Cuban Spanish - Overview

Overview

Characteristic of Cuban Spanish is the weak pronunciation of consonants, especially at the end of a syllable. Final /s/ weakens to /h/ or disappears entirely; final /n/ becomes /ŋ/; final /r/ may become /l/ or even /j/. The fricative variants of /d/, /b/, /g/ (i.e., ) are also significantly weakened when occurring after a vowel: tends to disappear entirely, while and become weak approximants, with no friction at all and often barely audible as consonants. All of these characteristics occur to one degree or another in other Caribbean varieties, as well as in many dialects in Andalucia (in southern Spain) -- the ultimate origin of these characteristics.

One of the most prominent features of Cuban Spanish is the debuccalization of /s/ in syllable coda. This trait is shared with most American varieties of Spanish spoken in coastal and low areas (Lowland Spanish), as well as with Canarian Spanish and the Spanish spoken in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

Take for example, the following sentence:

Esos perros no tienen dueños

('Those dogs do not have owners')

Also, because /s/ may also be deleted in the syllable coda and because this feature has variable realizations, any or all instances of in the above example may be dropped, potentially rendering . Other examples: "disfrutar" (to enjoy) is pronounced "difrutar", "fresco" (fresh) becomes "freco". In Havana, "despues" is typically pronounced "depue".

Another instance of lenition, in Cuban Spanish is the deletion of final intervocalic /d/. With intervocalic deletion (e.g. cansado 'tired').

Another characteristic of Cuban Spanish is the use of the diminutive -ico and -ica instead of the standard -ito and -ita. But this use is restricted to words with -t in the last syllable. For example, plato ('plate') platico instead of platito, and momentico instead of momentito; but cara ('face') becomes carita. This form is common to the Venezuelan, Cuban, Costa Rican and Colombian dialects.

Like in most Socialist states, the term compañero/compañera (meaning "comrade") is used instead of the common señor/señora.

The Cuban Spanish of the eastern provinces (former Oriente) is closer to the Dominican Republic Spanish than to the Spanish spoken in the western part of the island.