Video- The Spiciest Accent- Caribbean Spanish

[Marianopolita]

This is a current video on Caribbean Spanish. Research was done, knowledge is evident.

People who hear Caribbean Spanish for the first time or in general do (did) not have a lot exposure to it are in shock and ask questions or say things like- ‘why do people speak so fast?’, ‘I can’t understand them‘, ‘I am used to Spanish from other countries‘, ‘It’s not real Spanish‘ these are some examples of what I have heard from native, bilingual, non fluent people alike. I don’t agree with all of them but it makes for good conversation.

I like the video because it has a mix of examples of features of Caribbean Spanish- the grammar- that is key in my opinion, features such as the pronunciation of words, changes of letters (R to L, L to R), certain phrases and expressions typical of the Caribbean (and the Caribbean basin).

It’s worth looking at this video and it has English subtitles. However, in the examples about typical phrases, I think it should be ‘un chin’ for DR and not ‘un chi’ like what is stated🤔maybe that is what it sounds like to the person who did the video.

Remember when you first heard Spanish and then from the DR, Cuba, Puerto Rico….and other regions of the Caribbean? What did you notice? What did you like or dislike?

 

[Lucifer]

I wish she had spoken a bit faster. I wonder if she was deliberately über-slow.

A few corrections are warranted, at least from my Dominican perspective.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

I wish she had spoken a bit faster. I wonder if she was deliberately über-slow.

A few corrections are warranted, at least from my Dominican perspective.

I thought you were Puerto Rican

 

[AlterEgo]

I thought you were Puerto Rican

???? I think he’s mentioned several times he’s originally from Higuey. Of course, he’s had as many IDs as you so maybe that confused you. 😂

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

???? I think he’s mentioned several times he’s originally from Higuey. Of course, he’s had as many IDs as you so maybe that confused you. 😂

Ouch! I think you're right I must have been confused. Someone is PR or Cuban here though

 

[AlterEgo]

Ouch! I think you're right I must have been confused. Someone is PR or Cuban here though

Porkman was Cuban.

 

[Marianopolita]

I wish she had spoken a bit faster. I wonder if she was deliberately über-slow.

A few corrections are warranted, at least from my Dominican perspective.

Yes, she is speaking very slowly and I think it’s to ensure her audience understands. Many non-Spanish speakers will listen to the video and if she speaks fast they will miss a lot even though there are English subtitles.

I think she generalized too much about the R to L change. Yes, it’s common among Puerto Ricans because a large porcentaje of them speak that way whereas in DR and Cuba it is a regional speech pattern.

I always listen to baseball players in the MLB when they speak when interviewed. In a two-minute clip, the linguistic history is told. At least for me. I can tell who is from a small town vs. the capital, some education vs nothing beyond high school, then regional Spanish accents in the Caribbean.

What are your Dominican observations?

 

[Marianopolita]

Unfortunately, many Spanish speakers young and old do not write Spanish well. They have no clue about the grammar of the language.

That is the scary part. When I read posts or comments on Instagram and YouTube all the linguistic patterns mentioned in the video show up.

Not only the R to L change when people speak and write but one I noticed is S to R and it’s not a typo. Some people say me guRta instead of me gusta….some Cubans.

 

[Lucifer]

I thought you were Puerto Rican

Born and raised in la tierra santa de Salvaleón de Higüey, but Puerto Rico me encanta.

 

[Lucifer]

???? I think he’s mentioned several times he’s originally from Higuey. Of course, he’s had as many IDs as you so maybe that confused you. 😂

Correct.
However, I've been using my current ID since 2012, years before El hijo de Manolo came on the scene.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

Correct.
However, I've been using my current ID since 2012, years before El hijo de Manolo came on the scene.

No dispute there on the time difference. I do have a long way to go before I can apply for Medicare B.

 

[Lucifer]

Yes, she is speaking very slowly and I think it’s to ensure her audience understands. Many non-Spanish speakers will listen to the video and if she speaks fast they will miss a lot even though there are English subtitles.

I think she generalized too much about the R to L change. Yes, it’s common among Puerto Ricans because a large porcentaje of them speak that way whereas in DR and Cuba it is a regional speech pattern.

I always listen to baseball players in the MLB when they speak when interviewed. In a two-minute clip, the linguistic history is told. At least for me. I can tell who is from a small town vs. the capital, some education vs nothing beyond high school, then regional Spanish accents in the Caribbean.

What are your Dominican observations?

Firstly, on the "chi" word that she pointed out: It's actually chin, or even un chinchín, or as yours truly, the Hyphenator, calls it, un chin-chin, which means a little bit, just a tad extra.
Secondly, andariego is a person who is always andando, no se para, as she correctly pointed out, but it doesn't mean a person who goes de can en can, or de fiesta en fiesta.

As language evolves, Dominicans are more apt to refer to a drinking/partying get-together as a teteo, rather than a can.
Some would even call it a coro and, if in the company of just a few friends, a corito sano.

A few years from now, the new generation would never even consider the word can as it was once intended: an actual get-together to imbibe and engage in possibly other activities.

CONSIDER:

Many Dominicans today are unaware that jeva/jevo and its diminutive variations, as well as chévere and pana, were not part of everyday speech.
In fact, no one used those words; they arrived on our shores curtesy of travelers from P.R. and NYC, mainly Dominicans who have lived there. Today, many Dominicans would swear up and down we invented those terms.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

Firstly, on the "chi" word that she pointed out: It's actually chin, or even un chinchín, or as yours truly, the Hyphenator, calls it, un chin-chin, which means a little bit, just a tad extra.
Secondly, andariego is a person who is always andando, no se para, as she correctly pointed out, but it doesn't mean a person who goes de can en can, or de fiesta en fiesta.

As language evolves, Dominicans are more apt to refer to a drinking/partying get-together as a teteo, rather than a can.
Some would even call it a coro and, if in the company of just a few friends, a corito sano.

A few years from now, the new generation would never even consider the word can as it was once intended: an actual get-together to imbibe and engage in possibly other activities.

CONSIDER:

Many Dominicans today are unaware that jeva/jevo and its diminutive variations, as well as chévere and pana, were not part of everyday speech.
In fact, no one used those words; they arrived on our shores curtesy of travelers from P.R. and NYC, mainly Dominicans who have lived there. Today, many Dominicans would swear up and down we invented those terms.

Far from impressive. You got anything more interesting? Eh vale? 🤣

 

[Marianopolita]

Far from impressive. You got anything more interesting? Eh vale? 🤣

I notice you do this in many discussion threads. You don’t really contribute but your posts trigger the discussion to go off topic.

Feel free to contribute to the topic at hand….otherwise allow posters who want to post to do so.


Gracias mi pana.

-MP.

 

[Marianopolita]

Firstly, on the "chi" word that she pointed out: It's actually chin, or even un chinchín, or as yours truly, the Hyphenator, calls it, un chin-chin, which means a little bit, just a tad extra.
Secondly, andariego is a person who is always andando, no se para, as she correctly pointed out, but it doesn't mean a person who goes de can en can, or de fiesta en fiesta.

As language evolves, Dominicans are more apt to refer to a drinking/partying get-together as a teteo, rather than a can.
Some would even call it a coro and, if in the company of just a few friends, a corito sano.

A few years from now, the new generation would never even consider the word can as it was once intended: an actual get-together to imbibe and engage in possibly other activities.

CONSIDER:

Many Dominicans today are unaware that jeva/jevo and its diminutive variations, as well as chévere and pana, were not part of everyday speech.
In fact, no one used those words; they arrived on our shores curtesy of travelers from P.R. and NYC, mainly Dominicans who have lived there. Today, many Dominicans would swear up and down we invented those terms.

In my first post, I pointed out her usage of chi being wrong and it’s huge in a video where she is giving examples of typical phrases of the three Caribbean Spanish-speaking islands. She should have had un chin correct.

I also think un can for fiesta is old now that you mentioned it. If I recall correctly, it was used a lot in the 90’s and after year 2000 but it seems to have faded out. Although I still hear it a lot in songs that would be considered old now. For example, merengue going back two or three decades. I still listen to those songs because it’s practically a non-existent genre or certainly not listened to by the newer generations. I also associate the word more with Puerto Ricans. I could be wrong though.

You’re right words and even expressions evolve in language but they remain in usage once they are used even by a small speech population. In the Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries, all claim chevére as their word but I find Venezuelans use it the most then Cubans. That is their first answer for everything.

Teteo, I know and have heard it but it is also one of many current Dominican slang words. Honestly, in any language it is hard to keep up with slang and I really don’t bother. I learn as I go along and it depends on your friends, your social circle, if everyone around you speaks that way etc. Don’t confuse slang with colloquial (regional) words that is totally different.

As I mentioned in my first post, what I found interesting about the video are the grammar nuances that were pointed out and even more interesting is although all are under the umbrella term Caribbean Spanish, Panama, coastal Colombia and coastal Venezuelan Spanish do not sound like the Antilles accent wise and no R to L change is heard at all in Panama, Colombia or Venezuela. That has to do with linguistic history and from where in the Canary Islands the colonizers originated.

If a speaker from day one learned ¿qué tú dice(s)? it’s very hard for that person to use or even notice that in standard Spanish it’s ¿qué dices tú?

 

[chico bill]

If you travel to Colombia or even Mexico you will understand much more of the spoken Spanish.
Many people here in DR not only speak too fast they do it by truncating words.
And many people speak as if they gargled razor blades instead of mouthwash in the morning.

 

[Unit5]

Firstly, on the "chi" word that she pointed out: It's actually chin, or even un chinchín, or as yours truly, the Hyphenator, calls it, un chin-chin, which means a little bit, just a tad extra.
Secondly, andariego is a person who is always andando, no se para, as she correctly pointed out, but it doesn't mean a person who goes de can en can, or de fiesta en fiesta.

As language evolves, Dominicans are more apt to refer to a drinking/partying get-together as a teteo, rather than a can.
Some would even call it a coro and, if in the company of just a few friends, a corito sano.

A few years from now, the new generation would never even consider the word can as it was once intended: an actual get-together to imbibe and engage in possibly other activities.

CONSIDER:

Many Dominicans today are unaware that jeva/jevo and its diminutive variations, as well as chévere and pana, were not part of everyday speech.
In fact, no one used those words; they arrived on our shores curtesy of travelers from P.R. and NYC, mainly Dominicans who have lived there. Today, many Dominicans would swear up and down we invented those terms.

When I write to my DR girlfriend to express the word "cool"; google gave me chevere. Is this what the locals use? My GF seemed to understand what I said without further comment...

 

[Lucifer]

When I write to my DR girlfriend to express the word "cool"; google gave me chevere. Is this what the locals use? My GF seemed to understand what I said without further comment...

Yes, sir.
Chévere is recognized by la RAE, and used by everyone, but Dominicans have written about it claiming its creation. It actually became part of the Dominican common parlance in the 1970s, but its usage in other shores dates back to decades before.

 

[Marianopolita]

When I write to my DR girlfriend to express the word "cool"; google gave me chevere. Is this what the locals use? My GF seemed to understand what I said without further comment...

Your GF will understand you because chévere is used in most of Latin America and especially the Caribbean but not used in the Southern Cone region for example, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile. If they know that word it’s from interacting with other Spanish speakers.

Other common slang words for ‘cool’ in Spanish:

Chido- Mexico

Padre- Mexico- es muy padre/ padrísimo. I think I am watching too much Univisión

Chimba- Colombia…. especially in the interior. In Medellín. Algo muy chimba es algo muy ‘cool’.

 

[Marianopolita]

Yes, sir.
Chévere is recognized by la RAE, and used by everyone, but Dominicans have written about it claiming its creation. It actually became part of the Dominican common parlance in the 1970s, but its usage in other shores dates back to decades before.

Correct….and yes, it’s recognized by the RAE.