Caribbean Spanish - Characteristics

Characteristics

Frequently, word-final /s/ and /d/ are dropped (as in compás 'beat', mitad 'half'). Syllable-final /s/ (as well as /f/ in any context) may also be debuccalized to . Similarly, syllable-final nasals and /ɾ/ in the infinitival morpheme may also be dropped (e.g. ven 'come', comer 'to eat'); the dropping of final nasals doesn't result in further neutralization compared to other dialects since the nasalization of the vowel is maintained. Several neutralizations also occur in the syllable coda. The liquids /l/ and /ɾ/ may neutralize to (e.g. Cibaeño Dominican celda/cerda 'cell'/'bristle'), (e.g. alma/arma 'soul'/'weapon'), or as complete regressive assimilation (e.g. pulga/purga 'flea'/'purge').

These deletions and neutralizations show variability in their occurrence, even with the same speaker in the same utterance, implying that nondeleted forms exist in the underlying structure. This is not to say that these dialects are on the path to eliminating coda consonants, since these processes have existed for more than four centuries in these dialects. Guitart (1997) argues that this is the result of speakers acquiring multiple phonological systems with uneven control similar to that of second language learners.

Other features include

• Intervocalic /d/ is often deleted (at times causing diphthongs): cansado /kanˈsau/ ('tired'), nada /na/ ('nothing'), and perdido /perˈdio/ ('lost').
• /x/ is aspirated to glottal
• /r/ is often pronounced and aspirated, especially in Puerto Rico: e.g. revolución ('revolution')
• Word-final /n/ is realized as velar ; e.g. consideran ('they consider') and Teherán ('Tehran').
• The second-person subject pronouns—tú (or vos in Central America) and usted—are used more frequently than in other varieties of Spanish, contrary to the general Spanish tendency to omit them when meaning is clear from the context (see Pro-drop language). Thus, tú estás hablando instead of estás hablando. This tendency is strongest in the island countries and, on the mainland, in Nicaragua, where voseo (rather than the use of tú for the second person singular familiar) is predominant.
• So-called "wh-questions", which in standard Spanish are marked by subject/verb inversion, often appear without that inversion in Caribbean Spanish. Thus "¿Qué tú quieres?" for standard "¿Qué quieres (tú)?" ("What do you want?").