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.
Read more about Venezuelan Spanish: Dialectal Features, Regional Variations, Some Examples of Spanish Words Common in Venezuela, Including Some Native Venezuelanisms (slang)
Famous quotes containing the word spanish:
“The Bermudas are said to have been discovered by a Spanish ship of that name which was wrecked on them.... Yet at the very first planting of them with some sixty persons, in 1612, the first governor, the same year, “built and laid the foundation of eight or nine forts.” To be ready, one would say, to entertain the first ship’s company that should be next shipwrecked on to them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)