Voseo

Affirmative imperative voseante conjugation of coming in the second singular person of the typical voseo.

The voseo is a linguistic phenomenon within the Spanish language in which the pronoun «vos» is used, along with certain particular verbal conjugations, to address the interlocutor, instead of the pronoun «tú » in familiar situations.

By extension, it can refer to the mere use of the pronoun «vos» or, on the contrary, to the use of its verbal conjugations together with the pronoun «you».

There are two types of voseo:

• The voseo reverencial, which consists of the use of the pronoun "vos" to reverentially address the second grammatical person — both singular and plural—, implying the verbal conjugation of the second person of plural: "what you say", "you are from there", "you stay with your family". Arcaic and disused way for centuries, it only persists in the literature set in ancient times and in ritual formulas.
• The you American dialect, which proceeds grammatically in the same way, although the morphology of its conjugation has suffered different evolutions across the continent; it addresses the second person of singular and has informal value, contrasting typically with the formal treatment of you.

Morphologically, it can affect all tenses and modes, however, it is usually restricted to the present indicative.

In the speech of the American continent, except in eastern Cuba, the voseo does not take into account its two classic correlates —current in peninsular Spanish— of "os" (second person plural object pronoun) and the possessive «your», also referred to the second person plural. The first is replaced by «a vos» / «te», while the possessive is replaced by «tu» / «tuyo/-a/-s».

In areas where «vos» is in vulgar use, the exchange of pronominal and verbal forms of the tuteo and the voseo can occur: «tú querés», «vos tienes».

The origin of the voseo goes back to the Latin voice «vos», which was generally the plural form of the second grammatical person, with the exception of the case of subjects with their sovereign^{[citation required]} in which its use was to indicate its superiority, a use that was maintained in Old Spanish.^{[citation required]}

The systematic study of the voseo phenomenon in Latin America began in 1921 with Observations on Spanish in America by the Dominican philologist Pedro Henríquez Ureña, which is the first work in which the variations and dialectal characteristics of the Spanish language in America. The author acknowledges the presence of voseo on the Río de la Plata, in southeastern Mexico, in the southwestern United States, throughout Central America (except for most of Panama) and in regions of Colombia, and qualifies as unfounded generalizations the Spanish belief that the pronoun vos and the corresponding verb forms were used throughout Hispanic America. Later, in 1930, Eleuterio Felipe Tiscornia in his study La lengua de Martín Fierro he refers to voseo in the different Spanish-American dialects.

History

Background

The beginning of the Spanish voseo must be traced back to the IV century. At that time, the use of vos, instead of tú, had a social value that suggested the greatest respect. Its use is limited to dealing with the emperor. The expansion of the use of vos would have become more complex and extensive during the 6th and 7th centuries, as evidenced by different documents that mark the extension of vos to a single person. In this evolution of the voseo, Páez Urdaneta believes he sees two sociolinguistic variants that break the original stratification of [+ power] or [+ authority]. These variables are pragmaticity and sentimentality.

In Spain, the use of vos changed over the centuries. It went from being an asymmetric vertical axis of [+ authority] or [+ power], in which vos was used from the lower social status to the higher, to the opposite direction: from higher to lower, that is, for those speakers who have [– authority] or [– power] and, likewise, from the pole of distance to that of closeness. Later the voseo was also used reciprocally in people of equal status. Thus, we have that in ss. XI-XII the voseo is used for social rank, pragmaticity and chivalrous virtue, while the familiar term was reserved for the family. In the ss. From the 13th to the 14th century the Reconquest advanced and the social groups were consolidated (nobility, clergy and common people, made up of farmers, artisans and merchants), so that the vos gained extra-group strength, also being used as superior to lower. The pragmatic vos continues to exist (when a favor or benefit is expected from the interlocutor), but the chivalric virtue loses validity. At the end of the XV century, the end of the Reconquest modifies the treatment formulas once again. The vos is also used for those of equal rank, which leads to wear and tear that makes it necessary to introduce a new formula, vuestra merced with the verb in the third person. Then, the you returned to recover its primitive second person singular value for trust. This phenomenon is reflected in the classics of the Golden Age, led by Don Quixote de la Mancha, and in modern works set at the time, such as the Captain Alatriste series. The voseo ended up disappearing from peninsular and Philippine Spanish already in the XIX century; leaving usted as the pronoun of courtesy, which expresses respect from one speaker to another while "you" represents the treatment of familiarity (among relatives or close friends) or inferiority (an employer towards his employee).

During the conquest and colonization of America, then, the Spanish used a system that included both vos and tú to address an inferior or an equal, or in situations trusted. This subsisted in all the colonies until approximately the XVIII century, when the vos began to be lost. i> in the regions of Spanish America that were most economically linked to Spain: New Spain (much of Mexico and the United States), Peru, the Antilles, and in some regions of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Meanwhile, in the most isolated regions of the Spanish Empire, the voseo was preserved, often coexisting with the treatment of tú: Central America, some departments of the Andean region of Colombia and Ecuador, the Southern Cone and the Marabino and Andean zone of Venezuela.

Evolution of respectful treatment

In America there are three main possibilities of treatment formulas:

• The very one in the Latin America, where we find the "you" treatment for the second single person of trust and the "you" treatment for the second one of respect (e.g., in Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic).
• The Latin America itself is only voseante, where the form of trust is the voseo, which coexists with the treatment of respect through "you" (e.g. in Argentina or most of Central America).
• The one in the tuteante-voseante America, where the voseo is restricted to the intimate sphere; the tuteo is for intermediate confidence; and the tithe is used as a form of respect (e.g., in Chile part of Central America and the Equatorial Andes).

Voseo classes

Reverential Vow

In the reverential voseo, the pronoun vos was used for the subject ("vos miráis"), becoming os in cases where the pronoun fulfills the grammatical function complement ("I look at you"). However, when the pronoun is prepositional, the pronoun vos remains ("I hear you", "I will walk with you"). The possessive, like the verbal inflection, was limited to the plural even before a single interlocutor. The verb forms are always conjugated in the second person plural ("you know my pain", "look at your children", "you walk slowly").

The use of the reverential voseo is very rare today, sticking to texts that try to reflect the speech of other times or to refer to some degrees or titles in solemn acts."Do you swear by God and these Holy Gospels to carry out loyally and faithfully the position of Minister of State in the Office of… that I entrust to you?».

In Huánuco (Peru) there is a voseo similar to the reverential one in terms of the context of use, although not in terms of grammatical forms.

American dialect Voseo

In the other moods, the difference is similar.
The imperative is similar to the second person plural, but it loses the final -d (speak → speak); the form in -r typical of the dialects of the Iberian Peninsula is unknown.
For the subjunctive, there is social variation.
In River Plate Spanish, the form considered standard and used in written media and by middle and upper layers of society, is identical to the one used for you; In some cases, mainly in the lower social strata and less educated, the stress is shifted to the last syllable by assimilation to the indicative form (que tú comas -> que vos comás, that you say -> that you say), also losing vowel alternation (that you lose -> that you lose). In some cases, the resulting form is not identical to that of the indicative of the verb (that you sleep -> that you sleep, do not sleep).
In the voseante dialects outside of Río de la Plata, the conjugation of vos in the subjunctive (durmás, perdás, empeciés, etc.) belongs to normal use and has nothing to do with the social class or education of a person (voseante).

The American dialectal voseo, or simply voseo, has a different use from the old voseo: it is not reverential, but rather denotes familiarity with the interlocutor in the regions where it is practiced. There are two types of voseo that occur simultaneously or independently depending on the region: the pronominal voseo and the verbal voseo.

Voseo pronominal

The pronominal voseo is the use of the pronoun vos as a subject («you eat»), vocative («You, help me!»), as a complement with a preposition («Te vi a vos»), and as a comparative term ("He is as tall as you"). In the cases of complements without a preposition and unstressed pronouns, "te" and "tu" are used ("He is looking at you", "Did you see how your car was left?"), and in the case of the possessive, we use "You" or "Yours" ("You said it was your car. You said it was yours.")

Verbal vowing

The variation in the verbal endings of the second person plural to refer to the second person singular is called verbal voseo. There are different changes in the verbal ending according to geographical and cultural reasons.

Other variations

The use of «vos» instead of «tú» is one of the most characteristic phenomena of River Plate Spanish. In the Río de la Plata dialect, the Paraguayan dialect, the Chapaco dialect, the Camba dialect and in the Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) the conjugation of voseo normally differs from the tuteante only in the present tense of the indicative mood., in the imperative, the present subjunctive and, in some cases, the preterite indicative: "you sing/you sing", "you sing/you sing", "you are/you are", "you move/you move », «that you sing/that you sing», «you sang/you sang».
In the River Plate vernacular, the verbal voseo also extends to the past tense^{[citation required ]} and the present subjunctive ("I want you to sing", "you said it was late"), but they are not well regarded in the educated register and the forms of the familiar form are preferred: "que vos cantes", " You said it was late."

In the southeast of Mexico (Chiapas, Tabasco), and central and western Colombia, the verbal voseo is usually used for the present of the indicative, of the imperative and also for the subjunctive mood.

On the other hand, in the Chilean dialect the voseo occurs for the present, imperfect and conditional past tense of the indicative mood and for the present and imperfect past of the subjunctive mood. The form in the simple future has practically disappeared, due to its replacement by the paraphrase formed by going in the present and a verb in the infinitive, except in some places such as Chilote Spanish, where traditionally only the tuteo is used in other tenses.

The reason is that the conjugation comes from the reverential voseo and in its origins it was completely independent of «tú». The second person singular could then take two forms: that of normal treatment ("you") and the reverential ("you"). Today there is also you, which comes from the reverential address "your grace." The plural was taken from both "vos" and "usted", and today in Spain "vosotros" is used, while in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world "ustedes" is used. Thus, “vos sos” comes from “vos sois”, “vos movés” from “vos movéis” and “pensá vos” from “pensad vos”. This coincidence does not exist in countries like Chile, where they say «vos/tú soi/erís», «vos/tú movís», with a monophthongization of -éis in -ís, and «piensa vos/tú». The voseo used in the Venezuelan state of Zulia agrees with the conjugation of the reverential voseo, although not with its pronominal forms; In Zulia they say "you are", "you move".

In general, voseo in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Central America, southern and eastern Bolivia, southern Guajira, and northern Colombia's Cesar drop the "i" from the original second-person verb conjugation. On the other hand, the voseo in Chile monophthongs -éis into -ís and aspirates the final “s” in its pronunciation (a fact that occurs with all the final esses in Chilean Spanish), while the one from Zulia is faithful to the original form.

In Argentina, southern and eastern Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, voseo is universally accepted, both by different social classes, as well as in written and oral language. The Royal Spanish Academy includes in its online dictionary exclusively the conjugations of voseo considered prestigious in Argentina, Paraguay or Uruguay. These conjugations are used in the main cities of Argentina, in Asunción and Montevideo by the lower, middle and upper classes of society and exclude -in general- the subjunctive mode.

Verbal correspondence in Uruguay (and some parts of southern Chile) alternates with that of «tú»: «tú tenés, vos tenés»; «you are, you are». Something similar to what happens in Argentina with the correspondence of the present subjunctive: «you know, you know»; "you can, you can"; and in Chile with "you have, you have"; «you are/are, you are/are»; "You can, you can."

Geographic distribution

Voseo in an announcement by the Argentine singer Sandro in Buenos Aires - Argentina

In Spain, the voseo has resisted in some isolated areas. For example, in Andalusia it was still used in the XIX century, according to literary documents, for example, Fernán's novels Gentleman. It differs from the American voseo in that it is registered for the intermediate trust. That is, the tuteo is in a downward direction (children or servants) or egalitarian, in the utmost intimacy (between siblings or spouses), while the voseo is used for an intermediate distance, in a bottom-up direction (children to parents, for example), or symmetrically, when there is not great trust (for example, between neighbors).

In America, the voseo has persisted in a large part of its territory with different luck. It settles in the educated norm, in the Río de la Plata, but it is rural or substandard in many countries. In others, such as Venezuela, it is a regional norm (that is, that, in certain areas, there is a local pride for its use). In Central America, the Río de la Plata type voseo is accepted only in the family context. Familiarity is the norm of prestige, it occurs in an unfamiliar context, in written expression and predominates in the media. In Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica the tuteo is almost non-existent.

Currently, voseo is distributed in different parts of the Hispanic world, but it is predominant in Central America (with the exception of most of Panama), western Venezuela, and in the Southern Cone of South America, especially Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Other voseous regions of America are eastern Bolivia, most of Chile, parts of the mountains and the coast of Ecuador, western and northeastern Colombia, and southeastern Mexico. In Spain, Equatorial Guinea, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, the use of vos has completely disappeared in speech. In Cuba and Peru, the voseo is in the process of disappearing, it is only perceived in a small strip of the eastern part of Cuba and on the northern and southern borders of Peru.

Countries with widespread oral and written voseo

Generalized oral and written voiceGeneralized oral voiceVoseo coexisting with the discredited regional tuteo or voseoWithout you

• Argentina (pronominal and verbal vote, pronoun ♪ only in some northern regions)

It is the predominant form of treatment in all social strata. Convive with the you, the latter being reserved for formal situations or as a courtesy treatment. The You suggests a greater familiarity between the speakers than the you. It should be noted that the word Tuteo, in Argentina, is understood as referring to the employment of YouTo distinguish it from formal speech. The so-defined tuteo can be appropriate or not, depending on the situation between the interlocutors. Progressively since the late 90s and early 2000s, there is a tendency to use tuteo in advertising, although the treatment of you is considered correct in technical speech or by addressing a doctor, teacher, older adults, among others.

Example of voseo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where read You want to change? I came to Claro..

• Paraguay (pronominal and verbal voice, pronoun ♪ only in some parts of the interior)

Their employment is universal and accepted at all levels of society. In some regions of the interior of the country, specifically in suburban or rural areas, or those of less favored social class, the tuteo and voseo can be mixed.

• Uruguay (pronominal and verbal voice, pronoun ♪ is used with verbal forms of You)

The forms of voseo are accepted without reservation by all social classes. However, in Montevideo, the use of ♪ together with the verbal forms of You, although colloquially the voseo riverplatense is widely used. In the interior of the country is used both voseo as the “you” accompanying the verbal forms of the “vos”. The "tuteo" is most frequently used in its entirety, for example in Rocha, Rivera and departments around Brazil.

The use of the pronominal form ♪ is minority and persists in two regions: (a) in the ultraserran area, and (b) in the Tacuarembó River basin, near the border with Brazil.

Voseo generalized; Prestige in formal settings varies by region

• Bolivia (East and South: Pronominal and verbal voseo; West: voseo y tuteo verbal)

In the west (the Andean area and high valleys: La Paz, Oruro, Potosí, Chuquisaca and Cochabamba) is characterized by the confusion of the pronominal forms of voseo and tuteo; verbal forms are tuteantes with the exception of the imperative and in the writing and in the cult record the use of 'you' is preserved. Confusion is seen more in the departments of: La Paz, Oruro and Cochabamba.

In the east, south and north (the plain area, chaqueña and low valleys: Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, Pando, Chaco boliviano, north of La Paz, south and east of Chuquisaca) it is more common the pronominal and verbal voseo of the Rioplatense type; it is frequently used even in television, press and written.

• Costa Rica (pronominal and verbal voice, the pronoun "you" is practically nonexistent)

The deal. You is also very widespread, and it occurs especially among family, friends and people close to the locutor. Generally, most of the population prefers to try you to all people. The tuteo is poorly seen and connota pedantería. Voseo is a majority in Cartago, San José and Heredia Centro. In some areas, treatment You coexists with the you: In Heredia, Alajuela and rural areas, and in the coastal provinces (Guanacaste, Puntarenas and Limón) both are employed.

Voseo generalized; prestigious tuteo in formal settings

• Chile (verbal vote; pronominal voseo is considered excessively colloquial, vulgar or derogatory)

Voseo is a general phenomenon that only occurs in family and colloquial speech; it affects all times and verbal modes, but it is rarely used in imperative. It is common the aspiration of 's' in verbal endings in verbal endings. − and his disappearance in the forms −. In cities and throughout the country, it is commonly used in informal situations. Tuteo predominates in formal areas. In addition, there is a mixed use of pronominal tuteo with verbal voseo, considered more formally than the pronominal voseo (the latter considered "vulgar", but accepted in all social classes).

the Chilean voseo can appear in all the verbal times and in both indicative and subjunctive mode, except in the simple future and perfect preterito simple of the indicative mode and in [...]. It is used at all levels of society, in colloquial style, and can be combined with pronouns (not marked), or with γvos (marked pragmatically).

The authentic voseo, that is, the use of the pronoun vos accompanied by the conjugation voseante, is maintained until today in rural areas and among the uneducated population in the cities.

• El Salvador (coexistence of voseo and tuteo; voseo is pronominal with verbal forms of You and ♪)

Voseo in El Salvador: I put your cold here! The equivalent of Tuteo It would have been Get your cold here!

Predominates a terniary system in which You is family or confidence treatment, ♪ treatment of intermediate formality and you the most formal treatment. In the more informal sphere, the treatment of You with verbal forms of ♪, although the use of verbal forms of Youespecially in imperative.

It should be noted that the use of you and ♪ for the treatment of trust is very widespread, especially in people over the age of 20, and it exceeds that of You in the 2 older groups (adults and elders); while the treatment of children and adolescents is universal You. In the workplace it is preferred you or ♪, while in school you in the student-teacher relationship (and vice versa), and You among the students.

It is generally considered that the voseo indicates “family”. It is also considered “vulgar” and that its use “does not have a manifest prestige”.

• Guatemala (verbal and pronominal)

Voseo is widespread mainly among older persons and similar genders. The tuteo is formal and professional but not as formal as the you which is used to older or unknown persons. Women often treat ♪, although employed You when there is already much confidence among them; while in men the use of ♪ it is poorly seen, because it is perceived as a form of shaving and even homosexuality. The treatment of persons of different kinds does not occur You Unless there's confidence, it's usually used. you, ♪ is used when you have the interest of a sentimental relationship. However, usually the use of ♪ is used with verbal forms of You.

Between brothers the deal You is generally reciprocal. Older persons or authority are usually treated youwhile these treat those of a minor age or authority You.

• Honduras (pronominal and verbal voice, coexistence with the tuteo)

Voseo used in a signage within a commercial center in Tegucigalpa, Honduras: In City you will find everything to look like you like. The equivalent of Tuteo It would have been In City you find everything to look like you like.

Predominates a terniary system in which You is family or confidence treatment, ♪ treatment of intermediate formality and you the most formal treatment.

The deal. ♪ is predominant in the media.^{[chuckles]required]} The use of the tuteo is poorly seen among men, as it is not very common.^{[chuckles]required]}

• Nicaragua (pronominal and verbal vote, the tuteo is minority)

The deal. You between relatives and friends is widespread in the country, despite the treatment of ♪ exists in a minority way. Generally in formal environments it is preferred to treat ♪ to Youand generally when there are foreigners unfamiliar with the "vos".

Voseo occurs in a common way in family and public treatment between people of the same age or between friends. As a courtesy or respect to persons of public importance (executives, employers, professionals, etc.), adults or older persons are employed you.

The voseo, however, gains more and more formal importance in the commercial and literary market of this country.

Countries with not widespread voseo

The following countries have the use in certain parts of their geography:

• Colombia

Campaign of the mayor of Cali, Colombia.

El voseo se da en los departamento de la Región Paisa (Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío), en el departamento de Valle del Cauca (especially in the city of Cali), en la región Andina de Nariño, y al northoriente del país, en el occidente de Norte de Santander (provincia de Ocaña), el sur de La Guajira y el norte del Cesar. In the majority portion of the Caribbean Coast the tuteo is used and in the rest of Colombia the tithe predominates.

• Cuba

At the beginning of the 1980s he was on the way to disappear, only present in a sector in the eastern part of Camagüey, Bayamo and Manzanillo. It was more widespread in the mountains and the countryside; in the urbanized areas, with the exception of Camagüey, it was not used.

The use of pronoun You In that time more was heard in the talk of adults and elders, although it was also used in times of anger to give greater force to an insult; the verbal voseo had widespread use and was used as a family and confidence treatment.

Unlike the rest of Hispanic America, pronouns os and your were still used, although they could be alternated you and Yoursrespectively. The plural pronoun You. it was used for Cortez treatment in certain contexts.

• Ecuador

In the north and central mountain range the nonverbal pronominal voseo is used, i.e. the pronoun "vos" with the verbal conjugations of the pronoun you (you are, you have, etc.), and on the coast of Esmeraldas. In the rest of Ecuador the tuteo predominates.

• Mexico

In almost the whole state of Chiapas, except for the major cities, and in rural regions of the state of Tabasco,. Voseo is verbal with pronominal tuteo. It occurs mainly among the indigenous population without schooling, which incites that their employment is considered to be "vulgar" and characteristic of a " educated person". His employment is widespread in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, as well as in the city of Chiapa de Corzo, in the region of La Fraylesca, and in some rural towns, all of them in the state of Chiapas.^{[chuckles]required]}

• Panama (some areas of voseo and tuteo alternated)

At the western end (along the border with Costa Rica), and inside the Azuero peninsula; the characteristics of the Panamanian voseo make it similar to the Zuliano voseo, with the only exception that the pronouns are alternated. ♪ and You and that occurs only in the present of the indicative and in the imperative. It is considered archaic and rustic, and is in decline.

• Peru (short areas of voseo and tuteo alternated)

It happens in the north and south, and is unknown in most of the country. The characteristic of voseo in northern Peru is the combination of pronominal voseo and verbal tuteo; in Huánuco, ♪ is used among close relatives, you as an intermediate deal, and You as an honorary. The characteristics of the voseo in the south are:

• It alternates ♪ and You with the verbal forms of the voseo in imperative and in the different times of indicative, for the other verbal modes the forms of ♪.
• Monoptongation in its disindence similar to the Argentinian voseo or rioplatense, with the exception of termination − reduced to −as in the Chilean voseo.

It is in the process of disappearing both in the north and in the south of the country, including Arequipa, where it is sometimes voted in urban or rural areas. Little is used in Arequipa, Moquegua, Tacna and southern Puno areas. It is used with less vigor in: Áncash, the dep. of San Martín, in La Libertad, in Lambayeque and in Cajamarca, in addition to Huánuco.

• Puerto Rico

It appears at the eastern end of the island, in Fajardo, a frequent voseo that is not shared by cult speakers.

• Venezuela

It happens in the northwest, in the area of Lake Maracaibo and in the Venezuelan Andes. There are two modalities: the zuliana and the Andean. The zuliano voseo (Zulia, Falcón, part of Trujillo and Lara) is characterized by the use of the verbal forms of the reverential voseo, which differ from the Argentine norm in which the verbal terminations are diptongated. However, the forms of the paradigm are used ♪ for the accuser and the possessive; their use is accepted in the culte speech. In the Andean voseo (Táchira, Mérida, south of Lara, part of Trujillo) the verbs are similar to zuliano, however, the voseo is only verbal.

• Philippines

It happens in Luzon and Mindanao with the speakers of the chabacano, but it does not appear in the use of standard Spanish.

Countries where voseo is non-existent

In the following countries, the use of vos has almost completely disappeared from speech, if it ever existed at all; it is only used rhetorically and in ancient or liturgical writings:

• Spain
• Equatorial Guinea
• Dominican Republic

Voseo expansion or restriction factors

• Mass Media Factor: Make some areas radiate over others.^{[chuckles]required]}

For example, in Montevideo, the television programs of Argentine origin that are broadcast there, incorporated, among the young, the pronominal voseo, given the prestige of the contestant that these programs carry, making both voseos equal, by the television and cultural influence.^{[chuckles]required]}

During the 19th century and early XX the condemnation of academics against the voseo was widespread, the most prominent being Andrés Bello, who launched a campaign for his disappearance; Rufino José Cuervo, who described the voseo as an "unbearable vulgarity"; and Arturo Capdevila, who describes it as "the smallpox of the language", "black thing", "true stain of the Argentine language" and "inglorious ugliness".

The voseo in Chile was widespread until Andrés Bello, rector of the University of Chile, condemned its use and carried out a regulatory campaign in favor of the familiar name; since then, the educational system has ignored it and collaborated in the attempt to extinguish it. According to Bello, there was no reason to accept the voseo, since "the imaginary plurality of the second person, which was unknown in Antiquity, is an anachronism. If characters from our days and from countries where the native language is Spanish, the proper thing in family dialogue would be usted or tú". However, the voseo continued being a rural or substandard norm and part of the informal register —or even vulgar with the use of the pronominal voseo, considered much more loaded, derogatory or marked than the verbal voseo—, but the verbal use began to recover ground in the 1960s among the young people from the center of the country and since then its use has continued to increase and expands to the north and south.

In Uruguay there was also a decrease in the voseo, in the sense that it changed to the pronominal familiar form, but it was not so easy to uproot the verbal voseo. In the 1970s, some scholars already noticed an extension of the voseo both in the lower social classes and in the middle and upper classes. This phenomenon would have begun to occur in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In recent decades (1980 and 1990 onwards), due to the influence of Argentina, mainly through the media and proximity to its capital, it became to the pronominal voseo, almost identical to that of the southern country.

In Colombia there has also been a reduction in the geographical extension where voseo occurs, particularly in Cundinamarca, completely disappearing from speech in the capital, Bogotá.

In Paraguay, the situation has been peculiar: Guarani has historically been the most widely spoken language in the country, while Spanish was formerly limited to Asunción, and the most favored classes in the rest of the country. Public instruction has served both to expand the Spanish language in the Paraguayan interior, and to expand the voseo areas. Thus, in the second half of the XX century, the occurrence of voseo almost always depended on whether or not the school teacher vose. The Argentine influence in music, cinema and literature, in addition to the mass media such as radio and television, were decisive in the regression of the familiarity in the country, being reduced to areas such as Concepción.

Extension in formal language

The Río de la Plata, Costa Rican, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Honduran and Paraguayan dialects are the only ones in which the voseo almost completely replaces the familiar form. Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua are the areas in which the "you" has practically disappeared from the verbal paradigm. In some of the aforementioned countries, as in other areas of South America, the voseo competes with the "ustedeo", that is to say that the "usted" is also used in situations of trust. For example, in Costa Rica, children at school refer to each other as usted. The cultured norm of Argentina considers the use of the pronoun usted appropriate for formal situations, including dealing with a teacher, government officials, and the elderly. Among strangers, for some years now, the use of vos has been more common, especially when addressing people of a similar or younger age than the speaker.

Voseo is expansive in certain areas, for example, in the Southern Cone and southern Central America.