Caribbean Spanish
Learn about the distinctive Spanish spoken in the first place it reached, where it coexists alongside four other major languages.
Discovery of America (1862) by Dióscoro PueblaOriginal Source: Pardo Museum
The discovery of the Americas
In early October 1492, explorers spotted flocks of birds, and during the night of October 11 came the long-awaited cry of "Land!" They had sighted the island of Guanahaní in the archipelago of the Bahamas, christened San Salvador by Columbus.
Island of Santo Domingo (1784) by Juan LópezOriginal Source: National Library of Spain
On December 6, the expedition reached La Española where the Spanish established the first permanent colony in the region. From that moment on, their Castilian Spanish was brought into contact and mixed with various indigenous tongues, giving rise to numerous variants of the Spanish language.
Embarkation of the first expedition of Catalan volunteers to Cuba (1874) by P. SerrallongaOriginal Source: National Library of Spain
The Caribbean
The linguistic history of the Caribbean reveals the meeting of different peoples, each with their own languages that have influenced the others. The most widespread indigenous communities in the island territories were the Arawak and the Carib.
Havana. View of the port and the city (1840) by Louis Le BretonOriginal Source: National Library of Spain
The first indigenism in Spanish came from the Arawakan language: canoa (canoe). Many of the languages spoken across the islands, as well as in the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, and Brazil, are derived from the Carib language.
The New World (1765) by Giandomenico TiépoloOriginal Source: Prado Museum
The indigenous presence in the Caribbean islands has been gradually decreasing, and in some cases disappearing, and over time Spanish has become the most widely spoken language in the region.
Caribbean vernaculars
All the major European languages of the colonists—English, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and Spanish—converged in the Caribbean.
Palenquera woman (2022) by Diego GonzalezFundación Antonio de Nebrija
It became the perfect breeding ground for creole languages—the consequence of these languages of culture coexisting with indigenous tongues. In the case of Spanish, Palenquero and Papiamento are perfect examples of this.
Festival in Aruba (2014)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
Papiamento developed throughout the 17th century on the island of Curaçao, and today is still spoken there, but also on the islands of Aruba and Bonaire. Palenquero appeared from the late 17th century, in Palenque de San Basilio, near Cartagena, in Colombia.
Palenqueras (2020) by Fabio GonzálezFundación Antonio de Nebrija
The strong African presence in Cuba, mainly due to the arrival of slaves direct from Africa in the 19th century, rekindled the use of African languages on Cuban soil.
Group of Cuban leaders (1895) by Antonio MaceoOriginal Source: National Library of Spain
Contrary to events in Cuba, and to a lesser extent Puerto Rico, there was no increase in slaves in the 19th century in the Dominican Republic. The Afro-Dominican culture is a lot older, and very few Africanisms persist.
Characteristics of Caribbean Spanish
This large dialectal region includes the Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the coastal areas of the surrounding countries, mainly Venezuela and Colombia.
Streets of Havana (2019) by Nate CohenFundación Antonio de Nebrija
Caribbean Spanish of course shares many of the general characteristics of Latin American Spanish, such as the pronunciation of the letter ll as y, and of the letters c and z as s. It also uses ustedes as the plural you, as well as more general Latin Americanisms, for example pararse rather than ponerse de pie (stand up), friolento rather than friolero (sensitive to cold), botar rather than tirar (throw out), and virar instead of girar (turn).
Male musicians (2020) by Dimitri DimFundación Antonio de Nebrija
The coexistence of Spanish and English, the latter being the predominant language in some of the Lesser Antilles, and thanks to its proximity to the United States, is reflected in the wider use of Anglicisms compared to Spanish-speaking countries in other regions.
Woman from Dominican Republic (2021) by Josue Ladoo PelegrinFundación Antonio de Nebrija
The distinctive pronunciation in countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic is one of the main features of this region. Clear examples of this include the words carne (pronounced káine) and arroz (pronounced aróh).
Flag of Puerto Rico (2020) by Jo KassisFundación Antonio de Nebrija
The Spanish Caribbean is a wonderful example of unity within the diversity of language. Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico share a Caribbean linguistic identity, together with the surrounding coastal areas.
With information from the Atlas of the Spanish Language in the World (Atlas de la Lengua Española en el Mundo) by Francisco Moreno, and Latin American Spanish (El Español de América) by John M. Lipski
Curator: Rodrigo Díaz
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