Canarian Spanish

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Canarian Spanish
español canario
A bus in front of a bus station.
Estación de guaguas ("Bus station") at Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands.
Pronunciation[espaˈɲol kaˈnaɾjo]
Native toSpain
RegionCanary Islands
EthnicityCanary Islanders, Isleños
Native speakers
(undated figure of 2 million[citation needed])
Early forms
Dialects
Spanish alphabet
Official status
Official language in
Spain Spain
Real Academia Española, Academia Canaria de la Lengua
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottologcana1269
Linguasphere51-AAA-be
IETFes-IC

Canarian Spanish or Canary Island Spanish (Spanish terms in descending order of frequency: español de Canarias, español canario, habla canaria, or dialecto canario[3]) is a variant of standard Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands by the Canary Islanders.

Canarian Spanish heavily influenced the development of Caribbean Spanish and other Latin American Spanish vernaculars because Hispanic America was originally largely settled by colonists from the Canary Islands and Andalusia; those dialects, including the standard language, were already quite close to Canarian and Andalusian speech. In the Caribbean, Canarian speech patterns were never regarded as either foreign or very different from the local accent.

The incorporation of the Canary Islands into the

Berber (also called Amazigh) dialects. After the conquest, the indigenous Guanche language was rapidly and almost completely eradicated in the archipelago. Only some names of plants and animals, terms related to cattle ranching and numerous island placenames survive.[5]

Their geography made the Canary Islands receive much outside influence, with drastic cultural and linguistic changes. As a result of heavy Canarian emigration to the Caribbean, particularly during colonial times, Caribbean Spanish is strikingly similar to Canarian Spanish.

Grammar

Pronunciation

  • Seseo, the lack of distinction between the pronunciation of the letters ⟨s⟩ and ⟨z⟩ or "soft" ⟨c⟩, is the most distinctive non-mainland characteristic; caza ('hunt') is pronounced exactly like casa ('house'), which occurs in some parts of Andalusia as well.[10] The feature is common to most parts of the Spanish-speaking world outside of the northern three quarters of Mainland Spain (Castile and the surrounding provinces have adopted the feature).[11]
  • /s/ is debuccalized to [h] at the end of syllables, as is common in Andalusia, Extremadura, Murcia, the Caribbean, and much of lowland Latin America. This results in a phonetic merger with /x/.[12][13] The frequency of s-aspiration has generally increased over the last few decades, as part of the formation of new regional norms.[14] Syllable-final [s] is always or mostly pronounced in formal speech, like TV broadcasts.
  • /x/ (spelled as ⟨j⟩ or, before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, as ⟨g⟩) is usually aspirated (pronounced [h]), as is common in Andalusia (especially in its west) as well as the Caribbean and some other parts of Latin America.[13]
  • The same [h] sound is used in colloquial speech for the sound historically derived from Latin f-. It is also preserved among rural speakers in many peripheral areas of Peninsular Spain and throughout Latin America, where it is occasionally found in lower-class urban speech as well.[15]
  • Word-final /
    velar nasal [ŋ].[16]
  • palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/ formerly represented by ⟨ll⟩ has been relegated to the speech of the most elderly, generally with low education and living in rural zones.[17]
  • The stops /p, t, tʃ, k/ can all become
    voiced when between vowels, whether between words as in la pata [la ˈbata] or within a word as in deporte [deˈboɾte]. This does not cause a merger with Spanish's voiced stops, since those are pronounced as approximants when between vowels. In addition, a weakened final -/s/ can block this voicing, leading to alternations like la pata [la ˈbata] and las patas [la ˈpata].[8][18]
  • //, the phoneme represented by ⟨ch⟩, is traditionally pronounced as voiceless palatal plosive rather than an affricate. The plosive pronunciation is still widespread.[18]

Vocabulary

A list of the use of words for Canarian, Iberian and American dialects
Iberian Spanish (Spain) Canarian Spanish (Canary Islands) American Spanish English
Vale bien, dale, ya okay
Gafas lentes, anteojos glasses
patata papa potato
Bizcochón, bizcocho queque bizcocho, ponqué, queque, pastel, torta Cake
palomitas cotufas, roscas pochoclos, crispetas, palomitas, cotufas, cabritas, canguil, canchita popcorn
judía, alubia judía, habichuela frijol, frejol, caraota, habichuela, poroto bean
cacahuete maníz maní, cacahuate peanut
coche auto, carro car
conducir manejar to drive
habitación, alcoba, dormitorio cuarto pieza, cuarto, habitación bedroom
autobús guagua colectivo, buseta, autobús, guagua, buses bus
aparcar estacionar, parquear to park
zumo jugo juice
guay, chulo chévere, chido, piola, copado, bacán, bacano cool
vosotros ustedes you all, youse, y'all

Canarian vocabulary has its own regionalisms different from standard Castilian Spanish vocabulary. For example, guagua ("bus") differs from standard Spanish autobús. The word guagua is an

Klaxon horn ("wawa"). An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verb fajarse ("to fight").[19] In standard Castilian Spanish, the verb would be pelearse, while fajar exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of a skirt. The term of endearment socio is a very popular Canarian term. The Canarian vocabulary has a notable influence from the Guanche language, especially in the toponymy. In addition, many Canarian names come from the Guanche language, such as Airam, Gara, Acerina, Aydan, Beneharo, Jonay, Tanausú, Chaxiraxi, Ayoze, Yaiza and Zebenzuí. As Canarian Spanish was influenced by Andalusian Spanish, a few words of Andalusi Arabic origin are found, and there are some doublets of Arabic-Latinate synonyms with the Arabic form being more common in Canarian, such as cuarto or alcoba for standard habitación or dormitorio ("bedroom"), alhaja for standard joya ("jewel"), or alacrán for standard escorpión ("scorpion"); Arabic influence in Canarian Spanish was also brought by returning Canarian settlers and their children from Spanish Sahara
after its independence. Other examples include “guayete” (child) or “jaique” ( poorly made and loosely fitting dress ). There are also numerous words of Arabic origin to designate different plants (aciba, ahulaga, albohol, alcatripa, algafita, algahuero, almácigo, alpispillo, almulei, bahaza, orijama, tarahal, aliacán...). These words may have come directly from North Africa, favored by the presence of many common plants, or they may have naturalized first in the peninsula and then come to the Canary Islands (this seems to be the case of the words ahulaga and tarahal), so they are also rooted in peninsular Castilian Spanish.

Loanwords from other languages

These, due to their origin and nature, can be classified into three large groups, depending on whether they come from current Spanish and its dialects, from old Castilian or if, finally, they come from languages other than Spanish. Thus, the words "formed" in the Canary Islands from other words of the Spanish language, the close influence of Portuguese, or the many terms that came to the Canary Islands from dialectal variants such as Latin American Spanish, the result of the historical links between both shores of the Atlantic. Thus, the Canarian lexicon is the reflection of centuries of island history, cultural miscegenation and adaptation of the language to the unique conditions that existed on the islands.

Canarismos from Spanish and its dialects The Canarian voices that come from the Hispanic language itself or from its dialects are framed here. In this group, it would be necessary to distinguish between canarisms originating from some dialect of Spanish and those that derive from a pan- Hispanic voice, but which in the Canary Islands have undergone some linguistic process ( derivation, simplification, formal change, metonymic displacement, etc.), giving rise to a new or modified voice. Thus, the word «allege» means in Castilian to adduce merits to substantiate some request, while in the Canary Islands it is used as a synonym for conversing . There are also canarisms formed by derivation of words from general Spanish, such as "bizcochón" (cylindrical cake made from eggs, flour and sugar ), or "fragilón" ( stupid, presumptuous, vain ), which come from the Pan-Hispanic terms "biscuit" and "fragile", respectively, to which they have been added in the Canary Islands the suffix "-on".

On the other hand, among the canarismos coming from dialectal forms of Castilian, the following stand out:

  • Terms of Latin American origin: They come mainly from the Caribbean area ( Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic) and were introduced in the Canary Islands as a result of the emigration link that for centuries united the islands with America. They are terms linked to any area of traditional island culture and are more deeply rooted in the western islands than in the eastern ones, due to their more continuous link with the New World. Examples of this are the words:
    • "guagua" ( bus ) or fotingo ( dilapidated car ).
    • « papaya »
    • « prickly pear »

In other words, its origin is indeterminate, possibly engineered on the spot. For example, pollaboba, is a special case, because it went from being an insult (with a pejorative meaning similar to impotent or celibate ) to even being used in common speech, sometimes losing the initial meaning.

Although currently in disuse, on the island of El Hierro it is customary to say "o" ( où, in French) for "dónde está", "¿o las llaves?" instead of "¿dónde están las llaves?" (Where are the keys?)

  • Terms of Catalan origin:
    • «alfábega» (it is an Arabism that is only preserved in Catalonia and the Canary Islands, where the Castilian basil is also used, which is also of Arab origin)
    • "seba" (in Catalan it means onion, but in the Canary Islands it is used to designate the marine plant whose leaves are reminiscent of these)
    • "lletera" (derived from the Catalan llet which means milk, and is used to name some species of the genus Euphorbia . This voice is also found in Valencian speech )
    • "tonina" (Tuna Thunnus thynnus is named like this and sometimes also to dolphins, it has given rise to the expression "Being fat like a tonina")
    • "bufo" (fart, in Catalan it is used in feminine) .

Similarities in languages

The chart shows the similarities and differences in the dialects of Canarian Spanish, Andalusian Spanish, Castilian Spanish, and Caribbean Spanish.

Canarian[I] Andalusian[II] Castilian Dominican Puerto Rican Cuban Colombian Venezuelan Panamanian
banana plátano plátano plátano guineo guineo plátano banano cambur guineo
bean judía habichuela judía habichuela habichuela frijol frijol caraota frijol
clothes hanger percha percha percha percha gancho perchero gancho gancho gancho
green bean habichuela judía verde judía verde vainita habichuela
tierna
habichuela habichuela vainita habichuela
papaya papaya papaya papaya lechosa papaya/
lechosa
fruta bomba papaya lechosa papaya
passion fruit
parchita maracuyá maracuyá chinola parcha maracuyá maracuyá parchita maracuyá
peanut manís cacahuete cacahuete maní maní maní maní maní maní
popcorn cotufas/
roscas
palomitas palomitas palomitas de
maíz
popcorn rositas de
maíz
crispetas/
maíz pira
cotufas popcorn
postage stamp sello sello sello sello sello sello estampilla estampilla estampilla
potato papa papa patata papa papa papa papa papa papa
soft drink refresco refresco refresco refresco refresco refresco gaseosa refresco soda
sweet potato batata batata boniato batata batata boniato batata batata camote
transit bus guagua autobús autobús guagua guagua guagua autobús autobús autobús
watermelon sandía sandía sandía sandía melón de agua melón de agua sandía patilla sandía
  1. ^ Canarian words are sometimes used interchangebly with Castilian words.
  2. ^ Andalusian words are sometimes used interchangebly with Castilian words.

Canarian loans in other languages

The word caldera/caldero means "cooking pot" in Spanish (compare "cauldron"). In the Canary Islands, it was also applied to several volcanic places. The term

Caldera de Taburiente on La Palma.[20][21]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Leopold von Buch's book Physical Description of the Canary Isles was published in 1825

References

  1. ^ Spanish at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2022). "Castilic". Glottolog 4.6. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ^ The terms isleño and dialecto isleño are also used, but they can be ambiguous, as they are applied to other island dialects as well.
  4. ^ The term guanche originally referred to the aborigines of Tenerife, but nowadays it is used commonly to refer also to the aborigines of the rest of the islands.
  5. ^ "The Canarian Spanish Dialect". Archived from the original on 2012-07-30. Retrieved 2016-01-09.
  6. ^ "On the biological basis of gender variation: Verbal ambiguity in Canarian Spanish | Almeida | Sociolinguistic Studies". Equinoxjournals.com. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  7. ^ Serrano, María José (1997–1998). "On the Variability of Syntax: Some Theoretical Remarks" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-01-02. Retrieved 2019-04-01. Universidad de La Laguna
  8. ^ a b c Penny 2000, p. 131.
  9. ISSN 2604-3432
    .
  10. ^ "What did sociolinguistics ever do for language history?: The cont..." ingentaconnect. 2006-01-01. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  11. ^ "Biblioteca Virtual Universal" (PDF). Biblioteca.org.ar. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  12. S2CID 161147832
    .
  13. ^ a b Herrera Santana 2007, p. 339.
  14. ^ Herrera Santana 2007, pp. 341–342.
  15. ^ Penny 2000, pp. 130, 162–163.
  16. .
  17. ^ Herrera Santana 2007, p. 341.
  18. ^ a b Herrera Santana 2007.
  19. Real Academia Española
    .
  20. ^ von Buch, L. (1820). Ueber die Zusammensetzung der basaltischen Inseln und ueber Erhebungs-Cratere. Berlin: University of Lausanne. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  21. .

Bibliography

External links

  • COSER, Audible Corpus of Spoken Rural Spanish