SPANISH FEATURES
CUBAN SPANISH
Cuban Spanish is shaped by pre-Colombian languages and cultures, contact with African languages brought by African slaves, and the immigration of Spaniards from the Canary Islands. It is part of the family of Carribean varieties of Spanish dialects. The weak pronunciation of consonants is a defining feature.
1. Weakening of /s/
When /s/ is in the final syllable of a word, the target becomes [ h ] or disappears entirely. This can occurs when /s/ appears in the medial position of a word as well.
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Listen to Emilio's pronunciation of ESPERAR in the YouTube clip.
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Listen to Cristina's pronunciation of MUCHOS LIBROS in the YouTube clip.
2. Final /n/ = [ ŋ ]
Sometimes the final /n/ in a word will become a [ ŋ ]. Think about arching the middle to back of the tongue towards the soft palate for this sound.
SAMPLE WORDS: el león, y al fin
3. Treatment of /r/
Sometimes if the letter /r/ is the final sound in a syllable, the /r / will appear to disappear.
SAMPLE WORDS: Buenas tardes, suerte, tambor
4. Intervocalic /d/
When /d/ is in the final syllable of a word and placed inbetween two vowels, the Cuban Spanish speaker will often omit the /d/.
Encantado Encantao
Salado Salao
Trabajado Trabajao
Dedo Deo
5. /b/, /v/ = [ ʋ ] or [ β ]
The phonemes /b/ and /v/ will aim for either a [ β ] unvoiced bilabial fricative or a [ ʋ ] labiodental approximant.
SAMPLE WORDS: alabao, que vivo
Listen to Melissa codeswitch from Cuban Spanish to English
COLOMBIAN PAISA SPANISH
This way of speaking comes from the area of Antioquia, where the nearest city is Medellín. Colombians speak Paisa in the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindío. Paisas have many regional and local expressions that are opaque even to other Colombians. Among the most notable features of the Paisa dialect are the voseo and their phrasal intonation or cantaíto/cantadito (singsong). They drag out the end of sentences in a peculiar tonal rise and fall.
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"ll" like in calló is treated like /ʒ/ as in beige, but "y" as in cayó is treated like /ʝ/ as in yo-yo
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The phoneme /x/ is realized as a glottal [h] in all regions of Colombia as in JARRÓN.
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/s/ articulation is made with the tip of the tongue and sounds very similar to SH
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Paisa speakers use the pronoun vos instead of tú
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-ico and -ica are used instead of -ito / -ita when the root word ends with "t' (e.g. gatito would become gatico)
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The voiced consonants /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are pronounced as stop consonants after and sometimes before any consonant, rather than the fricative or approximant that is characteristic of most other dialects: pardo [ˈpaɾdo], barba[ˈbaɾba], algo [ˈalɡo]
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In contrast, intervocalic /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ are consistently realized as approximants [β̞, ð̞, ɣ˕] and may be elided. For example, Bogotá may be pronounced without the /ɡ/, as [bo.oˈta].