El español dominicano

[Marianopolita]

I found this commentary and blog on Dominican Spanish which I thought was very interesting and worthy of posting. In general, it does not present anything that has not been discussed in the forum over the years about Spanish in the Dominican Republic. However, I found it worthy to read another researched perspective about some of the most commonly discussed topics about features of Spanish spoken in the Dominican Republic.


http://misterprofesor.blogspot.ca/2013/04/variantes-del-espanol-dominicano.html


-MP.

 

[Marianopolita]

Article- 'Ello hay mucha’ folma de hablai españor’

Here is another article that came up in my research published by Diario Libre in 2012. No matter how long ago it is the information is always valuable from a linguistic perspective. Look at the title of the article:

Ello hay mucha’ folma de hablai españor

I like this article in particular as it points out features of Dominican Spanish today that are archaisms that have not phased out of the Dominican vernacular. Language changes over time and all languages experience an evolution. There are many examples of this just by reading a novel that was written decades or even centuries ago. The language is clearly not the same. This holds true for English and Spanish.

The article mentions key examples of archaisms and speech patterns that are typical of the DR even today:

o Seseo- both’ ‘Z’ and ‘S’ are pronounced the same (this is common in the Latin America not just the DR)

o Intervocalic ‘D’- the article gives some key examples of the suprresed ‘d’ in Dominican speech (this also occurs in other regions of Latin America)

o Dropping of the ‘S’

o Concepts such as - carnavar instead of carnaval, hogal instead hogar and caminai instead of caminar (cibaeño)



Keep in mind many of these concepts have to do with el nivel de escolaridad. The higher the level of education the less of these speech patterns you will hear in the DR and it does range in my experience.

https://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/ello-hay-mucha-folma-de-hablai-espaor-LJDL328164



-MP.

 

[Marianopolita]

La jerga de la calle dominicana

I am not one to be concerned about learning slang because in language in general it’s an aspect of speech one picks up along the way to a certain extent. When learning a language and Spanish in this case, it’s best to learn how to speak proper Spanish and the slang can be for fun afterwards once one has a solid command.

Slang is worthy to know because you will hear it and there is a segment of the population that has a heavy slang vocabulary in some cases a predominant slang vocabulary. However, knowing some slang comes in handy and not to mention fun for some people. This jerga dominicana caught my attention because it’s so modern and as well, the accents of the two individuals really represent the Dominican popular speech or de la calle. The country has clearly marked accents (by region) and the accents in the video are true accents of just two of many that you will hear in the DR.

[video=youtube_share;-0sHb5D5-3o]https://youtu.be/-0sHb5D5-3o[/video]



These two guys in the video have it down pat and notice how they say at the end recuelden and not recuerden which is an example of the speech patterns addressed in the article in the post above.



Cheers,

-MP.

 

[Marianopolita]

The usage of diminutives in Dominican speech

I would like to add and it is quite an interesting aspect of Spanish (and not only part of Dominican speech) is diminutives and the usage. Observe the usage of diminutives in the Spanish-speaking world and you should stop and think- how fascinating!. Very unlike English, the usage and understanding the usage is special in Spanish.

Some diminutives are more common than others. As well, the usage is (very) regional. Using common ones as an example – ito/ -ita you will hear in the Spanish-speaking world as well -ico/- ica. Then common in Spain -illo/- illa which is not common in Latin America at all. Costa Ricans get their nickname los Ticos because of their frequent usage of the diminutive -ico/ ica.

As the articles state the meaning of -ito/-ita in the DR is usually to denote smallness or cariño but it does not always as we evidence in daily speech. Diminutives are common in Dominican speech but I will even extend it and say in Latin America in general to the point where they are even added to adverbs like ahorita (not in Spain) with various meanings depending on the context and country.



Here are interesting articles from a Dominican newspaper that discuss the usage of diminutives in Dominican popular speech:

http://eldia.com.do/los-diminutivos-en-el-espanol-dominicano-i/

http://eldia.com.do/los-diminutivos-en-el-espanol-dominicano-ii/

http://eldia.com.do/los-diminutivos-en-el-espanol-dominicano-y-iii/


-MP.

 

[william webster]

Nitido, 

Gracias

 

[Me_again]

The higher the level of education the less of these speech patterns you will hear in the DR . . .

It all puts me in mind of a month I spent in Costa Rica in the year 2000. For my first week I went to the Pura Vida language school in Heredia. But I just did that in the mornings. The afternoons I spent in the Plaza de Armes talking to the old men, and in the bars talking to whoever. At the end of the one-week course (and before I set out to explore Costa Rica) I was presented with the certificate and with a special mention for my command of el idioma de calle.

Two interesting aspects of castellano costaricense were:

1. They did not use the familiar tu form (whereas most new-world idioms overuse it)

2. They did not conjugate the future tense (suited me fine to say "I am going to . . ." rather than fiddle with verb endings)

wbr

 

[Marianopolita]

The higher the level of education the less of these speech patterns you will hear in the DR . . .

It all puts me in mind of a month I spent in Costa Rica in the year 2000. For my first week I went to the Pura Vida language school in Heredia. But I just did that in the mornings. The afternoons I spent in the Plaza de Armes talking to the old men, and in the bars talking to whoever. At the end of the one-week course (and before I set out to explore Costa Rica) I was presented with the certificate and with a special mention for my command of el idioma de calle.

Two interesting aspects of castellano costaricense were:

1. They did not use the familiar tu form (whereas most new-world idioms overuse it)

2. They did not conjugate the future tense (suited me fine to say "I am going to . . ." rather than fiddle with verb endings)

wbr

The reason why the tú form of the verb was not used is because Costa Rica is voseo country. Was that not mentioned to you in the school you went to? To a certain extent foreigners (especially in Costa Rica) need to be aware of this form of address. It’s the informal ‘you’ just like tú but the verb forms differ in the present tense. Costa Ricans meaning entre ellos don’t use the tú form. Foreigners can because they are not expected to know voseo forms but one Costa Rican to another tú is not used.

Voseo usage is the absolute linguistic currency in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. However, in some areas you will hear a mix like in Montevideo. Speakers either use pure voseo usage meaning vos + a verb conjugated in the voseo form or tú + a voseo conjugated verb form. Then there are pockets of voseo usage in many other Latin American countries such as Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Bolivia just to name a few. The voseo usage did not make it to the Caribbean per se (and if it’s there now that would be of a more recent linguistic drift). If someone in the Spanish-speaking world speaks to you using forms like vos sos, vos decís etc. you can narrow down where the person is from via voseo usage and then the accent.

I can’t comment on the lack of the usage of the future tense since I have not had much exposure to Spanish spoken in Costa Rica. In general, I know Spanish in Costa Rica varies because of their history which definitely influenced the spoken language. The afro costarricense element is huge and adds to the diversity of their speech patterns. If you stayed in San José the vernacular is different from Limón for example which has a significant afro Caribbean presence thus influencing the speech patterns which is very similar to Panama. I have watched dialogue and listened to Costa Ricans talk about their history online in Spanish and it’s fascinating and consistent with what I have read.


-MP.

 

[Me_again]

The reason why the tú form of the verb was not used is because Costa Rica is voseo country . . .

Fascinating!

wbr

 

[NALs]

In Colombia (or maybe its just in the Medellin areas) they also voseo.

One of my exes was Nicaraguan and yep, more voseo.

I find it extremely annoying. lol

 

[NALs]

I can’t comment on the lack of the usage of the future tense since I have not had much exposure to Spanish spoken in Costa Rica. In general, I know Spanish in Costa Rica varies because of their history which definitely influenced the spoken language. The afro costarricense element is huge and adds to the diversity of their speech patterns. If you stayed in San José the vernacular is different from Limón for example which has a significant afro Caribbean presence thus influencing the speech patterns which is very similar to Panama. I have watched dialogue and listened to Costa Ricans talk about their history online in Spanish and it’s fascinating and consistent with what I have read.


-MP.

The 'Afro' presence in those countries is mostly Jamaican in origin, taken there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries mainly by the British and Americans as cheap work force for the banana and other types of plantations along the Caribbean coasts. They are the Cocolos of Central America, because the Americans were the one's that introduced in the DR the Afros from the English islands due to them speaking English, which made managing the labor force in the mostly American owned sugar plantations a little easier. The Spanish spoken in those areas could very well have more of an English influence, given the mother tongue of the people taken there by foreigners or non-Central Americans.

The Africans that were taken to Central America by the Spanish was mainly in the 1500's and, similar to what happened in Mexico which in the 16th century was one of the major centers of African population in this hemisphere, through the centuries they simply mixed with the local and growing mestizo population. Enough time has gone by that the African element from colonial times has simply melted into the populace, appearing with a facial feature here or there that most people tend to ignore as possibly of African origin and, of course, the DNA studies that show the African presence in the veins of the average Central American.

Had it not been for the British/American 'intervention' along the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras; and along Caribbean coast and the canal zone of Panama, those countries today wouldn't have a visible minority of people with clear African features.

But, I'm no linguist, just throwing darts at a board to see what sticks.

 

[Marianopolita]

The reason why the tú form of the verb was not used is because Costa Rica is voseo country . . .

Fascinating!

wbr

Costa Ricans have a lot pride when it comes to el uso de vos and there is a historical component. However, even with that factor not all Costa Ricans are on board with voseo usage. Depending on where in Costa Rica the person is from s/he may say for me it’s usted not tú or voseo but in general Costa Rica is voseo country. Also there are many articles that you can find online about the threat of more usage of tú in Costa Rican daily speech which many feel is a threat to their identity.

http://wvw.nacion.com/ancora/2007/noviembre/11/ancora1290646.html

http://revistadelenguayliteratura.c...al-en-relacion-con-las-formas-de-tratamiento/

This link gives a good breakdown of voseo usage by country

https://spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/25/vos-vs-tú-usage-by-country


http://pluralidadcultural.blogspot.ca/

In Colombia (or maybe its just in the Medellin areas) they also voseo.

One of my exes was Nicaraguan and yep, more voseo.

I find it extremely annoying. lol

In Colombia, absolutely there is voseo usage but pockets as I mentioned in my post #7. Depending on the region you may hear it and it is no threat to tú or usted. In Colombia, voseo usage in my opinion is just a remnant of speech brought to the Americas during colonization. I know and interact with many Colombians and I have only heard the usage from one person and she is from Popayán, Colombia which a small city outside of Cali. Therefore, to me it makes sense. I also think that I would hear voseo usage anywhere in el eje cafetero.

It does not bother me. Maybe because I am not hearing it all the time but I find because I read a lot I run into it in literature. You can't get away from it in literature if an author is a voseo speaker. I find it's easy to pick up (the standard voseo that is like what is spoken in Uruguay) but the command forms can be hard for a person learning Spanish because the stress patterns go against the standard rules of grammar.

The 'Afro' presence in those countries is mostly Jamaican in origin, taken there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries mainly by the British and Americans as cheap work force for the banana and other types of plantations along the Caribbean coasts. They are the Cocolos of Central America, because the Americans were the one's that introduced in the DR the Afros from the English islands due to them speaking English, which made managing the labor force in the mostly American owned sugar plantations a little easier. The Spanish spoken in those areas could very well have more of an English influence, given the mother tongue of the people taken there by foreigners or non-Central Americans.

The Africans that were taken to Central America by the Spanish was mainly in the 1500's and, similar to what happened in Mexico which in the 16th century was one of the major centers of African population in this hemisphere, through the centuries they simply mixed with the local and growing mestizo population. Enough time has gone by that the African element from colonial times has simply melted into the populace, appearing with a facial feature here or there that most people tend to ignore as possibly of African origin and, of course, the DNA studies that show the African presence in the veins of the average Central American.

Had it not been for the British/American 'intervention' along the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras; and along Caribbean coast and the canal zone of Panama, those countries today wouldn't have a visible minority of people with clear African features.

But, I'm no linguist, just throwing darts at a board to see what sticks.

Well of course. All that you posted about the afro presence in Costa Rica and Panama I know and I feel many others reading your post know as well from a historical perspective. From the complex to the subtlest of knowledge I think it’s obvious. If you know and interact with Costa Ricans and Panamanians you can get hands on information from them since many have family members that are part of the history. I talk about it all the time with Panamanians.



Back to Dominican Spanish what about the video (jerga de la calle) above and what other aspects of Spanish that are specific to the DR have you evidenced?


-MP.

 

[Dominicanese]

Here is another article that came up in my research published by Diario Libre in 2012. No matter how long ago it is the information is always valuable from a linguistic perspective. Look at the title of the article:

Ello hay mucha’ folma de hablai españor

I like this article in particular as it points out features of Dominican Spanish today that are archaisms that have not phased out of the Dominican vernacular. Language changes over time and all languages experience an evolution. There are many examples of this just by reading a novel that was written decades or even centuries ago. The language is clearly not the same. This holds true for English and Spanish.

The article mentions key examples of archaisms and speech patterns that are typical of the DR even today:

o Seseo- both’ ‘Z’ and ‘S’ are pronounced the same (this is common in the Latin America not just the DR)

o Intervocalic ‘D’- the article gives some key examples of the suprresed ‘d’ in Dominican speech (this also occurs in other regions of Latin America)

o Dropping of the ‘S’

o Concepts such as - carnavar instead of carnaval, hogal instead hogar and caminai instead of caminar (cibaeño)



Keep in mind many of these concepts have to do with el nivel de escolaridad. The higher the level of education the less of these speech patterns you will hear in the DR and it does range in my experience.

https://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/ello-hay-mucha-folma-de-hablai-espaor-LJDL328164



-MP.

awesome, makes me happy to know that 99% of our language is ours and not from any other of this continent, speaking in terms of new world of course anything 500 years ago and more is obviously from the other side

 

[Dominicanese]

in simple terms Dominican Spanish is of Andaluzian & Canarian Spanish origin with some influences from West-Central African languages and a lot of Native-Taino words for mostly environmental things and our food (mostly fruits).

yo se que aqui hay mucho hispano hablantes que leen esto, entonces se lo voy a poner claro;

el espanol dominicano tienes sus raices y origenes en los dialectos espanol de andaluzia y canarias, con algunas influencias de las lenguas africanas y muchas palabras usadas de los tainos.

in the cibao region where the "i" is pronounced for the "r" as an example "comer" would be "comei" or "tarde" would be "taide" for the cibaenos is believed to have come from the Portuguese influence of the heavy population of portuguese and galicians settlers in the cibao valley during the 16th century before the heavy canarian migration of the 17th & 18th centuries. In the 16th century it was mainly just Andaluzians & Gallegos. However some do believe that the "i" sounds in cibao spanish could be of taino influence but im too sure about that.

In the 17th century the French population of Saint Dominque (present day Haiti) was also slowly and rapidly populating the DR side, mainly the Cibao region such as santiago, so due to this the fear of French occupation of the entire island led to spain eventually to send thousands if not millions of Canarians to DR and the Spanish caribbean in order to repopulate the spanish caribbean islands and colonies, it was at this time that the famous canarian migration of DR happened and also influenced the dialect to how would become today. This Canary Islander migration was called "el tributo de sangre" The tribute of blood, for every package sent to the new world, 5 canarians had to come along. More than half of the Canarians that came, came with their families and established themselves in DR and founded hundreds of towns and villages that are well known today such as "dajabon, san carlos de tenerife, samana, etc... There was already a huge slave and freed Black/Mulatto population in the DR before the canarians came that spoke both Bozal Spanish (Spanish-African Creole/Pidgin language with portuguese influences) and Afro Andaluzian Spanish with heavy African accent, many very hispanized. This mix between the Bozal like dialect and Canarian Spanish would lead to today's Dominican Spanish as we know it, including the little other stuff left out.

 

[Dominicanese]

un buen ejemplo de nuestra forma de hablar seria estos videos

[video=youtube;ipV4Pqdoc5s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipV4Pqdoc5s[/video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D8-qBSGIxU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb4WHwMjA5k&t=140s

 

[Kipling333]

I am not sure that you are correct Dominicanese in your first simplification. The Dominican spanish is ,in my opinion, simply the result of lack of good teaching and the street slang that young people use changes every day as they make up a new word from songs on the wireless or TV .. I am now using que grasa and que beloco to describe bad and good things ..these have come from popular songs .

 

[Fulano2]

un buen ejemplo de nuestra forma de hablar seria estos videos

[video=youtube;ipV4Pqdoc5s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipV4Pqdoc5s[/video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D8-qBSGIxU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb4WHwMjA5k&t=140s

What's your point with these videos. That's what we hear daily..

 

[Dominicanese]

What's your point with these videos. That's what we hear daily..

but not the entire audience reading these forums loco

 

[Dominicanese]

I am not sure that you are correct Dominicanese in your first simplification. The Dominican spanish is ,in my opinion, simply the result of lack of good teaching and the street slang that young people use changes every day as they make up a new word from songs on the wireless or TV .. I am now using que grasa and que beloco to describe bad and good things ..these have come from popular songs .

im not talking about slang, if you read the second post, posted by another user, it was by a dominican linguist that according to him suggest that over 99% of Domincan Spanish and our so called slang is entirely ours

im very well traveled i have been to 35 countries (most of them in latin america) and i can tell you for a fact that in colombia the least educated person on the streets spoke a spanish much closer to the castillian or standard form than us (with education or not) there is a reason why ppl even though they may or may have not gone to school speak a certain way, you will first speak like your parents and then later on pick up from others but would stick mainly to how your parents speak but they too speak like how their parents spoke you see, all im saying is there is a reason why we speak the way we do, we have a very understudied dialect, as a matter of fact alot of things in DR have not been well studied but what we do know is that the base of Dominican Spanish just like all over the Spanish caribbean islands and coasts is of Andaluzian and Canarian Spanish, with some non-spanish languages influences obviously for us is the African

 

[Fulano2]

That's quite a long sentence...

 

[Dominicanese]

That's quite a long sentence...

pue claro si tengo que practicar mi ingle