Dominican Spanish

What is your opinion about Spanish spoken in the DR as compared to other countries?

  • Excellent

    Votes: 5 5.2%
  • Very good

    Votes: 4 4.2%
  • Good

    Votes: 29 30.2%
  • Fair

    Votes: 30 31.3%
  • Poor

    Votes: 28 29.2%

  • Total voters
    96

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,370
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What is your opinion about Spanish spoken in the DR as compared to other countries in the Spanish-speaking world?

(before responding consider grammar, clarity of speech, spelling, speed, usage of regionalisms and slang and your over all perception of the quality of Spanish of the average Dominican based on your personal experiences)

a) Excellent - easy to understand, clear speech by most speakers, good grammar with few exceptions, very close to what is considered the standard.

b) Very good- easy to understand, clear speech by most speakers, good grammar with few exceptions, very close to what is considered the standard, limited usage of regionalisms, colloquialisms etc.

c) Good- not always easy to understand but certainly a noticeable difference between educated and non-educated speakers. Noticeable usage of colloquialisms, regionalisms, slang etc.

d) Fair- not easy to understand. Noticeable usage of colloquialisms, regionalisms, slang, grammatical errors on the part of the speaker, poor spelling, speakers speak using the typical icons of the Dominican vernacular all the time.

e) Poor- uneducated speech, poor grammar, poor spelling, speakers use typical Dominican speech patterns, adds /s/ where they do not belong etc.

Poll prepared and requested by Marianopolita.

-NALs
 

Chip

Platinum
Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
Typically as in most countries the less educated the person is the less refined/correct they speak the language. The DR is not different. Imo as a gringo, the spanish among the better educated is no different than found in other countries, albeit with it's regional variations and idisyncracies. If I have to grade anything it would be the government lack of investment in the education of it's people, and not the people themselves.
 
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TOOBER_SDQ

Bronze
Nov 19, 2008
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Based on the definitions NALs provided, I will vote "good". However, many times I have heard people from other Spanish speaking nations describe Dominican Spanish as "poor".

This may have to do with national pride, sort of like how the Brits whine about American English.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
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Even educated Dominicans can make it difficult at times. However, in a general way, I have to say "good" is the best I can rate it. My father, may he rest in peace, would give them an "F" for sure....same as the Cubans or Puerto Ricans.

Seems that educated Central Americans and those from South American, just cannot hear the speech of these Antillean folks....perhaps it is the steady diet of "s" and "-ado" and "-ido" endings that are eaten or clipped....

Whatever, "Paco no 'ta 'ca, Paco 'ta acotao" just won't cut it for most educated Spanish speakers.

Peace,

HB
 

bachata

Aprendiz de todo profesional de nada
Aug 18, 2007
5,341
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Spanish spoken in my country is broken compared with some of the South Americans countries, for ex. Chile, Argentina and Colombia. It is sad to listen how most the Dominican people speaks even some professionals, especially those whom went to the public high school in the evening.



JJ
 

Marianopolita

Former Spanish forum Mod 2010-2021
Dec 26, 2003
4,821
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DR Spanish has many complexities

Just to clarify, I created the poll with the categories and descriptions. All NALs did was post it at my request.



Yes, there are educated speakers in all languages etc. but the question is in your opinion if you had to rate DR Spanish based on the criteria I outlined what would you choose. I thought it would be beneficial to clarify this for posters voting and posting their comments going forward.

IMO, a simple answer is not possible but a simplified answer can certainly shed some light on what makes Spanish in the DR and the Antillean region meaning Puerto Rico and Cuba drastically different from Mexico, Central America and the varieties of Spanish spoken in South America. It's also important to note when comparing Spanish spoken in Cuba, DR and Puerto Rico, the strongest similarities are between the DR and Puerto Rico. In a linguistic comparison it can be represented as Cuba /DR and PR.

The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico share strong linguistic similarities this includes vocabulary, phonetics and syntax. As well, in some cases the accent is strikingly similar and this is really an incredible phenomenon from a linguistic point of view. Cuba on the other hand is what I call a linguistic first cousin. Another example would be some Colombians and Venezuelans especially along the northern boarder of both countries. Have any of you heard people from these regions speak? Remember my post if and when you do. You can not ask for a more striking accent comparison between two countries. A close second may be Uruguay and Argentina depending on what part of each country the speakers hail.

Regarding the DR the linguistic characteristics are so deeply rooted that IMO, no matter how much education a speaker has these characteristic of the Dominican vernacular will not change. If they have not changed since the late 19thC early 20thC it won't change anytime soon. Through education the norm is the next generation should be more knowledgeable than the previous (in general terms) but given the educational poverty and complexity of the DR, the high drop out rate, the number of young kids who don't attend school, rural vs. urban speech, regional dialects within the DR, all these factors plague the vernacular and impede the speech patterns from changing or at least correcting the ones that are severely incorrect.

Many aspects about the Dominican vernacular bother me however, some more grave than others. Although some people defend dropping the /s/, this speech pattern for non-educated speakers gives them a close to zero opportunity to write in the plural correctly. I see the effects of t? dice, lo dominicano, t? piensa on a regular basis all which require an /s/, specific to the verb form or the marker of the plural but on the other hand I see destr? instead detr?s, a classic example of putting the /s/ where it does not belong and dropping it at the end as a colloquial pattern. With speech patterns like these it is very difficult to formally educate the masses to speak their own language, Spanish properly. There are also specifics about grammar that would surprise a well spoken Spanish speaker from another country. I have heard comments, I have been asked questions and agree with what other Spanish speakers critique about some of grammatical patterns of the DR. The beauty is I understand what they are critiquing whereas many people get defensive or are clueless as to what is incorrect about their own speech.

When comparing Spanish of the Antilles- Cuba, DR and PR, Cuba is definitely the stand alone and it is imperative to segregate Spanish spoken in Havana from the rest of Cuba especially the orient (the east). The eastern part of Cuba has the most similarities when comparing Spanish spoken in DR and PR including some the /l/ and /r/ changes in words. Havana definitely has educated speakers and proof positive is listening to the way they speak and this goes beyond the small percentage of educated Dominican Spanish speakers. In Latin American, Havana is and was a center of education. Certainly the standard has deteriorated for obvious reasons but compare how people from Havana speak vs. the eastern part of the island.

I would encourage people to read Como hablamos los dominicanos. It's very heavy on the linguistic side, sociolinguistics specifically but it sheds light on many of the speech patterns and regional grammar of the Dominican vernacular that I have mentioned over the years. There's a sticky of the PDF version of the book in this forum.

I created the poll and at best if it I had to rate the DR Spanish as compared Spanish spoken in other countries I would say Fair to Good. I can't go any higher than that. Education would make a difference but many of the speech patterns are too deeply rooted. It would take a miracle to eradicate some of the incorrect speech. I definitely have to visit the Canary Islands and compare if the vernacular overrides good educational Spanish.


/mplta
 
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? bient?t

Guest
I would say Fair to Good. I can't go any higher than that. Education would make a difference but many of the speech patterns are too deeply rooted. It would take a miracle to eradicate some of the incorrect speech. I definitely have to visit the Canary Islands and compare if the vernacular overrides good educational Spanish.
/mplta

How 'bout fair to middlin' or as Texans say, fair to Midland?

As a wordsmith extraordinaire and proud possessor of cunning linguist connoiseurship;), and founding member of the Dominican Slang Preservation Society, DSPS, I would have to say I love it.
And while I may enjoy the spoken word, it's the written form I dislike. Here's a poorly written and overly-compensated text message from a woman in el Ciabo, asking when will I join Hi5: "Joce, cuando tu ba a entrai a harfar?"
 
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Ezequiel

Bronze
Jun 4, 2008
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What is your opinion about Spanish spoken in the DR as compared to other countries in the Spanish-speaking world?

(before responding consider grammar, clarity of speech, spelling, speed, usage of regionalisms and slang and your over all perception of the quality of Spanish of the average Dominican based on your personal experiences)

a) Excellent - easy to understand, clear speech by most speakers, good grammar with few exceptions, very close to what is considered the standard.

b) Very good- easy to understand, clear speech by most speakers, good grammar with few exceptions, very close to what is considered the standard, limited usage of regionalisms, colloquialisms etc.

c) Good- not always easy to understand but certainly a noticeable difference between educated and non-educated speakers. Noticeable usage of colloquialisms, regionalisms, slang etc.

d) Fair- not easy to understand. Noticeable usage of colloquialisms, regionalisms, slang, grammatical errors on the part of the speaker, poor spelling, speakers speak using the typical icons of the Dominican vernacular all the time.

e) Poor- uneducated speech, poor grammar, poor spelling, speakers use typical Dominican speech patterns, adds /s/ where they do not belong etc.

Poll prepared and requested by Marianopolita.

-NALs

Dominican Spanish is good compare to other countries in Latin American or Spain, I have a lot of experience with other Spanish speakers here in the U.S. as i work for the insurance company and as a bilingual Agent i have to deal with Latinos everyday here in Atlanta. Most of the Latinos here come from poor regions of their respective countries so their spanish is poor plus you throw in they slang you will have to get used to it to be able to understand it, at first i had problem understanding Mexican when they spoke (of course i do understand the Mexican Telenovelas perfectly) but when i encounted the really Mexican (the great majority) their Spanish was very different and hard to understand (i'm a full flesh Mexican now ;)), but my biggest problem understanding another spanish speaker was with a couple from Uruguay, i had to ask them three time to repeat what they said, i even ask them if they speak another languangue other than Spanish, i gave up after a few minutes.

In some region of Panama and Hunduras you will have to take some classes to be able to understand them, i have friends from both countries the one from the major cities speak good Spanish the one from the countryside they speak spanish with a foreign accent.

Dominican Spanish is good and different from other Spanish speaking country. In Chile they don't pronounce the "S" either and it hard for everybody to understand their Spanish and keep in mind that Chile is one of the most richest country in Latin American.

Chilean Spanish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

Marianopolita

Former Spanish forum Mod 2010-2021
Dec 26, 2003
4,821
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? bient?t....

The precious commodity that education is remains severely undervalued in the Dominican Republic. One cannot help but notice that when the average Dominican puts pen to paper it's laden with very basic spelling errors, influence of regionalisms and if the person is from the Cibao region one may see the /i/ in many words which replaces /r/ and /l/. There's a severe problem. When the identity question surfaces many are quick to identify with their Spanish roots which includes language, however, look at the condition of their Spanish. It's unbelievable especially considering the fact that the phonetic system of Spanish allows for spelling to be very easy. Compare spelling in Spanish to English or French. The latter two can be a living nightmare because you can have a string of letters, vowels and consonants combined that are not pronounced. This is not the case in Spanish. In very basic terms the /h/ is mute, but written where required, learn the rules of accentuation (and I don't mean memorizing where the accent goes on a letter because when you have to write command forms of verbs you will get stuck, for e.g., devu?lvemelo) and few other exceptions and spelling becomes very easy.


I think the poll results reveal some key aspects about Spanish in the Dominican Republic although the poll itself is just a microcosm of the statistics that need to be gathered. The DR education system is a far cry from other Spanish-speaking countries and this is directly reflected in the 'average' speech and writing of a Dominican. Needless to say there's a difference between rural and urban speech but assuming that the text message was from an adult, how does one justify '"Joce, cuando tu ba a entrai a harfar?" BTW, this is not an example of slang but example of a typical spelling error (ba instead of va) and vernacular/ dialectal speech (entrai= entrar). This is just to clarify for those who are reading. A simple example of slang in English is dough= money.


As well, look at an average newspaper when people post their responses. Here is an example today from a mediocre DR paper El Nuevo Diario to support what I am pointing out in my posts regarding basic spelling and the typical Dominican vernacular speech:


De: Virgilio, new york .long island.usa

Somos una raza sin madre , ni educasion.
A donde vamos siempre nos tildan de lo peor.
Extorsionadores,tramposos,delincuentes,traficantes, ignorantes etc,etc.
La vanidad es nuetra bandera y conseguir cuartos tunmbando al que sea,robando o siempre hasiendo lo malo.

('tunmbando' may or may not be a typo IMO, there is linguistic aspect here. I will leave it to the readers to research)


Un dominicano es acusado por el asesinato a pu?aladas de su novia en Long Island


The poor educational system in the DR contributes heavily to the linguistic deficiency of many Dominicans. One can face the reality or deny it to the end of time. However, the masses are the ones who suffer in the end. If the majority of Dominican students attend public school, the system has failed and is failing miserably. Add to this epidemic the dropout rate, insufficient hours of education and LACK of reading (voluntarily), the spelling woes and other speech deficiencies will continue. A country's education problems can no longer be hidden when simple signs have incorrect spelling and grammatical errors.


In general, if one wants to defend his or her choice wouldn?t it be more logical to use examples from the DR vernacular both good and bad rather try to exemplify or critique the weaknesses of Spanish spoken in other countries? That alone tells a story, if you say DR Spanish is good, bad, mediocre support your point of view with examples of good, bad or mediocre DR vernacular not examples from other countries.


PD. Hopefully there will be no full body quotes.


/mplta
 
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Ezequiel

Bronze
Jun 4, 2008
1,801
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What is your opinion about Spanish spoken in the DR as compared to other countries in the Spanish-speaking world?

That's NAL's question for the poll.

In general, if one wants to defend his or her choice wouldn?t it be more logical to use examples from the DR vernacular both good and bad rather try to exemplify or critique the weaknesses of Spanish spoken in other countries? That alone tells a story, if you say DR Spanish is good, bad, mediocre support your point of view with examples of good, bad or mediocre DR vernacular not examples from other countries.

I know DR Spanish is poor due to the lack of education, but COMPARED to other Spanish-speaking countries like """NAL's asked""", i think is good, i have to deal everyday with Hispanic from all over Latin American and half of them can't even spell their names correctly if at all they can write, must of the time they ask me to write their name in very important documents, many can't even count.

What i can see poor educated people are the same in every country, as more the half the Latin Americans live in poverty they education label are as mediocre as the DR, Middle class, upper middle class and rich people are always more educated because they can send their kids to better schools.
 
?

? bient?t

Guest
...but assuming that the text message was from an adult, how does one justify '"Joce, cuando tu ba a entrai a harfar?" BTW, this is not an example of slang but example of a typical spelling error (ba instead of va) and vernacular/ dialectal speech (entrai= entrar). This is just to clarify for those who are reading. A simple example of slang in English is dough= money.

Never said it was slang, which, by the way, is music to my ears. I like it. And yes, she's an adult: 30-year-old cibae?a.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,370
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That's NAL's question for the poll.

Nope, there is nothing that is mine here. Its unbelieveable that despite giving credit to the originator of this poll and "bolding" such in red, so that it captures everyone's attention; and a further explanation by the original author, and yet, comments such as Ezequiel's continue to be posted.

-NALs :ermm:
 

Marianopolita

Former Spanish forum Mod 2010-2021
Dec 26, 2003
4,821
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Buscan eliminar en tres a?os analfabetismo en la RD

Maybe the secretary of education read my poll. Wishful thinking but I think the timing of this article is paramount and supports my two posts in this thread about the need for education to step up to the plate which would overtime improve the quality of Dominican Spanish, although keeping separate the vernacular (the spoken language) from the written language, the two go hand in hand.

My primary question is how will this be achieved in three years and will this be geared towards elementary, high school, university students and adults because illiteracy, which includes the ability to read and write affects the population as a whole. Now before anyone starts posting literacy stats for the DR, which severely under reflect the true picture, and I have seen the data, the criteria used to determine literacy is a great factor. For e.g., an individual that can write their name and last name should not be considered literate. In brief, the numbers do not tell the true story.

From the brief article, it seems like the Secretary of Education is underestimating the task at hand. Coupled with the illiteracy that is prevalent among the masses one must include the Dominican vernacular which magnifies the problem. In a speech population where the norm is to drop the /s/, the /r/ is substituted for /l/ in some regions and vice versa and the cibae?o /i/ make learning to spell in Spanish a challenge when it should be systematically easily since it?s a phonetic based language.

Illiteracy and semi-illiteracy is chronic in the DR as evidenced by the misspelling of simple words. The correct usage of /b/ and /v/ is a great challenge, the letters /c/, /z/, /s/ present a challenge for the illiterate and semi-illiterate mass, /h/ and /j/, /m/ and /n/ are also letters that lend themselves to confusion. How does Melanio Paredes plan to address the illiteracy problem with the above mentioned challenges? There has to be a plan and outline of the approach to eliminating illiteracy, the target group and how literacy will be measured. More lip service is the last thing the DR needs in this crisis. Education of the masses is imperative for a successful prepared future generation. To be able to read and write are rock bottom basic skills and if a significant percentage of the population can?t, the public education system needs to be revamped and it will take more than three years.

Revel? que en los pr?ximos 45 d?as realizar?an un censo nacional que permitir? descubrir d?nde est?n concentrados la mayor cantidad de iletrados.

-I hope the public will see the plan and surprisingly some valuable input will be given to collectively approach the problem. Once again just reading these comments in the newspaper, this time El Caribe shows the great need for improvement. When people comment about Spanish in the DR, it does not only refer to the spoken language and the same holds true for this poll.

Commentary from some readers:
jonathan espinal
comiensen por los partidos...mejor no, eso es mission impossible..

lic,tony maria
melanio, cuando valla aser el senso, no se olvide de enpesar,por muchos funcionario y lejiladores que al alnafabetos

Buscan eliminar en tres a?os analfabetismo en la RD If you get an error message the link should still open.

There are many more examples throughout the newspaper.

/mplta

(I also will be posting this in my mini blog should you wish to comment further)
 
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SKing

Silver
Nov 22, 2007
3,750
183
63
Before moving to the DR, I did not take Spanish classes. I learned the Spanish that I know up to this point from my Dominican and PRican friends. I did not know if I was saying anything incorrectly because I hardly ever saw the words written.
It was when I took the Spanish Interpretation for OB test at the hospital where I worked in NC that I realized that I was pronouncing alot of words incorrectly.
The Director of Interpretation services told me to my face that I "sounded Dominican" and that it had to be corrected. She had me say "espalda" (not "ehpalda" as I had learned) over 20 times until I got it right. After meeting friends from other countries(Ecuador, Venezuela) and being ridiculed for my Spanish at times for it's Dominican sound, I then picked up a book...
The only place where Dominican Spanish is considered anything higher than poor is here in the DR and Washington Heights
SHALENA
 
Jan 17, 2009
1,622
59
48
I'm not very proud of my Spanish despite being a native speaker. Being from the River Plate region in South America, we do mispronounce many words, but compared to Dominican Spanish, even ours is great!

I have a hard time not only understanding some Dominicans (especially in the North Coast) but suffer when I read business signs full of orthographical errors! They just write it like they pronounce it!

Best Spanish I've ever heard in Latin America, Colombia. To me, it's the closest to authentic Spanish (i.e., from Spain).
 

Funnyyale26

Bronze
Dec 15, 2006
519
4
0
Best Spanish I've ever heard in Latin America, Colombia. To me, it's the closest to authentic Spanish (i.e., from Spain).

ITA on Colombian spanish! Peruvians also speak really well. I think Dominican Spanish is the worst in Latin America, well coupled with Puerto Rican.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
educated dominicans - i understand pretty much everything. also dominican newspapers are written in clear, grammatically correct way, excellent.
barrio people - i have no clue what they say. nothing. nada, zero.