Talk:Bolivian Spanish

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[edit] Clean up

absolutely not!! Chilean spanish is very different, especially the sounds!!

I agree. There are a number of different versions of Spanish spoken in Bolivia. The highland Spanish of La Paz, Cochabamba, Potosí, etc. is radically different from that spoken in the lowlands (Santa Cruz, Trinidad, etc.). There are many borrowed words from Quechua, for example, wawa for baby. There are many Chilean idiomatic expressions which differ radically from those used in Bolivia. The vos is used, but in a different form. There is the distinctive Bolivian ¿nove?. I could go on and on. The fact is that the article is just plain wrong. ↪ Jhymi  ^Talk 17:48, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

And, another point. Where did that number come from? The population of Bolivia is eight million. Because the educational system is now completely in Spanish, except for the elderly people and those living far in the campo, most speak Spanish. I think the number should be closer to seven million, but I don't have the facts to support this presumption.

I propose something such as this for a better description of Bolivian Spanish: "Cambas (those living in the Amazon basin in Eastern Bolivia), kollas (those living in the Andean highlands in Western Bolivia), and chapacos (those living in the Southern department of Tarija) speak differently. Kolla Spanish is spoken relatively slowly and is marked by Aymara or Quechua words and expressions. Camba Spanish is spoken much more rapidly and is marked by the near-inability to pronounce the letter "S", sprinkled Guarani words and expressions, and verb conjugation patterns that resemble Portuguese. Chapacos speak with a slow, sing-song cadence and use many Argentine idioms." This doesn't address the universal "vos" for "tú" nor the "nove?" but is a better start than what is on the page now. ↪ Jhymi  ^Talk 19:43, 20 March 2008 (UTC)