Venezuelan Spanish

The Venezuelan Spanish or Venezuelan Spanish is the name used by sociolinguistics to designate, collectively, the varieties of Spanish from Venezuela. In general, a large part of Venezuelan dialects are Caribbean varieties of Spanish. Due to the ambiguity of the term "dialect", these varieties are not formally classified at an academic level as such, despite important differences, including voseo and túeo.

Because the Constitution in its ninth article specifies "The official language is Spanish," there is a marked preference in the use of that name, although the term "Spanish" is not rejected.

Origin

The Castilian language arrived in Venezuela with the Spanish conquest carried out since the first years of the XVI century. Most of the conquistadors and settlers were originally from regions where southern varieties of Spanish were spoken such as Andalusia, Extremadura and the Canary Islands. Furthermore, the waves of migrants from different parts of Italy since the viceregal era and the strong immigration from Portugal greatly influenced the Spanish spoken in the country. The Spanish of the aforementioned regions constitutes the basis of the modern Spanish spoken in Venezuela.

Characteristic elements

Phonetics and phonology

Particular characteristics of the Spanish language in Venezuela known as "Venezuelanisms" (typical changes of a region as occurs in all regions of the countries of the world, without this necessarily converting the language of the region into a dialect or subdialect) which, without being similar, bears a close similarity to the Andalusian dialect:

• Only in the colloquial speech usually aspires the final /s of the syllables and usually changes by a /h/ if the following word starts in consonant (transforming "adid" in adioh and «casas» in househ). In addition, it is usually lost d intervocálica (intervocálica)melao instead of “melating”; pea instead of "paper", fishing instead of "fishing"), even at the end of the word. With this elision, the suffixes -ado-edo e-Gone. (and their corresponding female forms) become -ao-eo e-ONE. This feature is accentuated in the speakers of the area of Los Llanos and Centro Occidente (Lara and Falcón).
• Seseo (the s, c and z pronounced as s), trait shared by all Spanish-American dialects.

Morphology and syntax

• A use that Venezuelans share with the Colombians, Dominicans, Cubans, Costa Ricans and Puerto Ricans is the use of the diminutive finished in - Boy. or - Yeah., but only used with finished roots in -t: «ratico, momentico, gatico», or is used combined with suffix - Dude..
• It is common to the topic of daily speaking, and the use of the "usted" is limited to situations of greater formality or by addressing older persons or greater hierarchy. On the other hand, in the Andean areas near Colombia it is common to “users” or to treat “you” among family members and friends above the tuteo.
• The voseo is spread in large eastern areas of the country, which there are two voseo variants in Venezuela, voseo zuliano and Andino, the zuliano voseo is mostly spoken in the state of Zulia, Falcón and less measured in Merida, this type of voseo is used in few parts of America with the original verbal form, in Zulia it is said: (You dance) or (Vos cantos). The Andean voseo is spoken in the Andean region of Venezuela, it has the same characteristics of the Rio de Janeiro voseo, however, the Andean voseo is only verbal.
• Despite being a country located in South America, Venezuelan Spanish shares many characteristics with the other variants of the Caribbean due to its economic influence, livelihood of the islands with a strong land.
• It is the custom of Venezuela to form expressions in a figurative sense with expressions more... than..., which may in some cases be jocky. For example: more dangerous than a monkey with a cheek, harder than a marriage to swearamong many others.

Lexicon and expressions

Indigenous influence

Venezuelan Spanish, like that of the rest of Latin America and Spanish in general, has taken numerous words from indigenous languages. Some examples:

• Arepa (from the caribbean).
• Auyama (from the arahuaco).
• Budare (from the caribbean).
• Casabe (pan de yuca) and conuco (huerto) taino.
• Chinchorro (from the chaima).
• Ocumo (from the arahuaco).
• Onoto (de) anotoThe word of the tamanac.
• Totuma or tutuma (of the chaima)

Expressions of Venezuela's own and popular origin

Venezuelan expressions

Another of the peculiarities of Venezuelan Spanish is the use of hypocoristics, some examples would be: Pancho, Fran, Chico for someone named Francisco. Chucho, Chuo, Chu, Chuy to refer to someone named Jesus as well as Cheo, Che, Sé to call someone named José. In the same way they can be combined for people with middle names, an example would be José Manuel for Sema or Chema, María Fernanda for Mafer, Marifer or Mariafer, Juan Carlos for Juanca, María Alejandra for Mariale, Juan Pablo for Juanpa, Luis Fernando for Luisfer, María José for Majo, María Alexandra for Marialex etc. It should be noted that in some cases the use lacks any relationship with the given name.

Foreign influence

Throughout its history, Venezuelan Spanish has absorbed or been influenced by the various immigrant waves, the economic and industrial activities that have been developed in the country, among which can be found:

Influence of Italian

Influence of French

Influence of British English

Influence of American English

It is also worth noting that many English-speaking words have been incorporated into the Venezuelan vocabulary, being many times more common than their equivalents in Spanish, due to the great influence that the United States has had in the region since the beginning of the century. XX.

Venezuelans use some words in English that have an equivalent in Spanish. For example:

• Full: Complete, saturated, full.
• Ticket: Ticket.
• Selfie: Photo of it.

Influence of Africa

Influence of Brazilian Portuguese

• Criollo: From Creole and this one raising and it means "of our land."

Influence of Arabic

• patilla: Arab بية(batija), to refer to fruit citrullus lanatus or watermelon

Commercial influence

In Venezuela there are many words pronounced differently from their writing that are actually names of finished products or brands of said products, which is known as vulgarized brand or vulgarization. This is mainly due to the novelty that such a product represented when it arrived in Venezuela and little by little it has been incorporated into the Venezuelan vocabulary.

An example of this are words like:

Main dialects

The varieties of the Venezuelan Spanish language can be classified into the following dialects:

Caracan dialect - central

Characteristic accent whose use is very common in states such as the Capital District, La Guaira, Miranda, Aragua and Carabobo. It is also the main dialect used in national television media and has a relatively broad lexical influence on other Venezuelan dialects, being the standard dialect of the country and the stereotype of Venezuelan Spanish internationally.

Zuliano - Marabino dialect

Spoken mainly in the state of Zulia, and in the municipality of Mauroa, Falcón, differentiated by voseo and in many cases tuteo, non-existent in the rest of the country except in the state of Falcón and in some cases in Trujillo, this because they are nearby states. to Zulia, in addition to a clearly different accent and use of words. It is one of the few parts of America where the singular voseo is practiced with the plural verbal declension, that is, "you dance" instead of "you dance", as it is used in some parts of the (Falcón state) and in many countries. Hispanic Americans, for example Argentina, Costa Rica, Colombia (some areas), El Salvador, Honduras, Cuba, Nicaragua and Uruguay.

Andean dialect - gocho

Spoken in the states where the Andes Mountains begin, (Andes Region): Trujillo, Mérida and Táchira and small parts of Barinas and Apure. It is also very particular, as is the case with marabino, but unlike it, it uses "you" instead of "vos" (which is also used, in a minority, with a tendency to obsolescence). They also use the word "toche" (expletive) which derives from a particular bird of the region. Most pronounce the aspirated letter f as [x] (sound of the j), for example «una julana» (so-and-so), «muy projundo» (deep), etc It bears a certain similarity to the Colombian Andean dialect, in fact the inhabitants of the rest of the country tend to identify or confuse the Venezuelan Andean accent more with the dialects of Colombia than with the Venezuelan ones given its geographical proximity, it is also called Gocho but pejoratively in some states. Voseo is also spoken in the Andean region by a minority of speakers, specifically used in the northeast of the state of Mérida, it has some similarity with the River Plate voseo.

Llanero dialect

It is the dialect spoken in the Venezuelan plains, one of its characteristics is a considerable aboriginal lexicon. The letter s is aspirated, this is how you have:

"Will the cattle go up?
"Ji [yes].

It is spoken in the plains states of Guárico, Portuguesa, Cojedes, Barinas, Apure and parts of Anzoátegui and Monagas.

Central-western dialect - Guaro

Initially spoken in Barquisimeto, and El Tocuyo, it spread throughout the east, south and southeast of the Lara state and other states of the Central West and north of the Portuguesa state where it is widely understood. It is characterized by its accent that goes from soft to differentiated depending on the area of the region and suppression of the [r] sound in informal speech when using infinitive verbs ("I'm going to eat »). This variation of Spanish in turn suffers from some barbarisms in everyday or informal language by suppressing the sound of [d] in the past participle of verbs when the present perfect is used in negative sentences ("no I have studied nothing, you have not bought what I told you, she has not brought it »). At a phonetic level, again, you usually hear expressions like "so that I review it", instead of "so that you review it", "pa" "let him bring it" instead of "so that you bring it"; That is to say, the sound of [s] is changed to that of [jm] - a purely nasal sound - with the last vowel present in the last syllable being accentuated «arrójm, tréjm, dojm. It also uses "Naguará" as an expression, which according to the intonation or emphasis used determines the use but does not have a specific meaning ("Naguará, I won a machine" or "Naguará I crashed my car", "What is that guarandinga?" ?»). Other guara expressions are "vasié" or "sié'cará" (of disagreement or disbelief), "Ah world!" (longing), "ah, mal hay" (of desire), "ah vaina güena" (excellent, quality), "caca" (of disgust), "adiú" (to express mistake), etc.

Another linguistic phenomenon present in the Guaro or Guarilandés variant is the repetition of the verb ser in sentences and questions with derogatory connotations: «Martín is like he is achanta'o ehm» «you are gafo ehm». Noting that the sound of [s] is changed by the nasal sound [jm], «and was it I was?» «and was it that Filomena left, was it? ». Likewise the double ya «Have you already bought?» "it's already here", similar to an address in the double perfect tense.

This variant, in addition to being appreciated in the state of Lara, its influence in part of the state of Falcón is also notable, particularly in Punto Fijo. It should be noted that there is a variant of it called corian that is spoken in Falcón, where the intervocalic d is lost; Thus we have barbarisms such as rue'a (for "wheel"), crú'o (for "crude"), mú' o (for "dumb"), ma'úro (for "mature"), wed'o (for "fear"), etc

Some expressions of Guaro/Guarilandés Spanish

Oriental dialect - Margariteño

It is used mainly on Margarita Island, and coastal cities such as Barcelona, Cumaná, Carúpano, although it also extends among the majority of the population of the states Anzoátegui, Monagas, Nueva Esparta and Sucre, recognized by the transliteration of the / l/ in /r/, in addition to other peculiarities (orientar for "oriental" and orientá for "orientate", for example). Familiar language is used, there is a tendency to change the article el with er, examples would be «er mar» ('the sea'), «er sor» ('the sol'), 'er bird cantaor' ('the singing bird'). The diffusion or extension of Margariteño to other areas of eastern Venezuela is due to the fact that Margarita is an island in which fishing and tourism constitute important activities, in addition to also being an area of traditional emigration to other relatively close places on the continent. which favored contact and, therefore, homogenization in the language. Lisp is also very common (pronouncing the c, s and z like the Spanish z); Likewise, the word "boy!" is used as an expression of astonishment. or "girl!" This type of language also extends throughout the northeastern region (the states of Anzoátegui, Monagas, Nueva Esparta and Sucre).

• Mijo: His name is m’hijo (which means ‘my son’ but in a sense generally linked to astonishment—as an intersection—). His diminutive Mijito is used derogatively when accented in the second "i" (Mijíto)But when he's accentuated in the "o" (Mijitó or Mijó) is used generally friendly.
• Compái: Compadre./ Comái: Comadre.
• Son 'to be devil: Used as an expression of ‘very naughty man’.
• Nice to meet you. Person who does not pay attention to what he does, is synonymous with "gafo". Example "many'er devil, you're loving'o, you don't put care'o".
• Major...! It denotes astonishment by the large size of a specific thing.
• Mother...! Expresses awe for something, or indignation for a slander. It is used mostly on Margarita Island.
• Papa/Mama: It is used to refer to parents (it is the same as "Dad" and "Mom", but no accent). Expressions are also used Grandpa. and "Mama grandmother" to refer to grandparents, especially when these are the ones who have raised the person. These terms are of common use on the island of Margarita.
• Pay/May: these terms are also used to refer to parents. For example: "John went to his May's house, to refer to the mother. "Your pay gave me this," to refer to the father.
• Oh, Virgin der Valle! Expression of surprise, astonishment or pain. The Eastern is often very clinging to the Catholic religion.
• Completed with or at the end of their own names and accentuating in this. The Eastern Margariteño usually annexes the vowel or At the end of their own names using diminutives or adding directly, no matter the genre, examples would be Luisit'ó by Luis, Sandra'ó by Sandra, María'ó by María, etc.

• Picha: name used to refer to marbles in the eastern Venezuelan. In other parts of the country, they are known as ♪.

• Guaratara: name given to a large stone.

Caroreño dialect

Initially spoken in the west of the Lara state, in the Torres Autonomous Caroreño Municipality, and spreading towards the southwest and northeast during a historical connection and domination of the Caroreño identity (caroreñismo) over these localities. Currently there is a municipal and community connection that forms the Caroreña Region, such as the municipalities of Urdaneta, Baralt, Silva, Iturriza and Palmasola. This region of Venezuela maintains a type of Spanish similar to the River Plate Spanish (of official parallel use between voseo and tuteo) with its own and very old jargon, with Canarian, African, indigenous (achagua and caquetía), Galician and Catalan influences. It is characterized by a marked sound accent of strong tonality and sometimes exaggeration. At a phonetic level, the elimination of the 'R', 'S' and the 'D' in the past participle. The 'S' many times it is changed by a kind of 'H' blown and in a few cases, aspirated or replaced by 'J'. They commonly change the 'I' for the 'E', like 'deferencea', 'cambea' or 'poleséa'. Voseo and tuteo are usually used in the same sentence, although voseo is by percentage more used than tuteo. In this dialect the word 'Well' to replace statements like 'Yes, of course'. It is also known for its emblematic expressions such as 'ah diablo, chiahblo, chiah, diah, dianche or diantre'. On many occasions you can see the play on words they make with other words in everyday use, ending them with 'chiah', like 'verchiah, nojochiah...'. They have their own way of referring to transportation, nothing similar to what is used in the rest of the country. They also have their own names to refer to games and things of everyday and not so everyday use. The world-famous Argentine writer, Adolfo Bioy Casares, managed to record about 500 Rioplatense words during his time in La Carora, before he died. Some time later, the Caroreños professors, Gerardo Castillo and Pablo Arapé, had the initiative to write a Dictionary of Caroreñismos, so that outsiders could investigate what the Caroreños are trying to say. 'Old dad and old mom' is used; to refer to great-grandfather and great-grandmother. During political and natural disasters, the chaos is always the devil's fault and they use a well-known expression 'The devil is let loose!' Carora!'..

Particularities

Transportation

• A free one: is a taxi
• A taxi: is a concrete route bus
• A quick one.: it is a cooperative transport per post or collective taxi (also used in Barquisimeto and the entire Lara state).
• A thousand: is cheaper and informal transport

Objects and food

• Yaquis: Pympom or Pympim
• Honda: is fonda
• Budare: it is grill or iron (we use budare, but of less use)
• Chancleta / Chancla: sandals
• Chupi Chupi / Polo: is bambino

Common Caroreñás expressions

• Vajacré?: used to ask if something is straight.
• Did you love me?: used to refer to a situation of strangeness or confusion.
• Pendejo: used to refer to something big, too much. For example: Oh, stupid house!, Fucking asshole! or Oh, you fucking gaff!
• Azogue: used in this region as a synonym for 'ladilla, having a lot of energy or being very agitated'.
• Ajilao: used as a synonym for 'go fast and quiet'.
• Chilinchar: used as a synonym for 'cheming'.
• Tallao: used as a synonym for 'golpe'.
• Help: is used when someone is wrong about something.
• Ah!: equivalent to na'guará Barquisimetano.

Exceptions

It should be noted that in the most depressed areas of the country (favelas or "neighborhoods") a type of slang popularly called malandreo jargon is also often used, which is quite frowned upon because It is mostly used by criminals. And occasionally seen in the middle class, this type of dialect is a mix between Dominican and Puerto Rican, often changing [r] for [l], such as: Que es lo que es, menol instead of menor.