Venezuelan Spanish

Venezuelan Spanish (Castellano Venezolano, Español Venezolano) is a dialect of the Spanish language spoken in Venezuela.

Spanish was introduced in Venezuela by the conquistadors. Most of them were from Galicia, Basque Country, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands. Perhaps the latter has been the most fundamental influence on modern Venezuelan Spanish, to the point that Canarian and Venezuelan accents may seem indistinguishable to other Spanish speakers. Italian and Portuguese immigrants from the late 19th and early 20th century have also had an influence on this dialect.

The Spaniards additionally brought African slaves. This is the origin of expressions such as chévere ("excellent"), which comes from Yoruba ché egberi. Other non-Romance words came from Native languages, such as guayoyo (a type of coffee) and caraota (common bean).

The Venezuelan (sometime) upper-class and middle class "snob" (or "sifrino" in colloquial Venezuelan Spanish) accent is often thought of as the "pretty-boy" or "boy band" accent of Spanish. This is hardly the case for the majority of spoken Venezuelan Spanish, widely ranging from its occasional formal form, to the more common—highly slang spiced—every day form, to the heavily "thug" or "thuggish" ("malandro" in Venezuelan Spanish) inflected manner, often found in the slums or "barrios" of the country.