Kyle, you revived the thread with a provocative question and then you disappear. I wanted to speak some 'ghetto Spanish' with you. Regresa por favor.....
I also wanted to add some more points regarding the uneducated vs. educated aspect of language because people often refer to language and speech this way but without explaining what they mean.
There is a difference between uneducated speech (in Spanish in this case) and ghetto Spanish in my opinion. The concepts are not the same. Uneducated speech has all the earmarks of people who did not complete their education, had a poor education or did not go to school at all. As a result, they have no idea how the phonetics of the language work and normally have spelling errors when writing and write the way they speak. Coupled with social linguistics issues relating to language, it's a formula for a poor command of their native language.
I think ghetto Spanish has two facets. Some people choose to speak this way in certain scenarios and there are various reasons behind this type of speech- a group of people identify with each other, it could be particular to a nationality but not all speakers of the language speak that way and education (but they are aware of their own improper speech). This speech could also be particular to a group of people due to various social factors out of their control. However, if you move them out of a region and into another with a different group of speakers of the same language and proper speech is predominate in conjunction with education their speech could change over time.
I find it strange when foreigners claim they speak their own language well but when they choose to learn Spanish (just using the language in question as an example) have no regard for the differences in the level of language. They find it okay or possibly are not even aware of the poor quality of their Spanish and seem surprised or upset when people point it out to them. There is a big difference between a person that is learning and makes expected grammatical errors etc because it's a difficult aspect to grasp and control in Spanish versus someone who speaks ghetto or street Spanish and thinks they fit in with other Spanish speakers.
If a person is learning a language the advantage is s/he has a chance to learn it correctly and as mentioned in my post above you will learn the other aspects of the language relating to speech just by being around a diverse group of speakers but by choice. The colloquial or 'ghetto speech' should not be the only way one speaks Spanish. Otherwise the person ends up speaking
espa?ol de la calle and never gets a chance to really learn and understand the formal language at all. It's easier to go from proper Spanish to
espa?ol de la calle and ghetto speech than the other way around.
Those bad speech habits are absolutely difficult to break (even for those speakers who want to improve their speech).
I was reading some info about upcoming Latin events in Toronto and Montreal and what I always find interesting in newspapers and these types of websites is to read the comments by people who post their thoughts about the article, event, or discussion etc. In my opinion, the example below is one that reveals uneducated Spanish and this young person happens to be Dominican. Therefore, all the more appropriate for this thread:
hola soy un artista dominicano vine a canada hace unos meses quiero reasel mi carrera aqui en toronto si ustedes conosen a argien que aga eventos o sea maneger mandemen un mail a .....
Conciertos, Fiestas, Festivales, Conferencias, Exposiciones, y otros Eventos latinos en Toronto
Not only is this uneducated speech but from a sociolinguistic point of view there's a lot that was revealed about the speaker. Even without saying he is Dominican his speech gave him away (and keep in mind I can't hear him so this has nothing to do with his accent)
Good examples of colloquial speech are in post #10 by colombianLisa. It includes local expressions and speech patterns. Both make up what is considered colloquial speech i.e.dropping the /s/, and using short forms like pa' que (instead of para que) and t? ta etc... (how I enjoyed her posts on lanaguge although she did not stick around for long....que regrese....)
Examples of ghetto Spanish.....maybe Kyle will provide some examples here but in the meantime take any popular regguet?n artist's lyrics (except Daddy Yankee) and that should give you a good idea of some 'ghetto Spanish'. For example lyrics from Tito "El Bambino".
-MP.