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* Caribbean Spanish (, ) is the general name of the Spanish dialects spoken in the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
region. The Spanish language was introduced to the Caribbean in 1492 with the voyages of
Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...
. It resembles the Spanish spoken in the
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
, and, more distantly, the Spanish of western
Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...
. With more than 25 million speakers, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the Caribbean Islands. More precisely, the term in its strictest sense however refers to the
Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...
as it is spoken on the Caribbean island nations of
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
, the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
, and
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
. In a much looser sense, it can also include
Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
,
Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
and the Caribbean coasts of
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
and
Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
; and on the widest application of the phrase, it includes the Caribbean coastal regions of
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
,
Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...
,
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
, and
Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
.


Phonology

*
Seseo In Spanish dialectology, the realization of coronal fricatives is one of the most prominent features distinguishing various dialect regions. The main three realizations are the phonemic distinction between and ('), the presence of only alve ...
, where and merge to , as in the rest of the Americas, in the Canary Islands and in southern Spain. *
Yeísmo (; literally "Y-ism") is a distinctive feature of many dialects of the Spanish language, characterized by the loss of the traditional palatal lateral approximant phoneme (written ) and its merger into the phoneme (written ). It is an examp ...
, where and merge to , as in many other Spanish dialects. * is debuccalized to at the end of syllables, as is common in the southern half of Spain, the Canaries and much of Spanish America: ''los amigos'' ('the friends'), ''dos'' ('two'). It may also be elided entirely. Syllable-final is always or mostly pronounced in formal speech, like TV broadcasts. * Syllable-initial is also sporadically debuccalized in unstressed syllables, although this process is documented only in certain areas, such as parts of Puerto Rico: ''cinco centavos'' , ''la semana pasada'' . * As a reaction to the stigmatization of s-debuccalization and elision,
hypercorrection In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a ...
s are frequent. For example, speakers may say for '14 years'. These hypercorrections are called 'speaking finely', with an extra, hypercorrect 's'. * pronounced , as is common in Andalusia, the Canary Islands and various parts of South America. * Occasional
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...
of to mucho →, as in part of Andalusia or in Chile. * Word-final is realized as a
velar nasal The voiced velar nasal, also known as eng, engma, or agma (from Greek 'fragment'), is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ''ng'' in English ''sing'' as well as ''n'' before velar consonants as in ''E ...
(
velarization Velarization merican spelling/small> or velarisation ritish spelling/sup> is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. In the International Ph ...
). It can be elided, with backwards
nasalization In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation in British English) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is . ...
of the preceding vowel: →; as in part of Andalusia. * Deletion of intervocalic and word final , as in many Spanish dialects: ''cansado'' ('tired'), ''nada'' → ('nothing'), and ''perdido'' ('lost'), ''mitad'' → * Syllable final 'r' has a variety of realisations: *#
lambdacism A speech sound disorder (SSD) is a speech disorder affecting the ability to pronounce speech sounds, which includes speech articulation disorders and phonemic disorders, the latter referring to some sounds (phonemes) not being produced or used ...
→ porque → *# deletion of hablar → *# assimilation to following consonant, causing
gemination In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
. carne →, verde →. Most notable of Spanish spoken in and around
Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.vocalization of to hacer → in the
Cibao The Cibao, usually referred as El Cibao, is a region of the Dominican Republic located in the northern part of the country. As of 2009, the Cibao region has a population of 5,622,378, making it the most populous region in the country. The region ...
region of the Dominican Republic. *# aspiration → carne → * is
devoiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to ref ...
to [] in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico: cotorra → and realised as a uvular fricative , (uvularization) in rural Puerto Rican dialects * Several neutralization (linguistics), neutralizations also occur in the syllable coda. The liquids and may neutralize to (Cibaeño Dominican ''celda''/''cerda'' 'cell'/'bristle'), (''alma''/''arma'' 'soul'/'weapon', ''comer'' 'to eat'), or as complete regressive assimilation (''pulga''/''purga'' 'flea'/'purge'). The deletions and neutralizations (→→→) show variability in their occurrence, even with the same speaker in the same utterance, which implies that nondeleted forms exist in the underlying structure. That is not to say that these dialects are on the path to eliminating coda consonants since such processes have existed for more than four centuries in these dialects. argues that it is the result of speakers acquiring multiple phonological systems with uneven control, like that of second language learners. * In Caribbean Spanish, there are geminated consonants when and in syllabic coda are assimilated to the following consonant. Examples of Cuban Spanish:


Morphology

* As in all American variants of Spanish the third person plural pronoun has supplanted the pronoun . * is now completely absent from insular Caribbean Spanish. Contemporary commentators such as the Cuban Esteban Pichardo speak of its survival as late as the 1830s (see López Morales 1970:136‑142) but by the 1870s it appears to have become confined to a small number of speakers from the lowest social strata. In addition to most of Central America, is used in the northwest of Venezuela (states of
Falcón Falcón State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is Coro, Venezuela, Coro. The state was named after Juan Crisóstomo Falcón. History Early history Present day Falcón State was first explored ...
and
Zulia Zulia State (, ; Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Venezuela's states. It is also one of t ...
), in the north of the Colombian department of
Cesar Cesar or César may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''César'' (film), a 1936 French romantic drama * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt Places * Cesar, Portugal * Cesar Department, Colombia * Cesar River, in Colombia * Cesar ...
, in the south of
La Guajira La Guajira () is a departments of Colombia, department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The ca ...
department on Colombia's Atlantic coast, and in the Azuero Peninsula in Panama. * The diminutive (ito, ita) takes the form (ico, ica) after : , . BUT . * Possibly as a result of the routine elision of word-final , some speakers may use as a plural marker, but generally this tendency is limited to words with singular forms that end in a stressed vowel: 'coffee' → 'coffees', 'sofa' → 'sofas'.


Vocabulary

* The second-person subject pronouns, ''tú'' (or '' vos'' in Central America) and ''usted'', are used more frequently than in other varieties of Spanish, contrary to the general Spanish tendency to omit them when meaning is clear from the context (see
pro-drop language A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping") is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they can be pragmatically or grammatically inferable. The precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite ...
). Thus, ''tú estás hablando'' instead of ''estás hablando''. The tendency is strongest in the island countries and, on the mainland, in Nicaragua, where
voseo In Spanish grammar, () is the use of as a grammatical person, second-person grammatical number, singular pronoun, along with its associated verbal forms, in certain regions where the language is spoken. In those regions it replaces , i.e. th ...
(rather than the use of ''tú'' for the second person singular familiar) is predominant. * So-called "''wh''-questions", which in standard Spanish are marked by subject/verb inversion, often appear without the inversion in Caribbean Spanish: "¿Qué tú quieres?" for standard "¿Qué quieres (tú)?" ("What do you want?").


See also

*
Andalusian Spanish The Andalusian dialects of Spanish (, , ) are spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla, and Gibraltar. They include perhaps the most distinct of the southern variants of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern varieties in a number ...
* Belizean Spanish *
Canarian Spanish Canarian Spanish or Canary Island Spanish (Spanish terms in descending order of frequency: , , , or ) is a variant of standard Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands by the Canary Islanders. Canarian Spanish heavily influenced the development of ...
*
Colombian Spanish Colombian Spanish () is a grouping of the varieties of Spanish spoken in Colombia. The term is of more geographical than linguistic relevance, since the dialects spoken in the various regions of Colombia are quite diverse. The speech of the nor ...
* Costa Rican Spanish *
Cuban Spanish Cuban Spanish is the variety of the Spanish language as it is spoken in Cuba. As a Caribbean variety of Spanish, Cuban Spanish shares a number of features with nearby varieties, including coda weakening and neutralization, non-inversion ...
*
Dominican Spanish Dominican Spanish () is Spanish as spoken in the Dominican Republic; and also among the Dominican diaspora, most of whom live in the United States, chiefly in New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, a ...
*
Guatemalan Spanish Guatemalan Spanish () is the national variant of Spanish spoken in the Central American country of Guatemala. While 93% of Guatemalans in total speak Spanish, it is the native language of only 69% of the population due to the prevalence of langu ...
*
Honduran Spanish Honduran Spanish is the Spanish language as spoken in the country of Honduras in Central America. '' Voseo'' is routinely used in Honduras. Phonology * Honduran Spanish, as a Central American variety, pronounces the fricative , written with o ...
*
Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish () is the variety of dialects and sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexico and its bordering regions. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, more than double any other country in the world. Spanish is spo ...
*
Nicaraguan Spanish Nicaraguan Spanish () is geographically defined as the form of Spanish spoken in Nicaragua. Affectionately, Nicaraguan Spanish is often called ''Nicañol.'' The Spanish dialect in Nicaragua is heavily influenced by Nahuatl and Nawat in its vocab ...
*
Panamanian Spanish Panamanian Spanish is the Spanish language as spoken in the country of Panama. Despite Panama's location in Central America, Panamanian Spanish is considered a Caribbean variety. The variations among different speaker groups of the same langua ...
*
Puerto Rican Spanish Puerto Rican Spanish is the variety of the Spanish language as characteristically spoken in Puerto Rico and by millions of people of Puerto Rican descent living in the United States and elsewhere. It belongs to the group of Caribbean Spanish ...
* Trinidadian Spanish *
Venezuelan Spanish Venezuelan Spanish ( or ) refers to the Spanish spoken in Venezuela. Spanish was introduced in Venezuela by colonists. Most of them were from Galicia, Basque Country, Andalusia, or the Canary Islands. The last has been the most fundamental in ...
**
Maracucho Spanish Maracucho Spanish (also called maracaibero, marabino or zuliano) is a variety of Spanish generally spoken in Zulia in the northwest of Venezuela and in the west of Falcón ( Mauroa Municipality). Unlike other varieties from Caracas, Venezuela ...
*
Languages of the Caribbean The languages of the Caribbean reflect the region's diverse history and culture. There are six official languages spoken in the Caribbean: :*Spanish language, Spanish (official language of Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Puerto Rico, Bay Islan ...
*
Isleño Spanish Isleño Spanish (Spanish language, Spanish: , ) is a dialect of Canarian Spanish spoken by the descendants of immigrant Canary Islanders who settled in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, United States, during the late 1 ...


References


Bibliography

* 25, 465-497. * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * {{Spanish variants by continent
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
Spanish dialects of North America Spanish-Caribbean culture Spanish West Indies