Idioma español en Guinea Ecuatorial

Spanish is the official language of at least twenty countries and spoken by many in several others. How many though know that the official language of Equatorial Guinea is Spanish. The reaction I often get is really? I did not know that. Yes, it is. It is the only Spanish-speaking country on the African continent.


I was asked in another thread if I was familiar with Spanish spoken in Equatorial Guinea and to expand on the topic if anyone is interested I started a separate thread. Comments welcome in English or Spanish.


Africaida querida este hilo es para ti. Agregué un enlace para que lo escuches y es un buen ejemplo del acento de la gente de ese país. No sé pero hay algo en su forma de hablar como dijiste. Se considera el español europeo pero esa mujer tiene un dejo y puede ser la influencia de otro idioma. Dime lo que piensas.





The first thing that I noticed is a lot of hard Ds. That is not typical of the Spanish language. Listen to how the speaker pronounces her D’s. As well, she has quite a different intonation. Nothing matching any of the regions of Latin America that is for sure. However, her Spanish could not be any more clear. I would have fun speaking Spanish there.




-MP.

Here is a video about the 50 year anniversary of independence from Spain. The report is done by InformativosTvc. Compare the accents. Spain vs Equatorial Guinea. The accent is no longer pure which is to be expected but there is quite a difference. I think there is influence from other African languages in the speech population.





-MP.

Wow, I didn't know that either, interesting!!!

frank recktenwald said:

Wow, I didn't know that either, interesting!!!

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Oh yes and if you listen to the second video even after 50 years of independence the Spanish language has been maintained and it is the language of instruction. It is quite amazing when you think about because the potential for it to disappear is very high but because it is spoken by more 2/3 of the population Spanish is alive and well in Equatorial Guinea. Even the leader of country addresses the population in Spanish.


It is interesting to compare their Spanish to let say another region where Spanish is spoken although not an official language the first place that comes to mind is Aruba. A lot going there from a language stand point and it is a small island.



-MP.

As far as the first video, to me it sounds like a Haitian living in Spain.

rubio_higuey said:

As far as the first video, to me it sounds like a Haitian living in Spain.

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Although she is not Haitian I know what you mean. As I said in my first post it is those hard D’s that is first aspect that stands out, then the intonation, and speech rhythm is different but then she has the Spanish ceceo. What a potpourri. You need to compare her to her compatriots because they sound different.

Their speech is influenced by other languages and I think French is one of them because I am hearing some influence.

To confirm I just looked it up and French is spoken there. I am not surprised.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-equatorial-guinea.html



-MP.

rubio_higuey said:

As far as the first video, to me it sounds like a Haitian living in Spain.

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One can hear the French influence in the 1st video yes. Reckon it has to do with the neighboring countries were mostly French is spoken.

Other Spanish-speaking territories in Africa are the Western Sahara (formerly known as the Spanish Sahara), the north of Morocco (a Spanish protectorate between 1912-1958 and Spanish is still widely spoken) and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla although geographically in Morocco are to this day part of the Kingdom of Spain, so Spanish is the official language.

@Chirimoya


Those are well-known locations where Spanish is spoken. I hope people know but they don’t appear on the list of countries because they are part of Spain but geographically in Morocco. Ceuta and Melilla have many problems controlling people trying to jump the wall. I read one of the papers from Ceuta daily and listen to migrants that try to cross over only to be captured and sent back. The migrant speech is similar to Equatorial Guinea but stronger and similar to other Africans that speak French. The phonetics, intonation and speech patterns are off. It is very influenced by the French language.

Something I have noticed over the years is French speakers in general have a hard time learning Spanish and Spanish speakers in general not all have a hard time learning French. One aspect is each group has a hard time with the stress patterns of the other language.


Back to Ceuta and Melilla the Spanish there is totally Spanish from Spain other than the foreigners’ Spanish and the way they speak.


-MP.

By coincidence stumbled onto this one.

Marianopolita said:

Although she is not Haitian I know what you mean. As I said in my first post it is those hard D’s that is first aspect that stands out, then the intonation, and speech rhythm is different but then she has the Spanish ceceo. What a potpourri. You need to compare her to her compatriots because they sound different.

Their speech is influenced by other languages and I think French is one of them because I am hearing some influence.

To confirm I just looked it up and French is spoken there. I am not surprised.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-equatorial-guinea.html



-MP.

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That is what I was saying in the other thread... They sound a bit like me I can hear the influence of French somehow. It is interesting, I would have thought I would hear the influence of African languages in their speech pattern, it s not as strong as a Nigerian speaking English.

I heard their president and I can hear Castillan but I wasn't sure it was representative as many times African leaders/elite mostly study in Europe.

Thanks for starting this thread.

Marianopolita said:

Something I have noticed over the years is French speakers in general have a hard time learning Spanish and Spanish speakers in general not all have a hard time learning French. One aspect is each group has a hard time with the stress patterns of the other language.

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From personal experience and what has been told to me by others, the opposite is true regarding Spanish vs. Portuguese, as in, we Spanish speakers have to sweat it to learn Porto properly, while the latter's speakers seem to have an easier time when learning Spanish.

Naked_Snake said:

From personal experience and what has been told to me by others, the opposite is true regarding Spanish vs. Portuguese, as in, we Spanish speakers have to sweat it to learn Porto properly, while the latter's speakers seem to have an easier time when learning Spanish.

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Yes. I find Portuguese difficult. Portuguese speakers speak to me daily in Portuguese and it is hard to understand. I speak to them in Spanish and they laugh because they understand everything. The phonetic properties differ so much but in favour of the Portuguese speaker. This is a known fact and there is linguistic info on this concept too which I found interesting to read.


However, I am talking about Spanish to French and French to Spanish. If based on personal experience then we will all have different stories to tell. If based on linguistics and rules of accentuation well then I can tell you the rules are different in each language as well as the phonetics which is what is challenging when a speaker tries to learn the other language.

I have heard many French speakers speak Spanish and 99% of the time the stress is on the wrong syllable. Even a simple word like Cuba they put the stress on the wrong syllable.


-MP.

frank recktenwald said:

By coincidence stumbled onto this one.

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I have heard him speak before. I listened to him on You Tube. I think his accent is different from the singer in my first post but definitely they are both from Equatorial Guinea. The slight difference in accent could be because of the other language each person speaks and education.

This leader however sounds foreign to me. Not in the sense that he is not a native speaker but in the sense that I am not used to hearing an accent like that in Spanish. He has a little bit of the Spanish ceceo but very hard pronunciation of the letter D in pre and post vowel position. Dead give away that he speaks French. Listen to how he says ayuda, todo, ha sido etc. However, he is well spoken. His grammar is pristine.

Did you listen to what he said about Spanish and the language itself in Equatorial Guinea vs. the rest of the African continent? I thought it was interesting and definitely has an impact on trade and how they interact with other countries in the region.


-MP.

Africaida said:

That is what I was saying in the other thread... They sound a bit like me I can hear the influence of French somehow. It is interesting, I would have thought I would hear the influence of African languages in their speech pattern, it s not as strong as a Nigerian speaking English.

I heard their president and I can hear Castillan but I wasn't sure it was representative as many times African leaders/elite mostly study in Europe.

Thanks for starting this thread.

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Sure. No problem.


I think you are right about having studied in Europe. I say this because his Spanish is pristine. This is clearly an educated man. From what I can hear he has a little of the Spanish ceceo but other than that he sounds like someone who speaks Spanish with a strong influence of French and other African languages. However, he is blessed if he has that type of command in all the languages he speaks. Accents are tricky because some languages are so dominant in terms of phonetics that if a person speaks that language first and then tries to learn Spanish or another language the influence of the dominant language always remains.

I agree about Nigerians that speak English. They have an extremely strong accent in English. Ghanaians too.

Here is a person who I think is admirable in terms of how he speaks Spanish. This is Xander Bogaerts. He plays for the Boston Red Sox. I was watching a game a couple of years ago and he mentioned that he speaks four languages and I thought to myself impressive. Then he said what the four are: Papiamento (a Dutch creole), Dutch, English and Spanish. Wow! I wanted to hear his Spanish. I searched on You Tube and found an interview. You have to listen to this guy. Su español es bonito. I don't hear any influence of the other three languages he speaks. He is from Aruba and he said Spanish is the last language he learned and really started to focus on it in 2009. Increíble.

The interview with Xander starts at the 50 second mark. If I ever meet him in person I would shake his hand. Felicitaciones Xander!






-MP.

Greetings from Equitorial Guinea! I am currently sitting on an offshore platform a few miles from Bata. I have been here off and on over the last few years, and the Spanish influence really is quite interesting. It is a stark contrast from neighboring Cameroon, or Nigeria and Angola. The second you get here, you can see it in the architecture, food and music.

My Spanish skills are basic at best, but I find it easier to communicate with Equitorialguineans than I do with Dominicanos or Mexicans. I mostly learned Spanish from Rosetta Stone and Duolingo. Here they speak much slower with more emphasis on each individual word, as opposed to the rapid flowing sentances and slang terms found in Latin America and the Caribbean. There is no Spanglish, but their is the occasional African term thrown in, e.g. "no wahalla", and a French word or two.

Most who speak English, do so with very little Spanish accent.

The country is mostly run on oil & gas, but toursim is starting to take hold. Americans DO NOT need a visa to visit here. It really is a pretty country.

Marianopolita said:

Su español es bonito. I don't hear any influence of the other three languages he speaks. He is from Aruba and he said Spanish is the last language he learned and really started to focus on it in 2009. Increíble.

The interview with Xander starts at the 50 second mark. If I ever meet him in person I would shake his hand. Felicitaciones Xander!

-MP.

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Indeed, wish I could speak like him. You can hear the Dominican influence when he speaks. He speaks more clearly than some Dominican American I have met to be honest. Si, el habla muy bonito and he is fine as hell (at least in this video).

drSix said:

Greetings from Equitorial Guinea! I am currently sitting on an offshore platform a few miles from Bata. I have been here off and on over the last few years, and the Spanish influence really is quite interesting. It is a stark contrast from neighboring Cameroon, or Nigeria and Angola. The second you get here, you can see it in the architecture, food and music.

My Spanish skills are basic at best, but I find it easier to communicate with Equitorialguineans than I do with Dominicanos or Mexicans. I mostly learned Spanish from Rosetta Stone and Duolingo. Here they speak much slower with more emphasis on each individual word, as opposed to the rapid flowing sentances and slang terms found in Latin America and the Caribbean. There is no Spanglish, but their is the occasional African term thrown in, e.g. "no wahalla", and a French word or two.

Most who speak English, do so with very little Spanish accent.

The country is mostly run on oil & gas, but toursim is starting to take hold. Americans DO NOT need a visa to visit here. It really is a pretty country.

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Greetings to you as well. I hope you are enjoying your stay.


I can imagine the Spanish being very different compared to the many varieties of Latin American Spanish. I can't vouch for any of your sources for learning such as Rosetta Stone or Duolingo but from what I hear the focus is more on vocabulary and very basic sentences. However, the internet has a wealth of resources for language learning. One is no longer limited to traditional methods although I am a fan of a good grammar text book. It never fails. That combined with verb conjugation exercises and the ability to interact in a live environment will help you progress in Spanish.


The videos in the thread that provide samples of local speakers confirms what you say. To me they sound very slow when they speak but again the different origins of their Spanish are a factor.


The video posted that shows Teodoro the President of the country speaking to a Spanish journalist gives insight into the current state of the country. I thought his points were interesting about how Equatorial Guinea interacts with its African neighbours. I don't know anything really about the country to be able to comment on the tourism aspect but if they have that potential to generate income then hopefully the leader can capitalize and build that industry.


Que te vaya muy bien.



Saludos,


-MP.

Africaida said:

Indeed, wish I could speak like him. You can hear the Dominican influence when he speaks. He speaks more clearly than some Dominican American I have met to be honest. Si, el habla muy bonito and he is fine as hell (at least in this video).

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Right away when I heard him speak I was impressed. This is what I call good language ability and he speaks three other langauges. Incredible. My goodness. I agree with you one can hear the Dominican influence and he will only get better. There are enough Dominicans and Latinos on the Red Sox team right now therefore he is around the language 24/7.

I would love to have a conversation with him. De verdad habla muy bien el español. There are a few nuances I would point out to him but other than that he is cruising. He can go anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world and especially in the Caribbean- Caramba. People would ask him- ¿De dónde eres? - Aruba- no me digas. Mentira. I can hear it now.



In terms of him being fine.... that too!



-MP.