Cuban Spanish

The Cuban Spanish is a variation of the Spanish, which is used in Cuba. It is a Subdialekt Caribbean Spanish with smaller regional characteristics, especially in the intonation, between the western and the eastern regions of the island. Because of his often unintelligible to other Spanish-speaking native pronunciation is also jokingly called Cubañol.

History

The history of the Cuban Spanish is very important for understanding the development of the various Hispanic dialects. Cuba was with Santo Domingo, the historical name of the island of Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, the first American territory, lived in the Spanish colonists, and from where they took the first expeditions to the continent. In the past, many colonists settled on the Caribbean islands before they moved permanently to the continental mainland. Thus they took over some more, some less, some linguistic peculiarities of the Caribbean.

These characteristic features of Caribbean Spanish were marked by the first waves of emigration of Spaniards who had their origins in Andalusia or the Canary Islands, which explains the affinity of the Caribbean Spanish with the spoken in southern Spain: The Seseo giving identical pronunciation of the consonants / s / and / z /, as well as the ingestion of the -s or the - n at the end of a word, the soft j or the non-existence of the second person plural vosotros are linguistic characteristics, Sevillian with the specifics or the southern Spain are related.

The late independence and the strong Spanish emigration in the 19th century (1850 were still half of Cubans born in the Iberian Peninsula) could have important linguistic consequences for the language on the island, but won in the course of the 20th century, the traditional Cuban dialect the fight against the influence of the mother country, mainly because the new immigrants from various regions of Spain came ( Galicians, Catalans, Asturian, Andalusian, Canarian, etc.) whose characteristic dialects were not homogeneous: the Galicians and Catalans have their own language ( Galician and Catalan) and dominated the Castilian Spanish only mediocre or even only slightly and adapted themselves accordingly, when they migrated to Cuba, the prevailing language. The Asturian did not speak standard Spanish, but used various, widely differing from that dialects, so that they, while they assumed the Spanish in Cuba, the local local dialect learned. Finally, intensified immigration from the Canary Islands and Andalusia from the influence of the southern Spanish speech. The Castilian presence was, although not negligible, is not sufficient to lasting impact on the language habits on the island, although in the 19th and early 20th century, there were quite a few people who made a difference between / s / - and the / z / sounds or the personal pronoun of the second person plural vosotros ( " you " ) used.

As in the rest of the West Indies, the influence of the languages ​​of pre-Columbian indigenous population is largely non-existent, apart from words that have found their way into the standard Spanish ( barbacoa - Barbecue, canoa - canoeing, huracán - Hurricane ). The extermination of the indigenous population, the Taínos or intermarry with them have eradicated any trace of them. The disappearance of the native population went hand in hand with the arrival of thousands of slaves of African origin. Middle of the 19th century, reached the number of Africans in Cuba peaked, only comparable to Santo Domingo, where the white population was in the minority.

Despite their large number, the influence of Africans on the local Spanish was minimal. It is believed that the exchange of / l / and / r / ( mejor → mejol, caldo → cardo ), the doubling of the / r / in a stronger consonants ( → cerdo Ceddo, puerta → puetta ) or the emphasis of African origin could be. However, none of these theories could be conclusively proven. Thus we find the exchange of / r / and / l / in Murcia and in remote regions of Andalusia, the Cuban tone is comparable to areas of the Canary Islands and Andalusia.

Likewise, the Cuban Revolution has left its mark in the linguistic landscape and produced a linguistic dichotomy in Cuba. Everyday language has become estranged from the official language, which is characterized as before by military vocabulary and an uncompromising sound that still allows for dialogues no room for nuances. In addition, the official ideology has fixed patterns of thought and constraints against which the Cuban people try with pre-revolutionary culture techniques and everyday idioms such as the choteo, disclose the contradictions between official ideology and the reality of everyday life.

Morphology

The Cuban Spanish shares most characteristics with the Caribbean Spanish, some of which stand out:

• It dominates the familiar form of address, ie the address of tú ("you " ), although in the eastern regions of Cuba is also found a remnant of vos ( vos hablái ). The personal pronouns of respect usted ( "you") as used elsewhere throughout the Spanish-speaking world as an expression of respect and distance to a person. As in Spain, one can observe a declining use of the polite form in favor of the Duzens, bring equality to express and do not suffer under the burden of the hierarchy which is more what the polite usted implied.
• The pronoun of the second person plural vosotros ( " you " ) has been lost in the current parlance, although the majority of former emigrants from Spain was by no means unknown in the 19th century. Instead, the plural form is courtesy ustedes as a plurality of tú used.
• As in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, it is customary to insert actually redundant subject pronouns in the sentences: Susana dice que mañana ella no va a venir ( " Susana says she will not come tomorrow" ) and questions you will find the subject before the verb: ¿ cómo tú estás? ( " How are you ?"), ¿ Dónde ella va? ( " Where is she going ?").
• The pretérito indefinido, approximately comparable to the German past tense ( él fue - "he went " ) and pretérito compuesto ( él ha ido - " he's gone " ), equivalent to the German Perfect, is exactly the same as in the rest of Latin America and the western regions Spain ( the Canary Islands, Galicia, León, Asturias ) is used, so they use the past tense always at events that have taken place precisely only: ¿ Qué Paso Ví un rayo. - " What has happened? I saw a flash. ". In Spain, you would use the perfect tense here. The Perfect is reserved for situations that continue to affect the current moment: he trabajado aquí todo el día ( " I've worked here all day " - the day is not over yet ).

Phonetics

• The Cuban Spanish used the Seseo. It is thus not between the sounds / θ / ( engl. th ' ) and / s / distinction.
• The / d / between two vowels is only faintly indicated: perdi ( d) o, gana ( d) o, de ( d) o, mone ( d ) a This pronunciation variant is often found also in the colloquial language of the Spanish lowlands. The inter vocal / b / and / g / are often 'swallowed': Cu ( b ) a, jue ( g ) or the The weakening of the "hard" consonant / k /, / p / and / t / towards / g /, / b / and / d / is typical of Havana and the west of the country: equipo → eguibo, pelota → beloda, muñequito → muñeguido.
• The following a vowel or final / s / is, especially in the southeastern part of the country, from daily use largely disappeared: los tomates → lo tomato, basta → bata. In the central and western part of Cuba, and generally at a higher social level speaking this results in an easier breath or prolongation of the vowel: bosque → bohque, bo: que. Outside formal language the absence of the ending- s is almost as common in the Dominican Republic and in Andalusia.
• The volume ll is pronounced like y (→ yeismo ). The Cubans, for example, so do not differ phonetically between the words " pollo " ( chicken) and " poyo " ( stone bench ) or between " Cayo " (from caer - to fall ) and "Callao " (from callar - silent ). The distinction between the two sounds is lost in the entire Caribbean, though she was still in use in the majority of Spanish immigrants in the 19th century. The present form was found only in some cities of Andalusia. In Havana, the corresponding sound is rather weaker pronounced ( something like a German / j / ), in the southeast rather stronger ( / dj / ).
• The voiceless velar fricative / x / exists in the Cuban debate in stark contrast to Castilian Spanish Standard and to various stages of Latin America do not, but as in the Canarian Spanish replaced by / h / (eg the j in trabajo or the g in gente ).
• In the western part of the country, especially in Havana and Matanzas is the assimilation of / r / and / l / usual with the following consonants: carbón → cab -Bon, Ardentia → ad DENTIA, argolla → ag - golla, Alberto → From - bed -to etc. These pronunciation variant is also found in parts of the Dominican Republic and the Colombian Caribbean.
• Another characteristic that divides the Cuban with the rest of the Spanish dialects of the West Indies, is the exchange of / l / and / r /. So you speak alma (soul) like arma ( weapon ) and ( much more rarely) vice versa. Sometimes you can hear a mixture of the two consonants: a sound starting with a weak / r / followed by a / l /. At the beginning and after a word / s / find these consonants change does not take place ( lanzar - throw, isla - island).