Dominican Spanish

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Dominican Spanish is Castilian Spanish as spoken in the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola (La Española in Spanish) and throughout the Dominican diaspora (mostly in New York, Boston, and Miami), and also uses borrowed words from African languages, Haitian Creole and native Taino languages. It is similar to Puerto Rican Spanish and Cuban Spanish, and roughly so to Canarian Spanish (Islands of Spain) and Venezuelan Spanish.

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[edit] Phonology

  • Like many other Spanish dialects, Dominican Spanish features yeísmo: the sounds represented by ll (the palatal lateral /ʎ/) and y (historically the palatal approximant /j/) have fused into one. This merged phoneme is generally pronounced as a [j] or [dʒ] (these are the sounds in English York and John.) That is, in the Dominican Republic, se cayó "he fell down" is homophonous with se calló "he became silent".
  • The fricative /s/ have a tendency to become an indistinct aspiration or disappear or to become a voiceless glottal fricative, [h] at the end of syllables. This change may be realized only at the word level or it may also cross word boundaries. That is, las mesas son blancas "the tables are white" is pronounced [lah'mesah sɔn 'blaŋkah], but in las águilas azules "the blue eagles", syllable-final /s/ in las and águilas might experience liaison with the initial vowels of the following words and remain [s] ([la'sagila a'sulɛh]), or become [h] (the exact pronunciation is largely an individual choice).
  • In some areas, speakers tend to drop the final r sound in verb infinitives. This elision is considered a feature of uneducated speakers in some places, but it is widespread in others, at least in rapid speech.
  • The weak r, final or not, tends to be changed in many words by an i sound in the Northerly Cibao region and by Ls in the Eastern and capital city (Santo Domingo), i.e., the verb correr (to run) is pronounced correi and correl, respectively; perdón (forgiveness): peidón and peldón. This substitution for i is delicately (almost mutely) present in Andalusian Spanish, and also the L use is prototypical, and more marked, in Puerto Rican Spanish, and is believed to be of Andalusian and/or African origin.
  • In the Southwestern region, the L sound turns sometimes into an r, with the classical example being maldito (damned) turned into mardito.
  • The creation of diphthongs in everyday speech is common, like the phonetic contraction of "voy a" into "vuá" or "voá", or "¿para adónde vas?" into "¿p'ónde va'?". Another great example of strong contraction is the following phrase: "Taco 'tá 'co'ta'o", from "Taco está acostado" ("Taco is lying down").
  • Many Dominicans, though usually from lower educational levels, have extreme difficulties with phonemes which include the x, or some other consonant combinations like bs or ct. Respectively, examples of these may be saying sepso or etsplosión instead of sexo or explosión (sex; explosion), and atstrapto instead of abstracto (abstract).
  • Almost exclusively Dominican in use, is the placing of the second person singular pronoun tú before the verb in the question form: "¿Cómo tú estás?" instead of "¿Cómo estás tú?". Nevertheless, when using the more formal usted, instead of tú, the conventional word order is used.

Other differences with "standard" Castilian include subtleties like hypercorrection, in particular, adding the s erroneously, thus over-compensating the habit of omitting it (i.e., correct: administraciones públicas [public administrations]; vernacular: aministracione pública; hyper-corrected: asministracione púsblica).

Anglicisms (due to cultural and commercial influence from the United States), as well as the American occupations of the Dominican Republic during the 1930s and 1960's, are extremely common in Dominican Spanish, more so than in any other Spanish variant, save for Puerto Rican and perhaps Northern Mexican Spanish. A prime example of this is "baguada", which is a corruption of the english "bad weather", though in Dominican Spanish the term has come to mean storm or torrential downpour, rather than a spot of unpleasant climate. Hence, a common Dominican expression: "Viene una baguada", "here comes a baguada", or "here comes a storm". Another excellent example of this is "bolche", a corruption of the english "bull shit", though in Dominican Spanish the term has come to mean a reprimanding, fulmination, or harangue in general terms. Hence, a common Dominican expression: "Me echaron un bolche", "they threw me a bolche", or "they reprimanded me". The word "they" in Dominican Spanish generally refers to anyone who is not him or herself, so that when saying that he or she heard something from another individual, one would say "they told me", rather than "a man told me", or "a woman told me", or "the young boy by the lemon tree told me". Furthermore, and perhaps the most common and (arguably) ridiculous, is the Dominican Spanish word for SUV: "gipeta", which is pronounced "yipeta". This term is a corrpution of the American Jeep, which was the primary mode of transport for the GI's throghout the country during the occupation in the 60's. The term has now evolved into referring to any SUV, and as a matter of fact, Dominican license plates for SUV's are marked with a "G" before their serial number, so that an SUV's license plate will read, for example, "G 12345", G for gipeta.

Another curious phenomenon related to Anglicisms is that of the usage of brand names to refer to any object which is of the same type that that particular brand produces. For example, in Dominican Spanish, "Corn Flakes" refers to any cereal, be it puffed corn, bran flakes, or puffed wheat. Similarly, "Polo Shirt", which sounds more like polo chert when spoken colloquially, refers to any garment which covers the upper body, be it a t-shirt, polo shirt, rugby shirt, soccer jersey, or undershirt. Another curious example is that of "Gillette", yilét, which refers to any razor.

Despite all the particularities, speakers of the Dominican variant of Spanish usually have no trouble understanding speakers of other Castilian dialects thanks to the use of such dialects in media and the fact that standard Castilian is promulgated through the educational system; the opposite is often more difficult, particularly due to the speed of vernacular Dominican speech.

[edit] Dominican vocabulary

As in every dialect, Dominican Spanish has numerous vocabulary differences from other forms of the language. Here are some examples.

  • wild - Spanish: agresivo/-a, bravo/-a - Dominican also: guapo/-a
  • pretty - Spanish: guapo/-a - Dominican: lindo/-a, bonito/-a
Una chica guapa: in Spain "a pretty girl", in the Dominican Republic "an angry girl"
  • the orange – Spanish: la naranja – Dominican also: la china (this possibly because some varieties of orange come from China)
  • the passion fruit – Spanish: la maracuyá – Dominican: la chinola
  • the papaya / pawpaw – Spanish: la papaya – Dominican: la lechoza
  • the money - Spanish: el dinero - Dominican also: los cuartos (this is an archaism seldom used in Castillian Spanish also)
  • a bit – Spanish: un poco – Dominican also: un chin/"chin chin" (possibly of Arawak origin)
  • the coach / bus - Spanish: el autobús - Dominican: la guagua (this term is also used in the Canary Islands (Spain), Cuba, Puerto Rico, but originating in the Canary Islands)
  • the motorbike taxi - does not exist in Spain - Dominican: el motoconcho
  • the scooter - Spanish: ciclomotor - Dominican: pasola (a genericized term deriving from a trademark)
  • the jeep / SUV - Spanish: el (vehículo) todoterreno - Dominican: la yipeta (a genericized term deriving from a trademark).
  • the farm/agricultural field - Spanish: la granja - Dominican also: el conuco (possible Arawak origin)
  • the convenience store - Spanish: "tienda de ultramarinos" - Dominican also: "colmado"(this is an archaism seldom used in Castillian Spanish also)"Pulperia".
  • trash can - Spanish: "bote de basura" - Dominican also: "zafacón" (used also in Puerto Rico; possibly a corrupted anglicism of "safety can")
  • the tree - Spanish: "el árbol" - Dominican also: "la mata"
  • disposable diaper: Spanish: "Pañal desechable" - Dominican: "Pamper" (a genericized term deriving from a trademark)

A curious, and rather un-translatable expression also common around most of the Caribbean basin, is la vaina. The Castilian meanings may be "sheath", "pod", "shell", "shell casing" or "hull" (plant). In the Dominican Republic "vaina" is mainly a thing, a matter or simply "stuff". For example, instead of saying ¿Qué cosa es esa? (What is that?) you would say ¿Qué vaina es esa?.

[edit] Some common Dominican words borrowed from the Taino language:

Taino Word Translation
Ají Hot Pepper
Anacaona Golden Flower
Arepa Corn Cake
Bara Whip
Barbacoa Four legged stand, made of sticks, used in the cooking process of roasting meat.
Batata Sweet Potato
Bohío Small square house (typical countryside homes)
Cocuyo or Cucuyo Small Lighting Bug with a blueish light
Cana Any number of Palmetto trees (A type of palmetto are the palms that line the malecon of Santo Domingo)
Ceiba Silkcotton Tree
Canoa Small Boat
Cibao Stoned Mountains
Guagua Bus or Car; a form of transit
Guayo Crater
Hamaca Hammock
Iguana Iguana; a green lizard
Jaiba River Crab or Freshwater Crayfish River
Jicotea Turtle
Maraca Gord Rattle, Musical Instrument made of Higuera gord
Maco Frog
Mime Little insect
Nana or Nena Little girl
Sabana or Zabana Savanna; A flat grassland of tropical or subtropical regions
Tabacu or Tabaco Tobacco; plants in the caribbean
Tiburón Shark
Yagua A small palm native to Hispaniola
Yola Small boat

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