The Dominican vernacular

I am starting this thread as a spin off to another poster's inquiry about Dominican phrases and words. I asked for the thread to be split from post #20 onward because it's a separate topic (http://www.dr1.com/forums/695748-post20.html). However, there are countless posts on the board about learning 'Dominican Spanish'. Personally, I don't like that phrase or term but what makes the Dominican vernacular so hard for foreigners to understand? Other than having no knowledge of Spanish or just basic speaking and comprehension skills, there seems to be many underlying issues relating to language. As well, many foreigners are married to Dominicans or in relationships which really makes the situation even more difficult or questionable.

Factors/ issues that come to mind:

-communication limitations
-comprehension limitations
-misunderstandings
-frustration
-the quality of Spanish the foreigner is exposed to on a daily basis (there are plenty of examples of the quality of Spanish posted on the board)


Here is the definition of:

vernacular-

1 a: using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language b: of, relating to, or being a nonstandard language or dialect of a place, region, or country c: of, relating to, or being the normal spoken form of a language.


In your opinion is the Dominican vernacular that much different as compared to other Spanish-speaking countries with a similar style Spanish?


--LDG.

The DR accent discussion-

Here is the link to an interesting discussion about Spanish in the DR in the forums of the newspaper Dominican Today. The posters discuss features and characteristics such as dropping the /s/, the changing of the /r/, and /l/, el cibae?o etc. In many posts in the past, I have commented on the DR vernacular, how it differs from Spanish spoken in other parts of Latin America and grammatical patterns that differ from the standard grammar rules.

It's an interesting discussion because a few key posters have said what I have said many times and also acknowledge that the way you speak in certain circles can have repercussions. It has nothing to do with being 'proud' of where you are from especially if one is in a scenario such as an interview where proper Spanish, /s/ and all is required (certainly if one is not in the DR) and the individual feels that being proud about the way s/he speaks is more important. This applies to all languages. Proper English in an interview is expected and not we was and I says etc.


http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/forum/living-in-the-dr/general-info/462/the-Dominican-accent



-LDG.

The Dominican Diaspora and language-

One of the points raised by a few of the posters in the Dominican Today discussion about the Dominican vernacular is how it's perceived by other Latin Americans. Some of the Dominican Diaspora is much more in tuned and focused on how their own speech both good and bad plays a role in their personal successes and shortcomings. No one is saying that you have to change the way you speak per se however, one must be aware that improper speech definitely will have an impact in certain circles. Most of the posters were in tune with this concept and pinpointed out key aspects about their speech that?s unique, incorrect, and regional even within the DR as compared to Spanish spoken in other countries.

Beyond what most know about the characteristics of Dominican speech, the study goes much deeper and it should because it explains the challenges that many Dominicans face abroad as well as educators who have to teach or lecture to a group of Spanish speakers from diverse backgrounds with a potpourri of regional speech patterns, some of which have been clearly recognized as exceptions specific to Latin American grammatical patterns and others which are regional, grammatically incorrect and/ or acceptable in the spoken language but clearly not acceptable in an essay, dissertation, presentation, interview etc.

Since sociolinguistic research is a continuous process and the USA continues to emerge as a key area in the world where Spanish is spoken, more analysis is being done on the speech varieties. Traditionally, there has always been a focus on features of the Mexican vernacular since a portion of the mid west and western states are directly linked to Mexico. The significant focus shifted to the Eastern seaboard and the Latin Americans who settled there in the 1950?s onward. For a long time Puerto Ricans outnumbered Dominicans and Cubans in NY and NJ make up significant numbers combined with Miami. As well, Colombians and Ecuadoreans are significant groups in the NYC area and to note there is analytical break down regarding Central America.

The challenge educators have with the Dominican Diaspora is the speech patterns that are embedded and even resistance to at least write Spanish according to the grammatical standard. This is nothing new; it was just interesting to actually read about this in more than one source and understand the challenges that they face and how to conquer the problem. One has to take into account where in the DR the majority is from who live in the greater NYC area; NJ, Massachusetts and Rhode Island which reflect and explain some of the speech patterns that have been noted by educators and other Latin American speakers.

Features of Cibao Spanish stand out among the Diaspora as well as common Dominican speech patterns. What I also find interesting is to listen to other speakers perceptions about how many Dominicans speak vs. Dominicans themselves. I could confidently say there?s not much difference. Those who are aware of what the standard grammatical patterns are and the linguistic history of the DR and Spanish spoken in the Antilles i.e. Cuba and Puerto Rico see the critique as nothing more than an opportunity to discuss the observations and learn about the regional differences.

A few days ago I read an interesting, well researched essay on 'Dominican Spanish in its social context'. The essay addressed many key factors about the speech patterns some of which cross all class lines i.e. dropping the /s/ and not only at the end of words, Spanish spoken in the Cibao and the loyalty of its speakers, grammatical patterns that differ drastically from the norm (and frankly IMO, other Spanish speakers do notice this aspect) the overuse of pronouns, the usage of ello with impersonal verbs (typical of the DR vernacular only) and some other differences may be noticed the more one reads in Spanish and interacts with speakers from other countries. An example is diminutives. I mentioned this in another thread ?ingo is not a common diminutive used in Spanish in general. It?s very rural and used in the DR (the Cibao region), one of the few places where one may hear it used.


-LDG.