Venezuelan Spanish

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The Venezuelan Spanish is a variety of Spanish , exclusively in Venezuela is used. It is one of the Caribbean varieties of the language and has different accents within the country .

history

Spanish ( Castilian ) came to Venezuela with the Spanish conquest at the beginning of the 16th century. Most of the conquerors came from Andalusia , Extremadura and the Canary Islands and thus brought their local linguistic peculiarities with them. In addition, Italian and Portuguese migrants had a strong influence on Venezuelan Spanish during the colonial period.

Linguistic peculiarities

phonetics

Vocalism

The vowel system corresponds to that of general Spanish. In spoken Spanish, the diphthonging of the vowel sequences -ea-, -ee-, -eo-, -oa- is noticeable: rial, plantié, pión, tualla instead of real, planteé, peón, toalla .

Consonantism

The phoneme inventory has 17 consonants. The occlusive are / p /, / b /, / t /, / d /, / k /, / g /, the fricatives / f /, / s /, / j /, / h /, the nasals / m / , / n /, / ɲ /, the vibrants / r / and / r̩ /, the lateral sound / ʎ /. The actually voiced fricative sound / h / replaces the velar phoneme / x /.

Venezuelan consonantism has six characteristics:

  • The fricative allophone [ð] is especially weak in the intervowel position, especially in words that end in -ado .
  • The opposition between / p / and / b /, / t / and / d /, / k / and / g / is neutralized in an implosive position. The result is a sound that sounds either voiced / g / or voiceless / k /: for the word apto, both the pronunciation [akto] and the pronunciation [agto] are possible, for opción [oksiɔn] or [ogksiɔn].
  • Aspiration of / s /> / h / in implosive position: las casas [lah kasah]
  • The consonant nexus <sc> is pronounced / ks /: pixina for pisina.
  • / n / in the implosive position / ɲ / is spoken: [kaɲ] for can
  • Rhotazism before consonant: / l / and / r / are neutralized: [bolsa] for borsa , [sarta] for salta . This is a phenomenon that can be observed in many popular Romance languages.

Morphology and syntax

  • Especially with foreign words whose ending is "unspanish", e.g. B. Endings -í , -é , there are deviations in the plural formation. The plural is often left unchanged and only the article is changed: el pícher > los pícher or the suffix -ses is added: maní > manises .
  • In collective terms such as gente (people), multitud (diversity), the verb appears in the plural, even if the subject is formally in the singular: la gente dijen instead of la gente dije .
  • Loísmo : direct object pronouns are lo , la and los , las , indirect le and les .
  • Anaphoric first name of the pronoun in the object named later: le di un golpe a la puerta .
  • In many areas only the form tu is used, the you form is extremely rare.
  • Exuberant use of the relative que , tendency to eliminate prepositions before the relative: ese sobrino [con] que me habenré . Cuyo is rarely used.
  • Proclitic possessive ( mi hijo ), but also postclitic possessive possible el hijo mío . In addition, the construction 'possession + de + owner' is common: el hijo de mí .
  • Neologisms in verbs always belong to the class ending in -ar .
  • Indefinido ending of the 1st Ps. Pl. Is -nos , not -mos
  • Varying between 'ser' and 'estar' in expressions like cuando yo era niño / cuando yo estaba niño

Lexicology and word formation

  • Five-part demonstrative system (maximum proximity> maximum distance): aquí , acá , ahí , allí , allá .
  • In contrast to standard Spanish change in gender with some words, e.g. el radio instead of la radio , preference for words in the singular that are otherwise in the plural: el pantalón .
  • The pronoun vosotros is not used.
  • Voseo (use of 'vos' for 'usted')
  • Diminutiva are generally formed with -ito / -ita : el carro > el carrito

literature

General:

  • Emilio Alarcos Llorach (ed.): Gramática de la lengua española . Espasa Calpe, Madrid 1995, p. 30.
  • Mercedes Sedano, Paola Bentivoglio: 'Venezuela'. In: Manuel Alvar (ed.): M anual de dialectología hispánica. El Español de America. 3. Edition. Ariel, Barcelona 2009.
  • John M. Lipsly: Latin American Spanish , Longman, New York and London 1994.
  • Luis and Luis Barrera Quiroga Torrealba: Los estudios lingüísticos en Venezuela y otros temas. IPASME, Caracas, 1992.

On the peculiarities of the vocabulary in Venezuelan Spanish:

  • María Josefina Tejera (ed.): Diccionario de Venezuelanism . 3 volumes, UCV, Caracas 1993.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Emilio Alarcos Llorach: Gramática de la lengua española . Espasa Calpe, Madrid 1995, p. 30 .
  2. ^ Mercedes Sedano, Paola Bentivoglio: Venezuela . In: Manuel Alvar (ed.): Manual de dialectología hispánica. El Español de America. 3. Edition. Ariel, Barcelona 2009, pp. 120 .
  3. ↑ Emilio Alarcos Llorach: Gramática de la lengua española. Espasa Calpe, Madrid 1995, p. 30.