Spanish
The most notable example is Chilean Spanish.
Forms of the verb estar ("to be") are often shortened by dropping the first syllable (as if the verb were *tar).
- Acá está. → Acá ta. ("Here it is", joking tone or baby-talk)
The preposition para ("for", "in order to") can be shortened to pa' (this sounds uneducated in most dialects):
- Pa' servirle. (lit. "To serve you", i. e. "At your service".)
- No es pa' cualquiera. ("It is not for anyone.")
The d in the final -ado of past participles is usually pronounced softly, and, in relaxed pronunciation, can disappear: Estoy cansado ("I am tired") is heard as Toy cansao. Doing so with the final -ido, as in *Toy perdío ("I am lost"), is perceived as more uneducated. This can lead to hypercorrections like *bacalado instead of bacalao ("cod").
The preposition de ("of") also tends to get shortened to e when the previous word ends in a vowel.
In many dialects, the very common phrase voy a + infinitive ("I'm going to..."), which shows the immediate future tense, is shortened: some people pronounce vua /bwa/, others via /bja/. This is quite common but also considered uneducated.
Some dialects like Andalusian Spanish lose the syllable-final s. Since it is important as a mark of plurals, it is substituted with vowel opening.
The contractions:
- para + el = pal
- para + la = pala
- para + los = palos
- para + las = palas
- para + donde = paonde, pande
- para + allá = payá
- para + acá = pacá
Or the common pa'que from para que.
Read more about this topic: Relaxed Pronunciation
Famous quotes containing the word spanish:
“Ferdinand De Soto, sleeping
In the river, never heard
Four-and-twenty Spanish hooves
Fling off their iron and cut the green,
Leaving circles new and clean
While overhead the wing-tips whirred.”
—Mark Van Doren (1894–1973)
“As the Spanish proverb says, “He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.” So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“In French literature, you can choose “à la carte”; in Spanish literature, there is only the set meal.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)