Paraguayan Spanish

Paraguayan Spanish, Paraguayan Spanish or Paraguayan dialect (es-PY) is a modality of Spanish language spoken in the Republic of Paraguay, being the same dialect spoken in eastern Bolivia, northeast Argentina, being called Guaranitic, due to the common Guarani-Jesuit Spanish past that is shared. It is characterized by having strong influences from Guaraní, since Paraguay is the only Hispanic American country with the majority of its population bilingual.

Paraguayan Spanish itself has marked characteristics of the Spanish previously spoken in northern Spain, because the majority of the first colonizers were Old Castilians, Galicians and Basques.

In addition to the strong influence of Guaraní, Paraguayan Spanish is also influenced by Rio de la Plata Spanish, due to the geographical, historical and cultural proximity, of which they share common characteristics, such as voseo, part of the lexicon and some words of European origin.

In accordance with the provisions of the Paraguayan constitution, Spanish is one of the official languages (along with Guaraní). The Constitution includes the form "Castilian" to refer to this language and, in general, both forms are used in the country indiscriminately. Spanish is the mother tongue and second language of 90% of the Paraguayan population: about 60% have it as their mother tongue, while about 30% have it as a second language, among Guaraní-speakers.

Features

Details

The main features of Paraguayan Spanish developed in part due to the early isolation of post-independence Paraguay; For example, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia—president of the country from 1814 to 1840—kept Paraguay's borders closed for practically that entire time. Additionally, for various periods of time, the country experienced geographic, political, and economic isolation in relation to its neighbors—partly due to remoteness and conflict. All of this allowed the Spanish spoken in Paraguay to develop its own unique characteristics, under the influence of Guaraní, due to the large number of indigenous Guaraní and mestizos residing in the country at that time.

Historically, in Paraguay, Guaraní was mostly spoken, and Spanish was relegated to the inhabitants of the capital or more favored classes in the interior of the country. Therefore, the "everyday" Spanish spoken in Paraguay is greatly influenced by the Guaraní language, to the point of mixing both languages - called jopará or jehe'a -. Public education - taught mainly in Spanish - as well as the expansion of the media and the arrival of mainly Spanish-speaking immigrants, has served to expand the Spanish language in the Paraguayan interior.

Paraguayan Spanish, due to its geographical and cultural proximity, shares many similarities with Rio de la Plata Spanish (that is, the Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguay), such as the use of voseo, and certain vocabularies, such as those from lunfardo. This is due to the influence—especially Argentine—on music, film, television and literature on the Paraguayan population during the 20th century. ; although it differs in yeismo and intonation.

Speakers

Currently, about 90% of the population speaks and/or understands the Spanish language (either as a first or second language). According to the 2020 Report "Spanish: A Living Language" of the Cervantes Institute, in Paraguay 68.2% of the population (4,946,322 inhabitants) have a good command of the Spanish language. The remaining 31.8% (2,306,350 inhabitants) belong to the Limited Competence Group, which has a poor command of the Spanish language; Most of them refer to the Guaraní-speakers, who have Spanish as a second language.

Colloquially, Yopará (a mixture of Spanish and Guaraní) is widely used, and even the more closed Guaraní -depending on the social environment-, as it is the mother tongue of a large part of the population. The majority of the population (77%) understands basic Guarani or Jopará; While those who speak this language fluently, the number is considerably reduced in urban areas. Spanish monolingualism (which does not speak or understand Guaraní) also seems to be increasing in the new generation of young people born in urban areas.

Main features

• Like all the Spanish American dialects, Paraguayan Spanish is thirsty, so it lacks the distinction between /θ/ and /s/ that is present in the standard European Spanish. For example: the letter /s/ and /z/ sounds the same.

• The absence of eeism in some parts of the country, the pronouncement of the digrafo θll as a palatal lateral consonant [.] is different from that of the ≤ and purvey that is articulated most of the times as an African consonant [dκ], although in some areas the difference is almost undetectable.
• Preference for the periphratic future (I will go) on the imperfect future (I will), the choice of a simple past (I said) in front of composite pasts (I said, I said) and the voseante imperatives ("I came" instead of "Come", "do it" instead of "do it", "acá" instead of "here", among others)

• Pronominal and verbal voice, identical to the rioplatense (use of the "vos", instead of "you". For example: "You have" instead of "You have").

• Leism: substitution of personal pronouns "" and" by "Le" in the position of direct complement.

• Intonation more paused and less "musical" than the Spanish rioplatense, does not resemble the Spanish spoken in Argentina or Uruguay.

• Lexicon (vocabularies) inherited mainly from Guaraní, and to a lesser extent from other European languages or dialects, such as the lunfardo (from Spanish rioplatense), from Portuguese, etc.

Pronunciation

• The group "tr" is pronounced as a deaf African postalveolar, similar to the sound of the /ch/.

• Awareness of the "r".

• Wide diffusion of lipdental [v] for fonema /b/.
• It resembles Spanish spoken in Andalusia and the Canary Islands

• The word /n/ end has alveolar joint, not to watch.
• Near pronunciation of the letter /f/ as /j/. For example, "fire" is usually pronounced as "game." Probably because of the absence of this sound in the Guaraní language.

• Unsuspected realization of /x/.

• Hiatus conservation.

• Fixed and resistant mouth.

• Weakening of /b/, /d/, and /g/ in intervocálica (and even initial).

• In some variations of Paraguayan Spanish the "rrr" is pronounced not as an alveolar trine, as is done in many of the Spanish-speaking regions, but as a [ ɹ] similar to how the English or Sicilian R is made in Italy.
• Use of the alveolar approach [ Chuckles ] by the "r" preconsonántica and final, similar to the pronunciation in American or Dutch English. Example: sign [fi v.ma res.]

• Trend in the maintenance of hiatus, even among homologous vowels: [al.ko.'ol] [my 'i.xo] 'my son'.

• Trend to glotal occlusion between words, especially between consonant and vocal.

• Trend to Vocálica nasalization.

• A tendency to vocalize /k/ and /b/ at the end of syllable: pauto ‘pacto’; caule ‘cable’.

• Tendency to make sonoras /p, t, k/ in consonant groups cults: cambo ‘campo’, mango ‘manco’, cando ‘canto’.

Grammatic level:

• Trend in the absence of gender concordance and number: white shirt; deep rivers; two bread; tortuous the place.

• Use of leism: I love my daughter.

• Use of possessive morphism che ‘mi, mine’, derived from the Guaraní pronoun “che": che pattern; che girlfriend.

• Trend to Chop Removal: My Bride [is] Pattern's sister.

• Use of indicative by subjunctive depending on verbs of belief, mandate, desire or will: I don't think it comes today.

• Use of the preposition to indicate direction: I go in Asunción.

Lexical level:

• Use of lexicon characteristic of the region: argel ‘quisquilloso, antipathic’, to ‘be upset about not getting something’, to be found ‘to be at ease’.

• Use of lexicon guaranisms: agatí ‘libélula’, angá ‘pobrecito, what a pity’, bed ‘ubre’, chaque ‘what a pity’, ko / nikó ‘certamente’, katé ‘elegante’, mamanga ‘abejorro’, manté ‘ solo’, pehagüé ‘hijo tardío’, pororó ‘palomitas.

• Use of semantic and pragmatic guaranisms: soon, as a empathic modifier: no matter how soon I see her now; lend (something) of (someone): I prepared her the bicycle basket.

Guarani-Spanish dynamics

Typical Paraguayan Spanish—spoken colloquially—presents a strong influence of Guaraní sentences in its translation into Spanish, as well as words and particles borrowed from Guaraní for colloquial expressions. These are some of the cases:

• Guaraní particles between Castilian words to emphasize expressions. Examples:
  • - Baby. ("please"). E.g., come on.
  • - Dad, you read, -piko,ta (interrogative particle without translation). e.g.: What for?, what did you ask for? = What for?
  • -ko, -nio, ngo (particle to emphasise something). e.g.: That ko is her = That's her

• Words removed from Guaraní for use in everyday Spanish. Examples:
  • -gua'u (falsely). That is, it was just a lie.
  • Mbore! (exclaiming, rejecting something). Synonym: Not crazy!
  • Kore! (exclamation, colloquially used on something terrible.) Synonym of: Oh No!

• Prayers taken from Guaraní translated partially or wrongly for use in everyday Spanish. Examples:
  • "He left in Itauguá" (from the Guaraní "oho Itauguápe", since the 'pe' in the Guaraní is used indistinctly as 'a' or 'en'. In neutral Spanish it must be "It went to Itauguá")
  • "I'm coming" (literally from the Guaraní "aháta aju". In neutral Spanish it is equivalent to "go and return" or "terried return")
  • "I came a little" (Semantic quarter of the word "ejúmina" of Guaraní. In neutral Spanish it is equivalent to "Ven" or "Vení" only)
  • "Too much heat does" (semantic staircase of the word "hetaiterei" of Guaraní. In neutral Spanish it is equivalent to "It is very hot" only)
  • "I told you later" (from Guaraní "ha'e voi ningo ndéve", in which the "after" emphasizes the previous action. In neutral Spanish it is equivalent to "I told you" or "I told you" only)
  • "I'm going to go now" (Semanticcal of the Guaraní prayer "aháta aga upéi", in which the "now" emphasizes when the action will occur. In neutral Spanish it is equivalent to "I will after" only)
  • "He spoke for me" (literally from the Guaraní "hear's cherehe." In neutral Spanish it should be "he talked about me")
  • "Go for your head" (influenced by the Guaraní "oiko iñakãre". In neutral Spanish it is equivalent to "do what you want, without control, without trial")
  • "I bought for my shirt" (influenced by the Guaraní "ajogua che kamisarã". In neutral Spanish it should be "I bought a shirt")

• The "Yopará" itself said. It is the mixture of the Spanish language with Guaraní and is the most used in the country. Words in Guaraní are used in a conversation in Spanish, or verbal conjugations of Guaraní for a Castilian word. Examples:
  • "Solutionate our problem" (the word "jasolucionáta" is influenced by Guaraní (Yopará). "ha" (it is pronounced "already.") equals "We", and "ta" refers to action in future time. In neutral Spanish it should be "We will solve our problem" or "We will solve our problem".
  • "Eñetranquilizána" (the word is influenced by Guaraní (Yopará). "Eñe" is equivalent to "Te", passive voice in second person, and "na" is equivalent to "please". In neutral Spanish it should be "Please calm down" or "Please relax".
  • "Jaha to buy" (the word "Jaha" comes from the Guaraní meaning "Come on." In neutral Spanish it is equivalent to "Let's Buy".
  • "Oñondive ñaganáta" (the word "Oñondive" comes from Guaraní meaning "Together". The word "ñaganáta" is influenced by the Guaraní (Yopará). "Ña" is equivalent to "We", and "ta" refers to action in the future. In neutral Spanish it should be "Together we will win".

• Paraguayisms, words and prayers in Spanish. It usually has Guaraní as well as foreign influence. Examples:
  • "I find myself" ("hallar" is used as synonym for "learning" instead of indicating location)

• • "I'm going to take a picture of you" ("looting" is used as a synonym for "saving" or "touching" in the case of taking photographs)

Similarities with the River Plate dialect

Due to the geographical and cultural proximity, both dialects are often confused, because on the border between Argentina and Paraguay, their respective dialects merge, creating a variety of northeastern Argentina very similar to Paraguayan Spanish in the provinces already alluded to. Examples:

• common use of the expression "che". It is often considered a "bad saying" in the country, since "che" means "me" in Guaraní, although its pronunciation is different from Spanish, since the "che" is pronounced as /she/ in Guaraní.

• sporadic aspiration of /s/ in colloquial speech.

• voseo cult and similar in the conjugation.

• shares part of the rioplatense lexicon (e.g. some words of the lunfardo).

Voseo

The voseo (use of "vos", instead of "tú") is a peculiar characteristic of Paraguayan Spanish, greatly influenced by the River Plate dialect. Thus, in the second half of the XX century, the occurrence of voseo almost always depended on whether the school teacher voseo or not. The Argentine influence in music, cinema and literature, in addition to mass media such as radio and television, were decisive for voseo in the country.

In some regions of the interior of the country, specifically in suburban or rural areas, or those of less favored social class, they can mix tuteo and voseo. For example, the use of "you" with the verbal forms of "vos" and vice versa.^{[citation required]}

Variations of Paraguayan Spanish

The Spanish spoken in Paraguay has its differences within the national territory, depending on the geographical area, according to the social environment, and also according to the educational or socioeconomic level of the speaker.

• Urban Spanish (major rioplatense influence): The Spanish spoken in the major cities, as in Asunción, speaks a Spanish with more influence from the Spanish rioplatense than from the Guaraní. It is often associated more with the young generation raised in the larger urban areas, or people with a more favorable socio-economic level. Some characteristics of this variant are: the predominant use of the voseo, the use of the alveolar approach [ Chuckles ] by the "r" preconsonántica and final, similar to the pronunciation in American or Dutch English. Example: sign [fi v.ma res], among others.

• Spanish of the interior (greater Guaraní influence): On the other hand, the Spanish of the countryside or the interior of the country is more "mixed" with the Guaraní language—called jopará or jehe'a—and its Guaraní influence is greater than in the previous variant; besides being less intonated and more paused. This way of speaking is proper to most bilingual Paraguayans, or those who are Guaraní-speaking and have Spanish as a second language. Some features of this variant are that: the group "tr" is pronounced as a deaf African postalveolar [t spin.], similar to the sound of the digraph /ch/.; the pronunciation was like jue. For example, “fire” is often pronounced as a “game”, among others. Voseo can be mixed with the tuteo in this variant.

• Spanish with other foreign influences: Towards the border with Brazil, in the east of the country, in some people, Spanish spoken has some influence of Portuguese, because of the number of Brazilian immigrants residing in that area of the country, in addition to the importance of border trade. While in the Central Chaco, the influence is of the German language, by the Mennonites present in that place.

Similarities and differences with other Spanish dialects