![Dialectos español de Perú](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Dialectos_espa%C3%B1ol_de_Per%C3%BA.png)
Peruvian Spanish is a family of dialects of the
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
that have been spoken in Peru since brought over by Spanish
conquistadors
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
in 1492. There are four varieties spoken in the country, by about 94.4% of the population. The four Peruvian dialects are
Andean Spanish
Andean Spanish is a dialect of Spanish spoken in the central Andes, from southern Colombia, with influence as far south as northern Chile and Northwestern Argentina, passing through Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. It is influenced principally by ...
,
Peruvian Coastal Spanish
Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There were Andean and coastal ancient civilizations like Caral, which inhabited what is now Peruvian territory for several millennia before the Spanish conquest of Peru, Spanish conquest in th ...
,
Andean-Coastal Spanish, and
Amazonic Spanish
Amazonic Spanish (''español amazónico''), also known as Charapa Spanish, Loreto-Ucayali Spanish or Jungle Spanish (''español de la selva''), is a variety of Spanish spoken in the Amazon, especially in Ecuador, parts of Colombia, Southern Vene ...
.
History
The Spanish language first arrived in
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
in 1532. During colonial and early republican times, the Spanish spoken colloquially in the coast and in the cities of the highland possessed strong local features, but as a result of dialect leveling in favor of the standard language, the language of urban Peruvians today is more or less uniform in pronunciation throughout most of the country. Vestiges of the older dialect of the coast can be found in the speech of
black Peruvians
Black Peruvians or Afro-Peruvians are Peruvian of mostly or partially African descent. They mostly descend from enslaved Africans brought to Peru after the arrival of the conquistadors.
Early history
The first Africans arrived with the conque ...
, which retains Andalusian features such as the aspiration or deletion of final /s/ and the deletion of final /r/. The dialect of Arequipa,
Loncco
Loncco was the name given to the peasants who lived in the rural area surrounding the city of Arequipa, Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = ...
, in its pure form is now extinct, although some elders are familiar with it.
Throughout most of the highland,
Quechua
Quechua may refer to:
*Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru
*Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language
**So ...
continued to be the language of the majority until the mid 20th century. Mass migration (rural exodus) into Lima starting in the 1940s, and into other major cities and regional capitals later on, accompanied by discrimination and the growth of mass media, have reconfigured the linguistic demography of the country in favor of Spanish. The poor urban masses originating in this migration adopted the standardized dialect spoken in the cities, however with traces of Andean pronunciation and a simplified syntax.
Peruvian dialects
Andean Spanish
Andean Spanish the most common dialect in the Andes (more marked in rural areas) and has many similarities with the "standard" dialect of
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
and
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
.
Characteristics
Phonology
The phonology of Andean Peruvian Spanish is distinguished by its slow time and unique rhythm (
grave accent
The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and many other western European languages, as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other languages using t ...
),
assibilation
In linguistics, assibilation is a sound change resulting in a sibilant consonant. It is a form of spirantization and is commonly the final phase of palatalization.
Arabic
A characteristic of Mashreqi varieties of Arabic (particularly Lev ...
of and , and an apparent confusion of the vowels with and with . (In reality, they are producing a sound between /e/ and /i/, and between /o/ and /u/.) Furthermore, the "s" (originally apical and without aspiration) is produced with more force than that of the coast; this is also generally true of the other consonants, at the loss of the vowels. Other distinctive features are the preservation of , sometimes hypercorrective realization of as , and the realization of velar plosives as a fricative .
The
morphosyntactic
In linguistics, morphology () is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language. It analyzes the structure of words and parts of words such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Morph ...
characteristics are typical:
*Confusion or unification of gender and number
:''A ellas lo recibí bien.''. ''La revista es caro.''
*Confusion or unification of gender and number
:''esa es su trenza del carlos.''
*Frequent use of the diminutives –ito and –ita
:''Vente aquicito.''. ''Sí, señorita, ahí están sus hijos.''
*
Loísmo
''Loísmo'', with its feminine counterpart ''laísmo'', is a feature of certain dialects of Spanish consisting of the use of the pronouns ', ', ', and ' (which are normally used for direct objects) in place of the pronouns ''le'' and ''les'' (which ...
:''Lo echan la agua''. ''Lo pintan la casa''
*Duplication of the possessives and objects
:''Su casa de Pepe.. Lo conozco a ella.''
*The absence or redundant use of articles
:''Plaza de Armas es acá. La María está loca.''
*Uncommon use of the preposition "en" in front of
locative adverb
A locative adverb is a type of adverb that refers to a location or to a combination of a location and a relation to that location. Generally, a locative adverb is semantically equivalent to a prepositional phrase involving a locative or directiona ...
s
:''Todo caerá en su encima''
* The use of "no más" and "pues" after the verb
:''Dile nomás pues.''
* The use of the verb at the end of the phrase
:''Está enojada dice.''
*The use of the simple tense to express the preterite and of the indicative in place of the subjunctive in subordinates.
Peruvian Coastal Spanish
Coastal Spanish is spoken throughout the coast. It has the reputation (in pronunciation) of being one of the "purest" dialects in all of coastal Latin America because it does not
debuccalize between vowels and retains the fricatives and . It is the characteristic dialect as perceived abroad and has the reputation of being the base of "normal" or
standard Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object th ...
Peruvian Spanish.
Characteristics
Phonology
*The vowels are stable and clear.
* and are pronounced clearly, without any fricativization.
* is more often laminal than apical, and debuccalized to in front of most consonants (though it is before ). It is retained as in final position (as opposed to in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
or
Andalucia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...
).
* varies between , , and (preceded by
and
; it is sometimes .
*Word-final nasals are
velar
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...
(not alveolar like in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
or central Spain).
*The final is normally
elided
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
, but sometimes devoiced as in formal speech.
*
Yeísmo
''Yeísmo'' (; literally "Y-ism") is a distinctive feature of certain dialects of the Spanish language, characterized by the loss of the traditional palatal lateral approximant phoneme (written ) and its merger into the phoneme (written ), u ...
exists, the phoneme occurring as , and as palato-alveolar in initial position by some speakers.
* The tendency to eliminate
hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:
*Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure
* Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy
*''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes''
* Gl ...
in word with an ''-ear'' suffix.
General Spanish phrases from the Americas are common but there are also phrases that originate in the Lima coastal area, such as frequent traditional terms and expressions; the most ingrained
"quechuaism" in common speech is the familiar ''calato'', meaning "naked".
Syntax
Andean-Coastal Spanish
Originated in the last 30 to 50 years with a mixture of the speech of Andean migrants and the speech of Lima. This dialect is the speech that is most typical in the upskirts of the city, but also serves as a transitional dialect between Coastal and Andean Spanish spoken in between the coast and the highlands.
Characteristics
Phonology
This dialect has the usual Andean
syntactics, like lack of agreement in gender and number, the frequent use of
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
s or
augmentatives, loísmo, double possessives and ending phrases with "''pues''", "''pe''" or "''pue''".
As far as the lexicon is concerned, there are numerous neologisms, influences from Quechua, and slang among the youth often heard in the streets.
Amazonic Spanish
This dialect has developed uniquely, with contact from Andean Spanish and the Spanish of Lima with the
Amazonian languages
Amazonian languages is the term used to refer to the indigenous languages of "Greater Amazonia." This area is significantly larger than the Amazon and extends from the Atlantic coast all the way to the Andes, while its southern border is usual ...
. It has a distinctive tonal structure.
Phonetically it is characterized by:
*The sibilant resisting aspiration
*A confusion of with (always bilabial)
:For example, ''San Juan'' becomes ''San Fan''
* There is
occlusion
Occlusion may refer to:
Health and fitness
* Occlusion (dentistry), the manner in which the upper and lower teeth come together when the mouth is closed
* Occlusion miliaria, a skin condition
* Occlusive dressing, an air- and water-tight trauma ...
of the intervals in tonal ascension with aspiration and lengthening of the vowels.
* are pronounced with aspiration
*The tends to become an affricate (as opposed to Peruvian Coastal Spanish)
*Also, there is assibilation and weak
trills.
On the other hand, the syntactic order most recognized is the prefixation of the genitive:
:''De Antonio sus amigas''
There are also disorders of agreement, gender, etc.
Equatorial Spanish
This dialect is spoken in the region of
Tumbes.
References
{{Languages of Peru
Spanish dialects of South America
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 Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
Spanish Peruvian