Canarian Spanish.

[gazr67]

Hiya, can anybody tell me anything about Canarian Spanish? I'm led to believe that the Spanish spoken in, for example, Gran Canaria, is more of a Latin American dialect rather than iberian.
I believe they use a lot more slag which is pehaps closer to Peru, Costa Rica etc.
Can anyone confirm this for me?
Love the web site, great stuff.
Cheers,
Gary

[Joseph]

Hey Gary,

Thanks for listening. Megan and David, in their Iberian Lessons, have spoken a about this a bit. I believe they said, as you supposed, that the Spanish spoken in las islas canarias would resemble that which is spoken in South America more than that which is spoken on in Spain proper.

A lot of this has to do with how isolated a given linguistic community is. For example, you may find that in remote places, the version of Spanish that's spoken is very traditional, without the influence of "barbarisms" which has become so common in modern times. I believe this is also true of Portuguese in northern Brazil as well. Joao Paulo would be able to tell us for sure... Anyway, in parts of northern Brazil, the form of Portuguese is so old that it still likens Spanish, much more than that which is spoken in Rio or Sao Paolo for example. Good question. Let me see if I can get Megan or David to chime in.

Saludos cordiales,
Joseph

[mariposita]

Hi Gary--
Great question. I know a little bit about Canarian Spanish--but not enough... I really need to go there to do more research .

I'm not sure that it could be said that what is spoken in the Canarias is a "Latin American dialect"... It's more complicated than that, since many characteristics of Latin American Spanish can be traced to the southern part of Spain. From what I understand, the Canarian dialect is a mixture of southern Iberian (mainly Andalusian), Caribbean (particularly Cuba and Puerto Rico) with Portuguese influence, as well. The Spanish in the Caribbean was greatly influenced by Canarian Spanish (and Andalusian Spanish, as well). Which makes sense, since the boats going to the Americas left from Seville and stopped off in the Canarias on the way and huge numbers of Canarians went to the the Caribbean to work on the plantations.

There's also some vocabulary, place names, and proper names from the original Berber language called guanche that was there before the Spanish arrived. The Canarias were a crossroads between Europe and the Caribbean, so they soaked up linguistic influences from both directions and spread them mainly in the direction of the Americas.

One big grammatical difference is that vosotros isn't used in most of the Canarias. Also pronunciation-wise you'll find the the seseo (s sound instead of th for c/z) and aspiration of the s (as /h/) that you find in parts of Andalucia and the Caribbean (and other points in Latin America). And some of the vocabulary from the New World ended up in the Canarias like guagua (for bus), papas (potatoes), etc.

Canarian food has a lot in common with Caribbean food with black beans, mojo and ropa vieja, but also absorbed plenty from Spain and Africa.

[gazr67]

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.
The reason for my interest in Canarian Spanish is due to the fact my mother lives there, and i guess i'll be spending a lot more time there in the future.
I can get by in Spanish but would like to take that knowledge further, now then, do i go for standard and use the iberian, or standard and enhance it with a regional series from Latin America,Costa Rican perhaps?
I don't know, any advice would be greatfully appreciated.
Cheers,
Gary

[mariposita]

Hi Gary--
I think that when it comes to idiomatic expressions and vocabulary, the Canarians will be closest to Iberian Spanish, but listening to the other regional lessons will be great for opening your ears up to different phonetic changes that can occur in Spanish "on the ground." Check out this page for a "diccionario guanche" to get an idea of some Canarian expressions:

http://www.iac.es/galeria/westend/guanye.html

and the bottom of the page here for many other pages pertaining to the Canarian dialect:

http://www3.unileon.es/dp/dfh/jmr/dicci/005.htm

I am so envious of your need to travel frequently to the Canaries! Where does your mom live? I hope you'll report back on the differences that you find there.

--Megan