Enigmas of Cuban Spanish
Paco Capella
Enigmas of Cuban Spanish
Anthony T. Rivas
Non-Cuban Spanish speakers have occasional trouble understanding fast Cuban speech. While less educated Cuban speakers can be difficult to understand, as with speakers of other dialects of Spanish, better educated speakers of Cuban Spanish can also exhibit speech sounds typical of "careless" or relaxed speech.
For ease of reference, Cuban geographical regions are broken down into the six traditional provinces that existed prior to the mid-seventies. As with any other dialect, Spanish from Cuba can be divided into three main overall registers: educated or standard; informal/colloquial; and slang. Cuban Spanish is broken down by linguists into 5 different subdialects: 1) Habanero (city of Havana); 2) the western subdialect (provinces of Pinar del Río and Havana); 3) The subdialect of the provinces of Matanzas and Las Villas; 4) The subdialect of the province of Camagüey; and 5) the subdialect of the province of Oriente (De la Cuesta 1987:125). While lacking conclusive proof, some linguists believe that the marked intonation pattern exhibited by some natives of the former Oriente province originates in Arawak, a language spoken by the indigenous Taíno people, who survived for a limited time just in this province.
Salient Speech Sounds
The most salient troublesome speech sounds of Cuban Spanish are as follows:
Asimilation/Gemination. When located in syllable-final position (implosive position), /r/ and /l/ become assimilated to the following voiced consonant speech sound that starts the next syllable (explosive position), as in:
Carmen y Carlitos se curdean con chispa'e tren. [kám-men-i-kal-lí-to-se-kud-dé-an-kon-chíh-pa-e-trén] "Carmen and Carlitos get high on home-brew."
Speech sound /g/ in syllable-final position may also become assimilated to the next consonant speech sound, e.g. magnífico [man-ní-fi-ko] and speech sound /k/ may be rendered /g/ (velarization) at the end of a syllable when followed by consonant speech sound /t/. Thus, the word "doctor" is rendered [dog-tód]. Traditionally, gemination is a hallmark of western Cuban speech.
2) Loss of speech sound /d/ when occurring at the beginning of a syllable, as in:
El dedo de David [ed-dé-o-ea-bí] "David's finger"
The intervocalic /d/ and /b/ are fricative and at times barely heard. De la Cuesta believes that this disappearance (elision) of intervocalic /d/ is generalized in Cuban speech.
3) Aspiration or loss of syllable-final /s/. the /s/ is aspirated (an h-like sound in English), at times barely audibly, in syllable and word-final positions before a pause as in:
Los socios más pingús meten las rucas pa' fachar. [loh-só-sio-máh-pin-gúh-mé-ten-lah-rú-kah-pa-fa-chá] "Ballsy dudes use their paws to steal."
Aspiration of /s/ occurs throughout the Caribbean Spanish-speaking region: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, and Atlantic coastal areas of Colombia and Venezuela, especially in major cities like Barranquilla and Cartagena, in Colombia, and Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, and the River Plate area. However, at times, as I have observed on recent trips to Cuba, /s/ may go unrendered in syllable and word-final positions (as occurs in colloquial Dominican speech) in the eastern region of the former Oriente province, especially amongst its black population. Paz Pérez confirms that this occurrence is particularly noticeable in the cities of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Baracoa, providing the following examples: escuela [ekwéla]; tres [tré]; casco [káko]; prisma [príma]; and lunes [lúne] (Paz Pérez, 36.) Additionally, Varela (1992) says, "En el habla cubana, este fenómeno está en proporción inversa con el nivel de educación: más educación > menos elisión, menos educación > más elisión." While the point is valid, my own observations have led me to believe her assessment is only applicable to the dialect of the former Oriente province, particularly to speakers in the areas mentioned by Paz Pérez. This is not new in Cuban Spanish, being prevalent in traditional black Cuban folklore, typified by Luis Carbonell, a Cuban reciter from pre-Revolutionary days.
4) The sound /r/ is rendered [l] in syllable-final and word-final positions, as occurs in Puerto Rican and Dominican colloquial speech, although not as often in Cuba as on the other two Caribbean islands. The sound /l/ may be rendered [r] in syllable and word-final positions as well. De la Cuesta states that this takes place in Pinar del Río province, in Western Cuba; nonetheless, in my experience, these particular phonetic variants or allophones are not frequent anymore, mainly occurring in uneducated speech of western provinces (Havana and Matanzas) in addition to Pinar del Río. Noted Cuban early twentieth century pedagogue and author Arturo Montori believed that speech sound /r/ rendered [l] in word and syllable final positions, as well as some cases of consonant sound assimilation, were traceable to the influence of the many Canary Islanders who settled in Cuba. (Alonso and Fernández, 1977:I,328.)
While these speech sounds may seem odd to those unfamiliar with Cuban speech, they occur in other varieties of Spanish, leading Varela to conclude that there is no speech sound unique to Cuban Spanish, since the aspiration or elimination of /s/ in syllable final position, the neutralization of /l/ and /r/ and other phonological phenomena exist in other Spanish-speaking countries.
The following features are listed in Resnick's "Phonological Variants and Dialect Identification in Latin American Spanish":
- Gemination (assimilation): caldo [káddo], carta [kátta].
(Colombia: Bolívar, El Chocó, and both coastal areas, especially among the
black population; Ecuador: coast; Mexico: Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi; Panama:
Herrea, Los Santos, Veragias, San Blas; Puerto Rico (occasional); Dominican
Republic (sometimes); Spain: Andalusia.)
- Loss of /d/ between vowels and word-final (general occurrence)
- Aspiration or elision of /s/: mosca [móhka] or [móka] (Caribbean
areas; Spain: Canary Islands, Andalusia)
- /r/ and /l/ interchangeability: perdón [peldón], caldo [kárdo] (Puerto Rico; Spain: Andalusia; parts of Ecuador; Venezuelan coastal area; Dominican Republic; Chile: popular speech.)
Syntax and Morphology
Differences among Cuban subdialects are few. These involve intonation and vocabulary, but syntax plays no role in them (De la Cuesta, 1987:124.) Cuban Spanish does have some syntactic peculiarities shared with other varieties of Caribbean Spanish. The most salient features of Cuban Spanish syntax and morphology are:
(1) Placement of second person singular pronoun "tú" before instead of after the verb in questions Varela believes that placing the pronoun before the verb in interrogative sentences is a hallmark of Caribbean Spanish and differentiates Cuban from Mexican Spanish, where the pronoun is placed after the verb in interrogative sentences (Varela, 1992:91.) Although I have heard constructions like "¿Por qué usted no quiere que yo vaya?" I've more often observed that this phenomenon involves second person singular pronoun "tú." Interestingly enough, every example shown by Varela to exemplify this occurrence uses "tú": ¿Qué tú crees?; ¿Qué tú haces aquí?; ¿De dónde tú eres? Charles Kany documented this occurrence in Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, stating that the subject pronoun is often placed before the verb in interrogative sentences, except "él, ella, ellos, ellas" (Kany, 1951:125)
(2) Usage of "le"and "les" instead of "la" and "las" when preceded by "se."
Utterances like A Juana se le ve en la tienda todos los días ( instead of "se la ve", since "la" is the direct object pronoun) are commonplace in Cuban Spanish, according to Padrón (Alonso and Fernández 1977 II: 154) and confirmed by my own experience.
3) Use of "decir a" to denote the beginning of an action. When talking about a gall bladder polyp, a well-known Miami surgeon told me: Si ese pólipo dice a crecer, ahí empiezan los problemas. ("If that polyp begins to grow, it will mean trouble.") Referring to this usage, Padrón states: Es también corriente decir aquí 'decir a': Estábamos listos para salir, cuando de pronto dijo a llover y tuvimos que quedarnos en casa. ("We were ready to leave, when, all of a sudden, it started to rain and we had to stay at home.")
4) Use of "para" instead of "en" to indicate location
Padrón (Alonso and Fernández 1977 II: 164) believes that this usage is particular to peasants and illiterate people; however, I have heard people with secondary schooling or higher say phrases like Pepe está para Hialeah ("Pepe is in Hialeah"); Cuca está para el campo ("Cuca is in the provinces" - people from Havana refer to the rest of the island as "campo.")
5) Use of "lo cual" to mean "but" or "while"
A phrase like Nunca voy a la pelota, lo cual él sí ("I never go to the ballgame, but he does") may be heard in individuals with little or no schooling.
6) Negative construction with "cómo" with affirmative meaning.
¡Cómo que no! is a Cuban variant of ¡Cómo no! as in ¿La saludaste? ¡Cómo que no! ("Did you say hello to her?" "You better believe it!/Of course I did.")
7) Use of "coger" before a verb as reinforcement
This usage seems to have lost preference amongst Cuban speakers; however, it is still heard, mainly in elderly, less educated people. Padrón (Alonso and Fernández 1977 II:58) described this usage as commonplace in colloquial speech back in 1949, providing the following example: El policía registró la casa y al ver que no encontraba al ladrón, cogió y se fue. ("The police officer searched the house, and when he didn't find the thief, he took off.")
8) Use of indefinite "uno" by women instead of "una" to mean indefinite "one"
This usage at least dates back to 1949, when Padrón gave the example: Está uno cansada de tanto hablar.
9) Placement of adjective "más" before negative indefinite pronouns nada and nadie
Varela points out that as in Caribbean Spanish, current speakers of Cuban Spanish prefer to place modifier más before negative indefinite pronouns nadie and nadie, e.g. más nada/más nadie/más nunca instead of standard nada más/nadie más/nunca más.
10) Adjectives used as adverbs
Varela (1992: 89) provides the following list of adjectives which acquire an adverbial value in Cuban Spanish usage: clarito instead of claramente, e.g. contestó clarito; feo instead of mal, e.g. huele feo; fuerte instead of fuertemente; rapidísimo instead of rapidísimamente.
11) Adjectives originated in English as used in Miami Cuban Spanish
Miami Cuban Spanish is Cuban Spanish of 30-40 years ago spiced with some Anglicisms, mainly English-language calques and loan words. Many speakers of Miami Cuban Spanish transfer English-language meanings to Spanish-language cognates or use inappropriate English calques or loanwords as follows:
| English Source | English Calque Meaning | New Spanish Meaning | Original Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| conservative | conservativo | N/A | N/A |
| shocked | choqueado | upset, moved | in shock, outraged |
| involved | envuelto | committed | wrapped, mixed up in |
| summarized | sumarizado | condensed, resumed | N/A |
| English Loanword | English Source | Spanish Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| flonqueado | flunked | same |
| friqueado | freaked out | same |
| taipeado | typed | same |
| cuitear | to quit | same |
| frizar | to freeze | same |
| baquear | to back | same |
Current Cuban Speech
Colloquial/ informal Cuban Spanish is extremely rich. Its usage spans every social stratum on the island. The following illustrates colloquial or informal Cuban Spanish:
--¡Hola, viejo!
--¡Hola, chico! ¿Qué se cuenta?
--Ahí, en la bobería. ¿Y tú?
--Nada, que la mujer me dijo que tenía que ponerme pa' mi número. Por eso es que me ves aquí cogiendo la guagua rumbo al paradero.
-- O-ká, entonces nos encontramos más tarde pa' darnos una frías.
-- O-ká, y no te me hagas el sueco. Vamos a hacer una ponina entre todos porque todo el mundo está sin un quilo.
-- Está bien. Bueno, se me va la guagua. Chau.
No Cuban from any walk of life or social stratum would have any problem understanding what was said in this brief exchange.
"Hi, guy!"
"Hi, man! What's up?"
"Well, same ol', same ol'. How about you?"
"Well, my wife told me that I had to get my act together. That's why you see me here catching the bus to the train station."
"O.K., then we'll get together later to knock back a few cold ones."
"OK, and don't play dumb on me. We're gonna take a collection from everybody, 'cause everybody' s broke."
"All right. Well, I'm gonna miss the bus. 'Later."
However, as occurs elsewhere, younger and less educated people use slang that is different from informal speech. In addition, there is also a Cuban underworld slang not widely understood by speakers of Cuban Spanish. As in any other language, this underworld subdialect is used and understood by individuals in relation to criminal activity.
The same conversation as above, in slang, might be:
--¡Oye, my socio!
--¡Vaya! ¿Qué volón?
--Ahí, en la marchita. ¿Y tú?
--Nada, que la jeba me dijo que tenía que ponerme en algo. Por eso es que me ves aquí cogiendo la rufa pa'l paradero
-- O-ká, entonces nos encontramos más tarde pa' coger una nota con unos laguers.
-- O-ká, y no te me hagas el chivo loco. Vamos a hacer una ponina entre todos porque todo el mundo está arrancao. -- Cirilo. Bueno, se me pira la rufa. Chau.
"Hey, dude!"
"All right! What's cookin'?"
"Well, same ol', same ol'. How about you?"
"Well, my old lady told me that I had to get with it. That's why you see me here catching the bus to the train station."
"O.K., then we'll get together later to get high on foam.""O.K., and don't play dumb on me. We're gonna take a collection from everybody 'cause everybody's broke."
"Yep. Well, I'm gonna miss the bus. 'Later."
Words used in the old Oriente province are worthy of some discussion, since they may be different from the vocabulary used in the rest of Cuba. This distinction was more noticeable some years ago, according to Paz Pérez (Paz Pérez: 34). In the following list, words used in the former Oriente province are contrasted with those used in the rest of Cuba to denote the same thing.
| Old Oriente Province | Rest of Cuba | English Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cutara | chancletas | slippers |
| papaya | fruta bomba | papaya |
| balance* | sillón | rocking chair |
| balde | cubo | bucket |
| rallado, rasco-rasco (Matanzas) | granizado (Bayamo and Santiago) | ice cone |
| macho | lechón | suckling pig |
| pluma, llave** | faucet | tap |
| túnico* | vestido | dress |
| hallaca | tamal | tamale |
| guineo | plátano (fruta) | banana |
| fana | fanoso | good-for-nothing/cheapskate |
| tienda *** | bodega | grocery store |
* Also used in Camagüey Province
** "Pluma" and "llave" coexist in Camagüey Province.
*** In Havana, "tienda" with no modifier denotes a clothing store.
Expletives and Obscenities
Obscenities abound in Cuban Spanish. According to Paz Pérez, all the following are slang words for the male sex organ: animal, barra, biáncamo, bicho, cabia, cabilla, cohete, cuero, estaca, fenómeno, guindola, hierro, leña, lezna, machete, mandao, mandarria, manguera, material, mendó, morronga, morrongón, muñeco, picha, pinga, pito, polla, rabo, sable, tareco, tolete, tranca, tronco, tubo.
At least 11 documented slang terms refer to the female sex organ: bollo, crica, chocho, chocha, papaya, papeleta, papo, perilla, raja, sahuaca, toto.
As Alvarez Guedes explains in a comedy routine, Cubans are known to pepper their speech with "coño," rendered "ño" in fast speech. While this word is quite strong in many Spanish-speaking countries, particularly in South and Central America, it is less strong in Cuban Spanish, more equivalent to "damn it!" or "darn it!" in English.
Other Cuban Spanish obscenities used in vulgar speech and underworld language are: alforjas, limones, melones, senadores (for "boobs"); beroco(s), huevos, jolongo, cojones (for "balls"); ¡Cojones! (a strong vulgarity, equivalent to "fuck!"); fambeco, fonil, fotingo, el siete, inán, and linán (for "ass").
The Language of Afro-Cuban Religions
With regard to Africanisms in Cuban Spanish, Paz Pérez believes that La incorporación de vocablos de procedencia africana se ha hecho sentir fuertemente en el habla popular y vulgar, ocupando un lugar preferencial aquellos provenientes del abakuá, del congo y del yoruba (p.58). He lists the following as Cuban Spanish words originating in African languages: adordi ("faggot"), asere ("buddy, guy, dude"), beroco ("nuts, balls"), cufón ("fleabag" for sexual encounters), cúmbila ("buddy, guy, dude"), ecón ("piece"), embori ("snitch"), endominisa ("faggot"), iriampo ("chow"), macri/macrí ("honky"), manganioni ("faggot"), monina ("buddy, dude, guy"), moropo/molopo ("thinker, potato"), múcaro ("honky"), ñampear ("to stiff, waste"), ocambo ("old dude").
Montori points out other Cuban Spanish words originating in African languages, such as quiquiribú mandinga, meaning "it's finished; it's over; that's the end of it" and quimbámbaras or quimbambas, meaning "boondocks" or "boonies." (Alonso and Fernández, I: 343.)
A whole chapter could be written on the language of Afro-Cuban religions, which originated as a result of the blend of Roman Catholicism with African traditions. Of the many religions rooted in Africa, those known in Cuba are: Regla de Ocha or Lucumí; Regla de Palo, Palo Monte or Mayombe; Ñáñigo or Abakuá; and Regla de Arará. The Regla de Ocha or Regla Ocha is referred to as santería. Paz Pérez has 76 Afro-Cuban religion words in his "Diccionario Cubano de Habla Popular y Vulgar," including the following: abrir camino ("cast out spells"), aché ("blessing, protection"), amarrar ("to cast a binding spell"), asentarse ("to become inducted into santería"), babalao ("santería priest"), bajarle el santo or coger el santo or montar el santo ("to become possessed by a spirit"), bajarse el santo ("to become unpossessed"), bilongo ("spell"), brujo ("warlock, sorcerer"), caballo ("possessed person"), camino ("manifestation of an orisha or santería deity," who in turn is an envoy of the Almighty God Olodumare), daño ("evil spell"), despojar ("to cast out evil spells or influences"), fundamento ("an orisha's devices, such as stones, shells and bracelets"), jurar ("induct a person into the Abakuá religion"), meter en el caldero ("to cast a spell on someone"), letra ("revelation" as seen in seashells and pieces of coconuts cast by a santería priest in a consultation), limpieza ("spiritual and bodily cleansing"), montar una prenda ("to have an object become possessed"), registro ("consultation with santería priest"), rayarse en el Palo ("induction into the Palo Monte religion"), resguardar ("protect"), resguardo ("charm, amulet"), salación/salazón ("punishment by an orisha or evil spell")(Paz Pérez, 168-174).
When syncretism occurred between Roman Catholicism and the religion of the Yoruba people, giving rise to santería or Regla Ocha, the orishas kept their African name, but took on the likeness of Roman Catholic saints. These envoys of the almighty god Olodumare rule specific forces of nature, for instance, Changó (St. Barbara): fire, lightning, thunder, dance and drums; Orunla/Orunmila (St. Francis of Assisi): The Great Benefactor of Humanity; Babalú Ayé (St. Lazarus): The Father of the World, who rules over leprosy and sexually transmitted diseases; Yemayá (Virgin of Regla): The Mother of All, ruling the seas and maternity; Ochún (Our Lady of Charity - Cuba's patron saint): the orisha of love, femininity, and rivers.
Features of Cuban Underworld Slang
Cuban underworld slang, like criminal argot in many other areas, resorts to enlargement, reduction, replacement, switching, reduplicative creation and personification to conceal the meanings of words.
Enlargement of the word is achieved by adding suffixes such as -ardo, -arda, -andabia, -urria, etc.; e.g., cepillardo ("brush"), galletarda ("cookie, cracker or slap," according to context), nichardo ("spook"), nochezarda ("night"), guarandabia ("good relations"), meriendurria ("late afternoon snack"), mortalache ("awesome"), pencatazo ("chicken /coward/"). According to Paz Pérez, gente de guarandabia is either "tough dudes" or "popular celebrities." (Ibid, 199 : 53.)
Syllable reduction to conceal meaning yields words like buga (from bugarrón), calzonso (from calzoncillo), chiva (from chivato).
Sounds and suffixes may be replaced and combined in Cuban underworld Spanish for concealing meaning as follows: bugarrichi (derivative of "bugarrón"), mulañé (derivative of "mulato"), títiri (derivative of títere).
Switching is attained by syllabic inversion as in calo for loca, chepo for pecho, llopepi for pepillo ("teenager"), tapu for puta.
Reduplicative creation is achieved by repetition of sounds or syllables, for instance, bacheche ("cool dude"), cheche ("tough guy, show-off"), chinchín ("drizzle"), etc.
Paz Pérez believes that proper nouns are resorted to often in underworld speech to conceal meaning as in federico (feo, "ugly"), dolores (dólares, "dollars"), cirilo (sí, "yeah"), etc.
Dictionaries Of Cuban Speech and Slang
Friar José María Peñalver was the first who attempted to describe Cuban speech and slang in his "Discurso para promover la formación de un diccionario de voces cubanas" in 1795. Released in 1836, the first dictionary of Cuban slang and speech was authored by Esteban Pichardo y Tapia, born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic and raised in Camagüey. There were subsequent editions of this work in 1849, 1862, 1875, and 1976. By 1959, nine dictionaries of Cuban speech and slang had been published and by 1960 no fewer than 5 major monolingual dictionaries of this nature had been published, including:
Darío Espina Pérez, Diccionario de cubanismos (Barcelona: I.G. Pareja, 1974).
Carlos Paz Pérez, De lo popular y lo vulgar en el habla cubana (La Habana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 1988).
Carlos Paz Pérez, Diccionario cubano de habla popular y vulgar ( Madrid: Agualarga Editores S.L. , no date).
José Sánchez-Boudy, Diccionario mayor de cubanismos (Miami: Ediciones Universal, 1985).
Argelio Santiesteban, El Habla popular cubana de hoy (La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1985).
From a linguist's standpoint, Paz Pérez's "Diccionario cubano de habla popular y vulgar" (no date, but circa 1998) is the best and most useful for its explanations of meanings, linguistic nuances, and dialectology of Cuban Spanish. Santiesteban's dictionary is quite good as well, but at times contains unnecessary political editorializing, as does Paz Pérez's first dictionary, published in Cuba, in 1988, prior to his arrival in the United States. From the interpretation and translation perspective, Sanchez Boudy's dictionary is probably the best, since it is the most comprehensive of these works. However, it lacks scientific rigor, since the author included any unusual word or term ever heard from a Cuban. Thus, some of the words in his work are not really part of Cuban Spanish, but his dictionary does contain Miami Cuban Spanish words, a useful reference to anyone doing interpretation or translation in the United States. Espina Pérez's dictionary is obsolete and not a good value for your money.
This author is working on the first Bilingual Dictionary of Cuban/Miami Cuban Spanish- U.S. English ever prepared. My main purpose is to provide as many old and current Cuban Spanish words as possible, featuring basic linguistic explanations only when indispensable and simple easy-to-read dictionary entries. While preliminary in nature, the following is a sample grouping of entries:
| fandoquear | to act like a jerk (Camagüey, Western Oriente) |
| fanoso, fana | (rest of Cuba) good-for-nothing, cheapskate |
| farol | bluff (see tirar un farol) |
| farolero | bluffer |
| federico | ugly |
| fenómeno | penis |
| filomático | egghead |
| filtrar | to catch on |
| filtrar un mazo | to catch on fast |
| filtro | brain, smart guy |
| fletera | hooker (prostitute) |
| flonqueado | flunked |
| flonquear | to flunk |
| fonil | ass |
| fotingo | ass; clunker (old car) |
| fotuto | vehicle horn |
| fría | cold one (beer) |
| friqueado | freaked out |
| friquear | to freak |
| friquearse | to freak out |
| frizar | to freeze |
| frontear | to front (usually money for drugs) |
| fruta bomba | papaya (Oriente only) |
Note: In provinces other than Oriente, the term papaya is used for "pussy, cunt, box," etc.
Conclusion
As is the case with dialects of any other language, Cuban speech is not homogenous. It has speech sounds and syntactic patterns that are particular but not exclusive to this variety of Spanish. In addition to the standard lexicon, most speakers share a stock of words used only in this variety of Caribbean Spanish. However, usage varies with a speaker's schooling, socio-economic status, age and contact with underworld speech. Cuban Spanish is not more mysterious than or different from other dialects of Spanish. It just takes exposure and getting used to.
The author, a Spanish court interpreter (California and federal certification), is a freelance translator and interpreter in Miami. A version of this paper was presented at the NAJIT conference in May, 2000.
REFERENCES
Alonso, Gladys y Fernández, Angel Luis. 1977.
Antología de lingüística cubana. Tomos I y II. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias
Sociales.
De la Cuesta, Leonel. 1987. Lecciones preliminares de
traductología. San José: Ediciones Guayacán.
Kany, Charles E. 1951.
American-Spanish syntax. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Paz
Pérez, Carlos. 1988. De lo popular y lo vulgar en el habla cubana. La Habana:
Editorial de Ciencias Sociales.
Paz Pérez, Carlos. n.d. Diccionario
cubano de habla popular y vulgar. Madrid: Agualarga Editores S.L.
Resnick, Melvyn C. 1975. Phonological variants and dialect
identification in Latin American Spanish. The Hague: Mouton.
Varela,
Beatriz. 1992. El español cubano-americano. New York: Senda Nueva de Ediciones.
CLP
Scousers and The Jocks, but regional dialects give you a sense of
identity, żNo crees?
Un saludo, Carl
Paco Capella <Pa...@knac.com> wrote in message
news:AlaK9.313$i83...@news.bellsouth.net...
Paco Capella
"CLP" <test...@gilbertsblackpool.co.uk> wrote in message news:atc40n$12lupt$1...@ID-169066.news.dfncis.de...
Enigmas of Cuban SpanishSame here, Paco, what with the Geordies The
Scousers and The Jocks, but regional dialects give you a sense of
identity, ¿No crees?
Un saludo, Carl<Snipped>
borges
?De donde sacaste el articulo sobre el espanyol cubano? No puedo
leerlo muy bien porque los tildes y otras marcas de acentuacion
estan jodidos. ?Espero que este en el internet en algun situo?
Creo que lo de usar "cogi" para enfasis o mas bien decir para
llenar espacio es muy muy viejo. Hay ejemplos de este uso
en los libros de Cabrera Infante cuando reproduce el habla cubana
de los anyos 50. Tambien lo de usar "decir a" en vez de "empezar"
es anticuado tambien.
Bueno, mas nada :)
Un saludo,
Jim
Vicenç Riullop
se puede oir okey, pero hasta ahora no había visto este "oká". ¿Se utiliza
así en otros sitios?
Vicenç
____________________
"Paco Capella" ...
--¡Hola, viejo!
--¡Hola, chico! ¿Qué se cuenta?
--Ahí, en la bobería. ¿Y tú?
--Nada, que la mujer me dijo que tenía que ponerme pa' mi número. Por eso
es que me ves aquí cogiendo la guagua rumbo al paradero.
-- O-ká, entonces nos encontramos más tarde pa' darnos una frías.
-- O-ká, y no te me hagas el sueco. Vamos a hacer una ponina entre todos
porque todo el mundo está sin un quilo.
-- Está bien. Bueno, se me va la guagua. Chau.
The same conversation as above, in slang, might be:
Paco Capella
Hola Jim,
1. El artículo lo saqué del siguiente URL: http://www.najit.org/proteus/v9n3/rivas_v9n3.html.
2. Los tildes y otras marcas de acentuación están perfectamente bien, lo que pasa que tu lector y/o servicio de noticias no saben interpretarlos correctamente.
3. Creo que tienes razón al decir que algunos usos tal vez sean anticuados. Pero acuérdate que acá en los Estados Unidos recibimos influjo tremendo de cubanos de esa época y con ellos se ha perpetuado ciertos usos que te parecen anticuados.
4. Espero que puedas apreciar mejor este artículo desde el URL que te indiqué en el primer párrafo.
Saludos,
Paco Capella
"borges" <bor...@volcanomail.com> wrote in message news:a7f263ec.02121...@posting.google.com...
borges
Gracias por la direccion. Puedo leerlo ahora perfectamente.
Seguramente hay problemas con la manera de leer los
mensages que uso y por esto muchas veces se jodian
la acentuacion.
Un abrazo,
Jim
Paco Capella
"Vicenç Riullop" <vriu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:atflg6$12quhu$3...@ID-133437.news.dfncis.de...