Passions & Inspiration

I am constantly dreaming of traveling and new adventures. I am always the first one to suggest leaving for a weekend getaway at the chalet or doing a staycation in the city to discover new interesting activities. I am one of those people that you can call whenever to ask if they want to leave for a trip and I will always say yes. Last summer, I got to finally realize a long time dream and go to Europe for a month. I went all over the south of Spain for 3 weeks and went to visit some family in Italy for a week afterward. During this trip, I rediscovered my passion for Spanish and its History. Although it wasn’t the Spanish I am used too, learning about it from the country that colonized Venezuela made me want to learn more about the dialects in Latin America.

Another aspect of my life that some of you probably didn’t know is that I love art. Hence the picture of Frida Khalo and Salvador Dali. I come from an artistic family: My abuelo used to be a great Telenovela writer (spanish soap-opera), my abuela used to act in plays, also she owned a music shop in Caracas so she knows a lot about music. The person who really inspired me was my mom. She is a painter in her free time and she had transmitted to me from a very young age to love of art and aesthetics, as well as the love creating something. I used to be in the arts and crafts program in High school, so I was able to learn how to use a lot of different mediums which was amazing for expressing my creativity and hope to be able to incorporate this in my day-to-day life. Some of my favorite artists are Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali and Canadian photographer Petra Collins. I would say that most of my inspiration in everyday life comes from this artistic background.

Thesis: Caribbean Spanish is a dialect of Spanish that distinguishes itself from the standard Spanish language because of its recognizable phonology, distinct syntax pattern and extra-linguistic influences.

Paragraph A: Caribbean Spanish distinguishes itself by phonology from standard Spanish, affecting consonants in coda position.

A1: There is a dropping of /s/ and /d/ in words final position.

A2: Nasals can sometimes be represented without any oral gestures taking place.

A3: In this dialect, two different phonological segments belonging in the same natural class will have the same phonological representation.

Paragraph B: Caribbean Spanish has a distinct syntax pattern in interrogative sentences compared to standard Spanish.

B1: Caribbean Spanish tend to have a Wh-S-V interrogative as a result of the topicalization of the subject.

B2: In Standard Spanish, matrix interrogatives are systematically TPs, while in Caribbean Spanish they can be either TPs or CPs.

Paragraph C: Extra-linguistic factors such as the African influence on Caribbean Spanish distinguishes this Spanish dialect from Standard Spanish.

C1: Lexicon of Caribbean Spanish has a strong presence of indigenous terms due to the fact that before the Spanish colonizers came, this territory was inhabitant by tribes of Arawak Indians.

C2: Caribbean Spanish is different from Standard Spanish because it was once a creolized Spanish due to the African origins from the planation.

This article was written by Franncisco Ordóñez from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Anxton Olarrea from the University of Arizona. I choose this article because it investogate the dropped of the subject pronoun in Interrogative Sentences in Caribbean Spanish. One of the aspect of my research is about this distinct element of this Spanish dialect. Although, I have already read an article about interrogative sentences in Caribbean Spanish, this one points out another difference of this grammatical aspect. Underlining this characteristic and adding information about it. This going to help me develop more my point regarding this subject in my paper.

This article was written by Joren Claes, he is a cognitive sociolinguistic at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. I choose this article because it talks about the pluralization of presentational 'Haber' in Caribbean Spanish, Moreover it discusses the linguistic factors that affected this dialectual variation. I found this article very useful for my research because it presents a grammatical difference while at the same time linking it to linguistic factors that caused it. Which is one thing that I want to make people realize by reading my paper. How much the extra-linguistic factors affect the language used in these islands, resulting in distinct dialect of the language.

This article was written by Mamadou Babiane, he is a professor in the "Hispanic Studies" program in the Romance deparment of the university of Missouri-Columbia. This article is on the cultural identity crisis that an afro-caribbean face in his everyday life and how the history of the caribbean countries have caused a "constent flux of ideas, attitude and consequences" towards them. It elaborates on how this cultural identity crisis emerge in the Afro-caribbean community and what was the impact of it for the rest of the countries. Further it explains the demographical, social, cultural and economical effect of bringing african slaves to this region. Although this artical does not specifically talk about language, it does affect my research because a grate majority of the caribbean population are afro-caribbean or from descended. Their arrival affected linguistically the spanish colonies and this identity crisis that they are facing today will affect modern day caribbean also. That is why I find this article important to my research.

A lot of known artists are from Caribbean, but one of the most famous personality is salsa queen Celia Cruz. Úrsula Hilaria Celia Caridad de la Santísima Trinidad Cruz Alfonso alias Celia Cruz, was born in raise in la Havana, Cuba. She grew in the poor neighborhood of Santos Suárez, where Cuba's diverse musical climate became a growing influence. For a couple years, she studied to become teacher but she dropped out when she started to become famous

She started getting recongition in 50's as a singer for the orchestra Sonora Matancera.

She later moved to the United state of the ascent of Fidel Castro.

This blog article was written by Tamara Marie, a certified language coach and writer of 3 Spanish 101 books (Dominican 101, Cuban 101 and Puerto Rican 101). She is also the creator of the "Learn Spanish con Salsa" popcast where she helps Spanish learners to master the language through latin music, culture and Travel. I decided to share on my blog this article because I found that after reading all those acdemic paper about researchs made on the Caribbean Spanish dialect, this article was very simple and straight to point. It is a great "crash course" for anyone planning on going to the Caribbean or anyone who had difficulty understanding the dialect. It is a very straight foward, point-form like text where they list common words and expressions that are used in Caribbean Spanish speaking countries. It mainly list of words used in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. These are words that you will never learn in your spanish class. Only locals used, which is why I liked this article.

Although this article is not technically academic, it is still a clear comprehensive reading that summarizes well the rich cultural origins of the part of the world. Also, it is a good article to read if you reader (yes, I am talking to you), do not want to read all of the other academic articles I posted on this blog. Enjoy :)

Words used mostly accross to the Caribbean:

• Mai: "mom", it is a contraction of the word "Madre"

Dile a tu mai que venga acá. – “Tell your mom to come here.”

• Guille: "Full of yourself", cockiness, an attitude of pride or conceit

Tiene tremendo guille ahora que empezó a trabajar en esa compañía. – “He’s so full of himself now that he works for that company.”

• Jeva: "woman", an informal way of saying woman

Las jevas de La Habana son bellas e inteligentes. – “The women of Havana are beautiful and smart.”

• Fiebrú’ / Fiebrú’a : an Enthusiast (contraction of fiebrudo/fieburda)

Francisco un fiebrú de las carreras de carros y va a correr todas las semanas. – “Francisco is a racing enthusiast and races his car every week.”

• Guagua: "Bus", can also mean a SUV or a van

Ayer esperé la guagua para San Juan por más de una hora. – “Yesterday I waited for the bus to San Juan for more than an hour.”

🇨🇺Only in Cuba🇨🇺

• ¿Qué bolá?: "What's up?" or "How are you?"

¿Qué bolá asere? – “What’s up buddy?”

• Pinchar: "To work"

Me voy temprano mañana a pinchar. – “I’m going to work early tomorrow.”

• Tonga: "A lot", like a big quantity of something

Tengo una tonga de mangos pa’ llevar al mercado. – “I have a bunch of mangos to take to the market.”

• Piñazo: "Punch", hit with the fist

El papá de Enrique le dio un piñazo en la clase de boxeo. – “Enrique’s father punched him in boxing class.”

🇵🇷Only In Puerto Rico🇵🇷

• Patatús: "To freak out", a strong reaction to a negative event

Te va a dar un patatús cuando te enteres de lo que pasó. – “You’re going to freak out when I tell you what happened.”

• Bacalao / Bacalá : " Coward", someone who is weak of character and has little initiative

¿Le dijiste que no querías ir? ¡Qué bacalá eres! – “You told him you didn’t want to go? You’re so chicken!”

• Coquito: "Holiday drink", it is the Puerto Rican version of an eggnog

Mi tía nos hizo dos botellas de coquito para Navidad. – “My aunt made two bottles of coquito for Christmas.”

• China: "Orange", the fruit

No hay nada como un jugo de china fresco. – “There is nothing like freshly squeezed orange juice”

🇩🇴Only in Dominican Republic🇩🇴

• Aficia’o / Aficia’a : "Deeply in love", a person who is deeply in love

María está aficia’a de su marido. – “Maria is deeply in love with her husband.”

• Anda el diablo: This literally translate to "The devil walks", this expression is used when someone is frustrated, worry or in awe

Anda el diablo, ahora no tenemos gasolina. – “For the love of God, now we’re out of gas.”

• Ta’To: "Everything’s all right”, Linguistic contraction of the phrase in Spanish “Está todo bien” (Everything is all right).

Ta’to’, llego en un momento, – “OK, I’ll be there in a moment.”

• Matatan: A man who believes is able to handle any situation or person.

Ese pana es un matatan. – “That dude is a pro.”

Elena Sacramento Lechado has a PhD in linguistics from University of La Laguna (in Spain). Currently, she teaches Spanish as a foreign language and creates teaching resources. This is one of her lesson that I found online where she focuses on the basic etiquette you need to keep in mind when visiting a Caribbean country. I found this lesson very relevent to my project because she concentrates on the etiquette of Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Another aspect of this lesson that I found really useful is that she takes into account the very distinct historical and political backgrounds of the different countries, also something explaining the causes and effects of these particular etiquette rules and how it effects you as foreigner.

I think this lesson is a good representation of what people should espect from locals. Also, warning them of significance of the actions according to the political or historical/cultural bakcground.

So given the circumstances of the world right now, I don't think it would safe any time soon to travel. So I decided to give you a little online trip to some of the most beautiful places in the Spanish Caribbeans. Enjoy :)

I have decided to leave by blog by putting the introduction of my research paper,

Only on the Islands:

How Caribbean Spanish dialect differentiate from Standard Spanish

Many languages have grown over the century to develop many sorts of dialects, in some cases like the Spanish language, there are so many dialects that scholars dedicate their life to differentiating them and cataloging them. One of the most famous of these dialects is the one spoken in the Caribbean region. Indeed, Caribbean Spanish is a dialect of Spanish spoken by 64% (“Languages of the Caribbean”) of the population of the Caribbean. It is spoken in many countries and territories, for instance in Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, The Bay Islands (a territory of Honduras), Corn Islands (a territory of Nicaragua), Isla Cozumel and Isla Mujeres (both Mexican islands), Nueva Puerta (a territory of Venezuela), and San Andrès, Providencia and Santa Catalina (all territories of Colombia). Indeed, Spanish was brought in this area of the world in the 15th century by Spanish colonizers, and ever since then its been growing and thriving into its own dialect. In fact, Caribbean Spanish distinguishes itself from the standard Spanish form because of its recognizable phonology, distinct syntax pattern, and extra-linguistic influences.