those who don’t.


References:


If you are interested in this aspect of linguistics, a book like this is recommended. I have read quite a few and all provide great linguistic insight.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=bN...#v=onepage&q=r to l change in spanish&f=false




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F

Fulano2

Guest
Great video. I like the theory that the African slaves had a great influence.
 
A

AlterEgo

Guest
I found something interesting about the use o the "y" en el Cibao. Must have been the Portuguese language. A beautiful language by the way, especially the Brazilian Portuguese.

http://hoy.com.do/lenguasorigen-portugues-de-la-“i”-cibaena/

Very interesting, my husband’s paternal family were from the Cibao for a couple of hundred years. When he did his Ancestry DNA test, his highest % was Portuguese, we were pretty shocked, as we expected Spanish and Italian (which came next, but much lower).
 
M

Marianopolita

Guest
Great video. I like the theory that the African slaves had a great influence.


Basically, all references from BBC Mundo about Spanish are well researched and provide very good knowledge about the language. I have been reading it as a resource for years and it provides insight that I can reference in a range of scenarios.

In my opinion, in the Caribbean and Caribbean basin countries the African influence in Spanish was inevitable and is still notable in the language. That is not going to change. Not only in the pronunciation of words but also sentence structure. I could provide many examples without research as I observe them on my own. That is one reason why Caribbean Spanish is so distinct. It is not only the word pronunciation. Those speech patterns are evident. The same holds true in other languages in the Caribbean that had a similar movement of the African slave trade. You can hear it.


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M

Marianopolita

Guest
I found something interesting about the use o the "y" en el Cibao. Must have been the Portuguese language. A beautiful language by the way, especially the Brazilian Portuguese.

http://hoy.com.do/lenguasorigen-portugues-de-la-“i”-cibaena/

Careful with that. It is not I griega as in Y it is I Latina as in i. That is the cibaeño feature.

Cibaeño is one of the few true dialects in Spanish. From the point of view of Spanish, the language itself has different regional varieties meaning spoken uniquely in different countries but a true dialect cibeaño is one of the few. The theory that it originated from Portuguese is consistent although in the article they confirm that it is from African influence although not 100% from negros hablando de forma aportuguesada. That is interesting.

However, it remains distinct and unique to the Cibao region of the DR. This form of speech is not heard anywhere else in the Spanish-speaking world to my knowledge. Also not all cibaeños speak with the i or at least not fully anyway.


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A

AlterEgo

Guest
However, it remains distinct and unique to the Cibao region of the DR. This form of speech is not heard anywhere else in the Spanish-speaking world to my knowledge. Also not all cibaeños speak with the i or at least not fully anyway.

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This is true in our family. The grandparents spoke it, “Aguaita! Cristiano!” etc., very strong Cibao speech patterns. Their children (my father-in-law was born in 1912) were born and raised in Valverde (Mao) and Santiago Rodriguez (Los Armacigos) before moving to Santo Domingo around 1930s-40s. None of them spoke/speak like that. Mr AE never fails to comment when he hears the Cibao dialect.
 
M

Marianopolita

Guest
This is true in our family. The grandparents spoke it, “Aguaita! Cristiano!” etc., very strong Cibao speech patterns. Their children (my father-in-law was born in 1912) were born and raised in Valverde (Mao) and Santiago Rodriguez (Los Armacigos) before moving to Santo Domingo around 1930s-40s. None of them spoke/speak like that. Mr AE never fails to comment when he hears the Cibao dialect.

Absolutely true. My ears are sharp and you can’t miss it anyway. The DR is not considered to be a big island geographically-speaking but it does have some distinct linguistic zones. Although the underlying accent and intonation is Dominican there is distinction. However, leaving cibaeño aside the DR speech is part of the greater Español caribeño which is a very interesting sub-topic of Spanish.


A few weeks ago I drove to Syracuse, NY and I was quite surprised by the amount of Spanish I was hearing. In one store I was in just browsing a lady came out of the change room and she said to her friend who was a little ahead of her tengo que pagai. I turned around right away. I couldn’t believe it. I said to myself cibaeña all the way. So cool!


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Fulano2

Guest
Careful with that. It is not I griega as in Y it is I Latina as in i. That is the cibaeño feature.

Cibaeño is one of the few true dialects in Spanish. From the point of view of Spanish, the language itself has different regional varieties meaning spoken uniquely in different countries but a true dialect cibeaño is one of the few. The theory that it originated from Portuguese is consistent although in the article they confirm that it is from African influence although not 100% from negros hablando de forma aportuguesada. That is interesting.

However, it remains distinct and unique to the Cibao region of the DR. This form of speech is not heard anywhere else in the Spanish-speaking world to my knowledge. Also not all cibaeños speak with the i or at least not fully anyway.


-MP.
Of course is it the i. It is covenient using the i and sometimes I catch myself on using it, mainly because I have difficulties to pronounce the r, even in my native language.
 
M

Marianopolita

Guest
I saw this posted on Instagram two days ago. It is an ad from Cubanet, a newspaper I do read.


Here is an example of L to I in Cuba. Referring to my post above I wasn't sure if it is spoken in other parts of the Spanish-speaking world but this ad answers my question. It is not surprising given the region and the phenomenon of linguistic drift which occurs meaning speech patterns move from one area to another because people move. The sign says: Se reparan CAIZADOS.

https://www.instagram.com/p/By22H1IJSj-/?igshid=1j88rywej7zvo

Maybe it is not heard as much as the Cibao region but this sign shows it is alive in Cuba too. As well, I don't know where in Cuba this ad was seen but if it is the Eastern part of the island then yes, it does not surprise me because the Eastern part of Cuban speech and accent is very similar to Dominican Republic. One can easily mistake one speaker for the other.


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Marianopolita

Guest
Cuando la Ph y la F convivían en español





Here is an interesting piece of history on how the letter F replaced PH in Spanish. PH was once used but F which is a true Spanish letter replaced it.



-MP.