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 of Wh-questions, and a lower rate of dropping of subject pronouns compared to other Spanish varieties. As a variety spoken in Latin America, it has seseo and lacks the pronoun.

Origins

Cuban Spanish is most similar to, and originates largely from, the Spanish that is spoken in the Canary Islands and Andalusia. Cuba owes much of its speech patterns to the heavy Canarian migrations of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The accent of La Palma is the closest of the Canary Island accents to the Cuban accent. Many Cubans and returning Canarians settled in the Canary Islands after the revolution of 1959. Migration of other Spanish settlers (Asturians, Catalans, Castilians), and especially Galicians also occurred, but left less influence on the accent.

Much of the typical Cuban vocabulary stems from Canarian lexicon. For example, ''guagua'' ('bus') differs from standard Spanish ''autobús''. An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verb ''fajarse'' ('to fight'). In Spain, the verb would be ''pelearse'', and ''fajar'' exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of a skirt.

Much of the vocabulary that is peculiar to Cuban Spanish comes from the different historic influences on the island. Many words come from the Canary Islands, but some words are of West African, French, or indigenous Taino origin, as well as peninsular Spanish influence from outside the Canary Islands, such as Andalusian or Galician.

The West African influence is due to the large Afro-Cuban population, most of whom are descended from African slaves imported in the 19th century.
Some Cuban words of African origin include 'wonderful', 'friend', and 'Yoruba deity'. In addition, different Afro-Cuban religions and secret societies also different African languages in their practices and liturgies.

Many Afro-Cubans in the 19th century also spoke Bozal Spanish, derived from the term , which originally referred to muzzles for wild dogs and horses, and came to be used to refer to enslaved Africans who spoke little Spanish. Some elements of Bozal Spanish can still be found in the speech of elderly Afro-Cubans in remote rural areas, in Palo Mayombe chants, and in trance states during possession rituals in Santería.

Due to historical commercial ties between the US and Cuba, American English has lent several words, including some for clothing, such as ''pulóver'' ic(which is used to mean "T-shirt") and ''chor'' ("shorts", with the typical Spanish change from English ''sh'' to ''ch'', like mentioned above, may be pronounced [], the pronunciation of English "sh"). Anglicisms related to baseball, such as ''strike'' and ''foul'' are frequently employed, with Spanish pronunciation.

Phonology

Characteristic of Cuban Spanish is the weak pronunciation of consonants, especially at the end of a syllable. Syllable-final weakens to or disappears entirely; word-final becomes ; syllable-final may become or , or even become entirely silent. Final more frequently becomes in the eastern and central regions of Cuba. Postvocalic tends to disappear entirely. All of these characteristics occur to one degree or another in other Caribbean varieties, as well as in many dialects in Andalusia (in southern Spain)—the place of historical origin of these characteristics.

One of the most prominent features of Cuban Spanish is the debuccalization of in syllable coda i.e. becomes ( before voiced consonants) or disappears. This trait is shared with most American varieties of Spanish spoken in coastal and low areas (''Lowland Spanish''), as well as with Canarian Spanish and the Spanish spoken in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

Take for example, the following sentence:

: (Eso' perro' no tienen dueño')
:
:('Those dogs do not have owners')

Also, because may also be deleted in the syllable coda and because this feature has variable realizations, any or all instances of in the above example may be dropped, potentially rendering . Other examples: ''disfrutar'' ("to enjoy") is pronounced , and ''fresco'' ("fresh") becomes . In Havana, ''después'' ("after ard) is typically pronounced (de'pué'/despué').

Another instance of consonant weakening ("lenition") in Cuban Spanish (as in many other dialects) is the deletion of intervocalic in the participle ending ''-ado'' (-ao/-a'o), as in ''cansado'' (cansao/cansa'o) "tired"). More typical of Cuba and the Caribbean is the elision of final in some verb infinitives, or merger with ; e.g. ''parar'', 'to stop', can be realized as or ().

The voiceless velar fricative (spelled as before or and ) is usually aspirated or pronounced [], common in Andalusian and Canarian dialects and most Latin American dialects.

In some areas of Cuba, the voiceless affricate [] (spelled as ''ch'') is deaffrication, deaffricated to [].

The Spanish of the eastern provinces (the five provinces comprising what was formerly Oriente Province) is closer to that of the Dominican Republic than to the Spanish spoken in the western part of the island.

In western Cuba and in a syllable coda can be merged with each other and assimilated to the following consonant, resulting in geminates. At the same time, the non-assimilated and unmerged pronunciations are more common. Example pronunciations, according to the analysis of which transcribes the merged, underlying phoneme as :

Morphology and syntax

Cuban Spanish typically uses the diminutive endings ''-ico'' and ''-ica'' (instead of the standard ''-ito'' and ''-ita'') with stems that end in . For example, ''plato'' ("plate") > ''platico'' (instead of ''platito''), and ''momentico'' instead of ''momentito''; but ''cara'' ("face") becomes ''carita''. This form is common to the Venezuelan, Cuban, Costa Rican, Dominican, and Colombian dialects.

The suffix ''-ero'' is often used with a place name to refer to a person from that place; thus ''habanero'', ''guantanamera'', etc. A person from Santiago de Cuba is ''santiaguero'' (compare ''santiagués'' "from Santiago de Compostela ( Galicia, Spain)", ''santiaguino'' "from Santiago de Chile").

''Wh''-questions, when the subject is a pronoun, are usually not inverted. Where speakers of most other varieties of Spanish would ask "¿Qué quieres?" or "¿Qué quieres tú?", Cuban speakers would more often ask "¿Qué tú quieres?" (This form is also characteristic of Dominican, Isleño, and Puerto Rican Spanish.)

Cuban Spanish also frequently uses expressions with personal infinitives, a combined preposition, noun or pronoun, and verbal infinitive where speakers in other dialects would typically use a conjugated subjunctive form. For example, , instead of 'that happened before I arrived here'. This type of construction is found elsewhere in the Caribbean and occurs in all speech styles.

Cuban Spanish uses the familiar second-person pronoun in many contexts where other varieties of Spanish would use the formal .
While Cuban Spanish has always preferred to , the use of has become increasingly rare after the Revolution.
Voseo is practically non-existent in Cuba. It was historically present in the countryside of eastern Cuba. Pedro Henríquez Ureña alleged that it often used the object and possessive pronouns and instead of and . Its present-tense conjugations ending in , , and , and future-tense conjugations in .

In keeping with the socialist polity of the country, the term ("comrade" or "friend") is often used instead of the traditional ''señor/señora''. However, states that the term has failed to enter the popular language, and is rejected by many Cubans opposed to the current regime, citing a misunderstanding with a Cuban who refused to be addressed as .

Manners

To speak to the elderly or to strangers, Cubans sometimes speak more formally as a sign of respect. They shake hands both on greeting and on leaving someone. Men often exchange friendly hugs (''abrazos''), and both men and women often greet friends and family with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

However Cubans tend to speak affectionately, such as by addressing a stranger with ''mi corazón'' ("my heart"), ''mi vida'' ("my life"), or ''cariño'' ("dear", "darling") are common. ''Mi amor'' ("my love") is used, even between strangers, when at least one of them is a woman (for example, in being served in a shop). Cubans are less likely to use the formal second-person singular pronoun ''usted'' to speak to a stranger, elder or superior. ''Tú'' is considered acceptable in all but very formal situations; regular use of the ''usted'' form for people one is familiar with can be seen by some Cubans as an affectation or a mark of coldness.

See also

* Spanish dialects and varieties

References

Bibliography

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External links

Learn Cuban Spanish

Cuban Spanish 101

Cuban Spanish Guide

Learn Spanish and Cuban Slang

{{Cuba topics

Caribbean Spanish
Cuban culture
Spanish
Languages of Cuba
Spanish-Cuban culture