Caribbean Spanish

E11288

Caribbean Spanish is a major regional variety of the Spanish language spoken in Caribbean countries and coastal areas, characterized by distinctive pronunciation, rhythm, and vocabulary.

All labels observed (8)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf dialect group
regional variety of Spanish
hasAlternativeName Spanish of the Caribbean
linked to: Caribbean Spanish

español caribeño
hasCharacteristic aspiration or deletion of syllable-final /s/
distinctive intonation patterns
fast speech rhythm
frequent use of diminutives and augmentatives
frequent use of loanwords from English in some areas
reduction of unstressed vowels in rapid speech
strong influence from African languages in lexicon and prosody
use of specific Caribbean lexical items
use of subject pronoun omission similar to other Spanish varieties
use of ustedes instead of vosotros for second person plural
weakening of word-final consonants
yeísmo
hasPhonologicalFeature aspiration of /s/ to [h] in coda position
elision of /d/ in intervocalic position in some words
neutralization of /l/ and /r/ in syllable-final position in some areas
weakening or loss of final /r/ in infinitives
hasSociolinguisticAspect code-switching with English in some communities
variation by social class
variation by urban versus rural setting
hasSubvariety Caribbean Colombian Spanish
Coastal Venezuelan Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish

Cuban Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish

Dominican Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish

Puerto Rican Spanish
influencedBy Andalusian Spanish
Canarian Spanish
Indigenous Caribbean languages
West African languages
languageFamily Indo-European languages
Romance languages
partOf Spanish language
linked to: Spanish
region Caribbean
spokenIn Caribbean coastal areas of Central America
Caribbean islands
Colombia (Caribbean coast)
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Panama (Caribbean regions)
linked to: Panama

Puerto Rico
Venezuela (coastal regions)
linked to: Venezuela
usedBy Spanish speakers in the Caribbean region
writingSystem Latin alphabet

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (23)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Spanish hasMajorDialect Caribbean Spanish
Andalusian Spanish influenced Caribbean Spanish
Colombian Spanish hasRegionalVariety Costeño Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Colombian Spanish influencedBy Caribbean Spanish
Caribbean Spanish hasSubvariety Cuban Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Caribbean Spanish hasSubvariety Dominican Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Caribbean Spanish hasSubvariety Coastal Venezuelan Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Caribbean Spanish hasAlternativeName Spanish of the Caribbean
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Canarian Spanish influencedBy Caribbean Spanish
Canarian Spanish sharesFeaturesWith Caribbean Spanish
Canarian Spanish closelyRelatedTo Caribbean Spanish varieties
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Latin American Spanish hasRegionalVariety Caribbean Spanish
Veracruz Spanish influencedBy Caribbean Spanish
Veracruz Spanish influencedBy Cuban Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Veracruz Spanish influencedBy Dominican Spanish
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish contrastsWith Caribbean Spanish
Negrismo hasLanguageContext Caribbean Spanish
Peninsular Spanish contrastsWith Caribbean Spanish
Hispanic linguistics studies Caribbean Spanish
Gulf Spanish dialect zone sharesFeaturesWith Caribbean Spanish dialects
linked to: Caribbean Spanish
Cuban Spanish partOf Caribbean Spanish
Modern Spanish hasStandardForm Caribbean Spanish