Belizean Spanish

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Belizean Spanish
Español beliceño
Pronunciation[espaˈɲol βeliˈseɲo]
EthnicityHispanic and Latin American Belizeans
Native speakers
200,000 all dialects of Spanish (2014–2019)[1]
Early forms
Spanish alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
GlottologNone
IETFes-BZ
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Belizean Spanish (Spanish: español beliceño) is the dialect of Spanish spoken in Belize. It is similar to Caribbean Spanish, Andalusian Spanish, and Canarian Spanish. While English is the only official language of Belize, Spanish is the common language of majority (62.8%), wherein 174,000 (43% of Belizeans) speak some variety of Spanish as a native language. Belizeans of Guatemalan, Honduran, Mexican (including Mexican Mennonites), Nicaraguan, Salvadoran (including Salvadoran Mennonites), and even Cuban descent may speak different dialects of Spanish, but since they grow up in Belize, they adopt the local accent.

History

Spanish language came to Belize when the

Viceroyalty of New Spain.[4]

However, few Spanish settled in the area because of the lack of the gold they'd come seeking and the strong resistance of the

Maya people.[2] The Spanish colonists living in Belize often fought against the Maya, who were affected by slavery and disease carried by the Spanish.[5]

On 20 January 1783, shortly after the

Hondo and Belize rivers.[3] British settlers obtained a further concession. By the London Convention of 1786
Spain ceded Belize another 1.883 km square (reaching the Sibun River or Manate Laguna, south of the Belize River). The British banned teaching of Spanish in schools.

But after thousands of

Petén, Mennonite Mexicans settled in the north and west of Belize after 1958 (Mexican Mennonites may have intermarried with native-born mestizos and Mexican mestizos),[9] and thousands of undocumented migrants moved to the central and western parts of the country, including approximately 40,000 Salvadorans (including Salvadoran Mennonites), Guatemalans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans immigrated to Belize in this decade of strife in neighboring countries between 1980 and 1990,[10] this, along with a high fertility rate, dramatically increased the number of Hispanics in Belize, causing concern over the rapid growth of the Spanish language in a country where the official language is English.[11]

Phonology

See also

  • Hispanic and Latin Belizean

References

  1. ^ Spanish at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^
    S2CID 144161630
    .
  3. ^ a b Ríos Navarro, Ignacio; Camacho de la Vega, Martha Patricia. "Belice, otra cuña británica en Iberoamérica" [Belize, another British wedge in Ibero-America] (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 11 June 2013.
  4. ^ "BELICE – Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación".[dead link]
  5. ^ "Maya Area, 1400–1600 A.D." The Metropolitan Museum of Art. October 2004. The native populations of the entire Maya area are decimated by warfare, epidemic disease, and the consequences of slavery, forced labor, and abuse suffered at the hands of the invaders.
  6. ^ Battle of Saint George's Caye: English Settlers and Spanish Invasion in Belizean Foil Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on December 1, 2012, at 18:22 pm
  7. ^ My Belize adventure: People of Belize. Accessed February 14, 2008.
  8. ^ belice – Prolades.com
  9. ^ Belice – Icex www.icex.es/staticFiles/Belice_6779_.pdf
  10. ^ BELIZE Archived 2012-06-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved April 03, 2013, to 2:56 pm.
  11. ^ El Español en Belice (in Spanish: Spanish in Belize). Writing by Christina Mudarra Sánchez.
  12. doi:10.1075/lplp.18.3.07lip
    .
  13. ^ Navarro Tomás (2004)

Sources

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