Panamanian Spanish

Panamanian Spanish (es-PA) is the set of modalities of the Spanish language spoken in Panama. They correspond to a local variant of Caribbean Spanish.

Due to the cultural influence and presence of the United States, Panamanian Spanish has absorbed a lot of vocabulary from English, as well as the immigration of citizens from English-speaking Caribbean territories (Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, etc.), during the 19th century to the provinces of Bocas del Toro and Colón has contributed with this influence.

French has had a slight influence on Panamanian Spanish. The Hebrew, Arab, Italian, Hindustani, Chinese and Greek colonies have influenced Panamanian Spanish to a lesser extent, as have the aboriginal ethnic groups of Panama.

The lexical base of Panamanian Spanish is Castilian, but many languages have contributed to its enrichment through loanwords. Some Amerindian languages, others African, English, French, Italian and German are those that to a greater or lesser extent have left their mark on Panamanian Spanish.

Features

• The realization of /x/ as [h] (glotal sorda snack), distinctive feature of the Caribbean, Canary and Andalusian Spanish
• A large number of colloquial and folk expressions are used, due largely to the varied history, races and influences that make up Panamanian culture in addition to its highly idiosyncratic character. As a result many objects and concepts have their own names instead of being referred as That..
• The vowels are nasalized when they are close to a nasal consonant, the nasal consonant is enmuded or is performed as a result. For example, in San Juan [sã·hwã] It should be noted that persons with high levels of education tend to avoid such pronunciation.
• The realization of /s/ as [h] in some cases. For example: How ehtah? To this phenomenon, together with that of suppressing the 'r' at the end of the verbs (for example I laughed, It'll rain), or delete the intervocálica d (for example, Moorish, Hurry) is a form of lention.
• Because of the elision of /s/ the end of syllable, some use “it” as a plural marker, but it is limited to words that singularly end in tonic vowel: coffee, coffee.
• It is common to shorten some prepositions and adverbs. For example onde (where), aonde (where) ♪ (going) pa (para.)
• It makes great use of apocopes. For example prof / Prof. (professor) cool (refrigerator/refrigerator), micro (microondas), TV (television) bike (bicycle), disco (discoteca), comp (computer/computer), u (the university), etc.
• The subject is often not invested in questions: What do you want?This is more common among young people and those who come from urban areas. However, the most common thing is to remove the subject in questions What do you want?.
• There is an intensive use of “being”. I did it in winter.. We had to get out.
• Third-person tonic personal pronouns (he/she) are used to refer to things.

She (the church) has the bronze bells

• In the juvenile colloquial language, the use of anglicisms is very widespread, even verbs conjugated to Spanish in many cases (We go to park to the house of Juan, Me FrikiéThe pod's on. Focusp, priti (de Pretty, pretty), buay (de Boy, boy), guial (girl, girl) fighting (from looking, observing) guachiman (de watchman, vigilante), etc.
• It is common the use of soz language to which colloquially refers as dirty words or vulgarities
• Much use of the word Vain to refer to Something or matter.

Subvariants

Not all Panamanians adopt the same vocabulary. Within Panama City, the vocabulary varies depending on the social, economic and cultural condition of each person; That is, an educated Panamanian from the middle or upper class has his own kind of Panamanianisms. The lower classes have their own idioms. Even the accent between people of different cultural levels varies radically. Generally the media, depending on the type of program, adopt a cultured Panamanian variant or standard Spanish.

Panamanian Spanish varies in Panama City, compared to the interior regions of the country. In the provinces of Colón, Panama and Bocas del Toro it has more Caribbean influence and in the provinces of Panama, Panama Oeste and Darién, it shares certain features of pronunciation and accent with Equatorial Spanish.

A separate mention is the Spanish spoken in the Azuero Peninsula, whose main characteristic is the persistence of Voseo, considered not very prestigious by the educated Panamanian norm. However, it is adopted as a symbol of regional identity, becoming a true variant with respect to the Spanish language in the rest of the country.

Pronunciation

Panamanians usually pronounce [ʃ] in the ch spelling of Spanish, instead of the typical affricate sound /tʃ/. Disho and hesho arrived at Shitré, Oshenta and osho.

The infinitives are shortened, preserving the stress on the last syllable, eliminating the final r of the verb. laughed, cry, mové, cogé>, among other cases.

In some regions the intervocalic /d/ sound is not pronounced, example: comido / comío, metido / metío, standing / parao, sitting / sentao

Some prepositions and words are abbreviated such as: (para = "pa"), (where = "onde")

Languages of Panama

During the colony and until the middle of the XVIII century, the only language of the Isthmus people was suppressed by Spanish, which they brought the Castilians and prevailed over the other languages of the Iberian Peninsula. The blacks brought from Africa as slaves assimilated Spanish and gave it some dialectal terms.

Currently, 19 languages are spoken in Panama; The predominant and official language is Spanish, which has more than three million speakers. Ngäbere, Bugleré, Kuna, Emberá, Wounaan, Naso Tjerdi and Bri Bri are considered official indigenous languages. All are recognized, protected and disclosed by the country.

Afro-Panamanisms

The presence of Antillean words in Panama is due to the first phase of the American conquest, from the Antilles the conquerors set out to various parts of the Central American isthmus, entering through Mexico and Panama. The Afro-Panamanians who live in the Republic are of African origin and the second wave is of Antillean origin, since they arrived in Panama with the construction of the railroads and later the construction of the canal. This group has exerted definitive influences on the formation of Panamanian Spanish. Some terms of creation of Afro-Panamanian speech today are in common use, such as the following: sao (a meal based on parboiled pork leg); domplin and bragada (food prepared with flour dough and cod, very spicy).