Puerto Rican Spanish! (aka *BORICUA* Spanish)
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This video is all about Boricua Spanish - the dialect(s) of Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico, and by the Puerto Rico diaspora (especially on the US mainland).
Special thanks to Travis Hurley-Rivera for his suggestions, feedback, and Boricua Spanish audio samples!
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Вайзефакнот
Music:
"Brunch for Two" by JCSD, licensed from Storyblocks.com
Commercial images licensed via Shutterstock.com
Creative Commons images used in this video:
docs.google.com/document/d/1o...
00:00 - Spanish Uncovered
00:13 - Introduction
01:06 - History and influences
02:59 - Pronunciation part 1
03:46 - Spanish Uncovered promotion
05:20 - Pronunciation part 2
08:35 - Vocabulary
13:03 - Loanwords from English
15:34 - Grammar
17:27 - Final comments
Hi, everyone! I hope you enjoy the video! Don't forget to check out Spanish Uncovered, which I highly recommend: ▶ Spanish Uncovered: bit.ly/Spanish-Uncovered ◀ ▶See ALL Uncovered courses: bit.ly/Uncovered-ALL-langs ◀
Lol.... Can't believe you started talking smack about your Ex. Your channel has always been really button-up.
MUCHAS GRACIAS SOY DE PUERTO RICO 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷 SIEMPRE TE SIGO🙏🙌
You should compare Italian Napolitano to Argentinian Spanish. I heard they are fairly similar.
Please Paul, it would mean the absolute WORLD to me if you discussed Colombian Spanish. Gracias hermano!
@@ChristopherFF07 Columbian Spanish is so boring! It is so perfect that discussing it would be just like discussing the Queen's English.
The most beautiful Spanish accent of all.I am a gringo that lived in PR. 27 years and my wife,the most beautiful soul I've ever known,taught me Puerto Rican Spanish.She died almost 2 yrs ago and I've since returned to the US.I was so lucky I learned Spanish there in PR because I learned to speak in the very fluid,flowing style they speak.Now here in Atlanta,Ga. I speak Spanish mostly with Mexicans and people from Central America.They insist that I am a Latino.I love all Latinos but Puerto Rico is so very dear to me and I will always have a special place in my heart for her.
Such a beautiful story and deeply sorry for your loss man!
Thanks Francis.I love your videos,especially this one! @@francis_n
@@wildwildwest1286 Hey I am not the creator f these videos, just another viewer. But they are awesome indeed 🙂
Sorry for your loss and thank you for your love for our beautiful Puerto Rico, hermanito!! Siempre serás un boricua honorario!
🥺♥️
The Puerto Rican 🇵🇷 accent comes from the region of Andalucia on Spain 🇪🇸 and the Canary Islands 🇮🇨. Me as a Puerto Rican, I’m really happy that you did a video about the puerto rican spanish.
Not just Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican too.
@@Snoy_FlyMexico too
Puerto Rico is not Spanish and Hispanic and Latino until given back to Spain and getting independence only from Spain your Americans who speak Spanish this is the Spanish family ♥️🇨🇴🇵🇦🇨🇷🇸🇻🇬🇹🇳🇮🇻🇪🇪🇨🇵🇾🇨🇱🇺🇾🇬🇶🇵🇪🇧🇴🇩🇴🇦🇷🇭🇳🇲🇽🇪🇸🇨🇺🇦🇩🇳🇱♥️
@@Snoy_Flyalso the Caribbean cost of Venezuela and Colombia
Yk, because of these locations of origin, I wonder how related/connected PR Spanish would be to Arabic compared to other Spanish dialects
As an Argentine Spanish speaker, Puerto Rican Spanish had always sounded somehow playful, dead worried, angry and overly energetic all at the same time XD It's one of the most "sung" accents I know, together with Chilean. It's very fun to imitate, I really love it XD
As a Boricua I love how the people of Chile talk, their accent is highly criticized but I love their accent so much.
Funny. To me people from Argentina speak Spanish with a very "sung" accent- Italianized pretty much. :-) (I am from Puerto Rico). I love it too.
… says the “Italian” speaker
As a Brazilian I'm impressed how many terms are like in Brazilian Portuguese, even those not indicated as such. Like "pai" for "father" and "gata" for a pretty and hot girl.
@@JohnnyLynnLeeYes! We also use prieto for black (Preto in Brasil.) My wife was born in P. R. but her paternal grandmother was from Brasil. So i fell in love with the Brazilian culture. I also play bossanova on my guitar. Duolingo is helping me a lot with Portuguese also. So pronouncing the Brazilian "r" is pretty easy for me even though my family and I don't have that in our Puerto Rican dialect.
I'm a second generation Cuban living in rural Texas. I work retail and meet a LOT of different people daily. My accent is often confused as Puerto Rican By Mexicans and Central Americans (Sounds competently different to me) While Dominicans can tell I'm Cuban right away. Go figure...
Funny , im puertorican and worked retail in the cuban parts of south and west florida. Apparently they thought i was cuban and my wife told me i picked up their accent.
You must not speak very fast. Every Cubano I've ever heard speaks like they're on a timer.
Igual me pasa a mi. Yo vivo en Nueva York, y mucha gente piensa que mi acento es Cubano.
As a L2 Spanish speaker,I have a couple of things to say. First and foremost, I didn't know that PR Spanish was so particular, maybe because there aren't a lot of puerto rican here in Italy. Second, the guy speaking for the examples is the best ever, you can hear he was having a lot of fun showing his language to the Internet, which is a sentiment I very much appreciate.
He was most definitely showing off the accent. As a Cuban would say. Tremendo tipo, se la comio.
I live in New York. The accent is on point with all the nuyoricans here
Nah the accent here is way too extreme. Puerto Rican Spanish ain't that sing-song. It is to a certain extent but this sounds like a caricature. Like our Spanish has a melodic quality but in normal every day speech is more laid back than that.
I live here in PR and the guy doing the pronunciation doesn’t sound Puerto Rican
@@christophercolon353 exactly, he sounds like he's imitating.
Thank you Paul! As a 50 year old Puertorican myself I can attest that 95% of the colloquial terms you have presented here are fairly recent used terms exclusively by the younger generation. My generation probably used very few f those terms, and my parents and grandparents generations certainly didn’t use any of them. However, I understand language is a living organic thing and will forever adjust and change to each generation that comes
He did the same thing when covering Mexican Spanish. He found the stupidest among us to represent us.
It’s like using Wiz Khalifa as an example of American English. 😂
No matter who I consult with and who does the samples, some people will complain and say they don't speak that way. If I use "educated speech" then people will complain and say I didn't represent the dialect's features. The way I approach a video like this is to highlight the dialectal features, not the standard features that people also use. Why? Because it goes without saying that people use both. There is nobody anywhere who uses the dialectal variants 100% of the time. Everybody knows that. But the video is about the dialect, not about the standard language. If I make a video about Canadian English, I will absolutely highlight the discourse marker "eh", even though I have hardly used it since I became an adult. It's a natural part of my native dialect, but my life and identity dictate that I speak in a more standard way these days. But I would absolutely include it in the video. For the video on Mexican Spanish, by the way, I had a focus group of 15 native speakers from Mexico contribute ideas and review everything in the video, and critique everything in the video before its release. None of them were stupid people.
@@Langfocus was this approach taken with Puerto Ricans as well? Maybe a diverse group of ages and education levels and take what the consensus can agree on? Honestly though, this reader sounds pretty foreign to me. I get your objective to emphasize the dialect but this is off by a lot in my opinion. I truly appreciate your work though and that you highlighted our culture and way of speaking! 💙😊
@@Langfocus Relax man, he wasn't attacking you, he said he knows language changes over time.
In Andalusia we share many similarities with this dialect. Apart from the L substitution for some R, nothing really sounded very unfamiliar to me 😊
Lo de L/R viene igualmente de Andalucía.
I'm a speaker of Madrileño and I work with Andalusians every single day, and I felt the same as you.
Most of us have some ancestry from Andalusia, maybe that's why
@@joseanfigueroa8785 es de Extremadura, de una localidad al sur de esa región
Sevilla fue el único lugar en el mundo fuera de Puerto Rico donde yo como boricua no he tenido que cambiar ni palabras ni acento…
I'm Argentinian and I fell in love with Boricua Spanish! Such a beautiful dialect! It really needs more recognition.
🙏🏻😂
The Boricua speaker is so enthusiastic, I love that guy! It's fun to listen to him speak. Also, the way the language drops consonants and merges vowels without even blinking, It's like Borocuan is the Danish of the Spanish dialects 😆
En realidad, no es una característica única del español de Puerto Rico. Probablemente tenga relación con el español de Andalucía, en el cual también es muy común no pronunciar ciertas letras o acortar palabras (como decir "pa" en lugar de "para".
exactamente, la forma de hablar de las islas es la más parecida a la forma andalúz@@ivanovichdelfin8797
As a puertorican, this video is pretty accurate. Obviously, there are few slang words that are quite outdated but are acceptable. 😂😂
Outdated..no..simplemente incorrecto...but he's a good guy though..
What are the incorrect ones help me i am trying to learn @@lesserlight
I'm nuyorkrican, not really well versed in the language but some of the sayings he said that may not seem disrespectful in English, I kind of recall they would get our butts beat if we said them as kids. I was wondering if there were some sayings In there that are typically considered disrespectful in the language or if I just misheard them
I come from Andalucia, in southern Spain, and I'm surprised how many similarities are there with our local accents!
I'm Puerto Rican and feel that Spanish from Andalucia is quite easy to understand given the similarities!
Spanish is indeed the language of friendship. We have so many rich varieties yet we understand each other without problems 99% of the time. Saludos a todos mis hermanos/as desde España!
El 1% sobrante son las expresiones vulgares de las que algunos pueden llegar a abusar.
Somos puertorriqueños de descendencia española.soy la octava generacion
I was born and raised in Mexico and until watching this video I never realized that some expressions I commonly use are also used in Puerto Rican Spanish! That was very cool to notice!
Algunos boricuas hablando pasamos por jarochos… 😉
Very uncool, it means you listen to regaeton😂
@@MercenaryBlackWaterz Not that much tbh. I'm more of an EDM gal myself. But regardless of that 1.- how is that uncool? 2.- I've been using those expressions for as long as I can remember. They're not the result of me listening to certain music or anything, I just say them.
That’s because PR Spanish has recently become more mainstream outside of the Caribbean and US East Coast with the increasing reach of the internet and media.
@@Jhonmz with the increasing reach of thrash music aka regaeton.
I’m a Puerto Rican born in NJ who lived and studied in Madrid . I will never forget visiting my family in PR after my years in Spain and being called the tourist . The older I get the more I appreciate the wonderful colorful way my island family speaks . Putting the demonstrative pronoun after the noun actually sounds normal to me , hearing ese tipo as opposed to el tipo ese sounds strange . Also I lived and studied in Brazil 🇧🇷 the use of the glottal Puerto Rican R helped me big time . My ancestors on the island are of Portuguese and Catalan decent , your history of the island is spot on . Great video
Especially when talking smack on the playground “Tú mamá” “La tuya!” 😂😂
My dad was stationed in Madrid. One of the things they used to do, was make new GIs and their families take the tour to get to know your neighborhood ( Alcala de Henares in my case ). So we were on a bus with a family that was Boricuans and they started talking with my dad and tour guide in Spanish . And the tour guide was like what the hell is that while pointing at them . She told them not to speak to her with that language and to follow my dad's prounications. They take their language serious. They where embarrassed. I really can't say too much, my Spanish is horrible
@@kfelix2934 I used to live in Torrejón de Ardoz it’s legit 15 mins from Alcalá . Wow that was a wild story . I remember being asked where my family was from and a lot of Spaniards didn’t even know where Puerto Rico was I used to say things like el país de Ricky Martin Y Jennifer López and then they would sort of get it . The Spanish do take their language super serious , it’s a blessing and a curse but hey the best way to learn is to immerse yourself and follow their lead .
@@kfelix2934Wow, how rude! And obnoxious. And arrogant.
You look dominican
A Boricua here! I'm always interested to see how my variety of Spanish is perceived abroad by other Hispanics, but, even more by different language speakers.
Puerto Rican aren't Hispanic and Latino until given back to Spain and getting independence only from Spain your Americans who speak Spanish
Venezuelan here. We're cousins, basically.
Somos todos ibero-americanos! Um abraço do Brasil!
@@familyandfriends3519 dude stop being a dork
I’m Mexican, and I wish you guys could learn to speak better… tbh. I can barely understand when puertorriqueños say anything. Spanish must be well enunciated… it is a phonetic language. Skipping letters is not character… it’s deformity.
The main things I hear when speaking Spanish (I'm Nuyorican) is that people from countries that do not aspirate are often scandalized that we cut them out of places (though this isn't limited to only Puerto Rico), and many people insist that half our sentences are peppered with English words. while English words absolutely are used interspersed, it is in no way half of them, and Puerto Rico is not the only Spanish-speaking country to do this as English has that influence on many languages other than Spanish. The first thing people run to when they want to imitate or mock our accent and dialect is to to change all R's into L's (no matter where they fall), as well as to pronounce all single and double R's the way it is pronounced in Portuguese and French. Opinions about our Spanish can be very split with many people saying that they love the way our accents sound and many looking down upon them or making fun of them. I have always felt that our accents very effectively express the lively spirit and warmheartedness of our people🇵🇷.
The trilled r is most likely influence from Corsican settlers… To me, there is Portuguese influence indeed (and some Galician), but Catalan and West African languages had more of an influence in our Spanish that we Puerto Ricans still have to come to terms with. Whomever was the native speaker is using rather EXTREME inflections of our accent, which some young people may be using, but we tend to moderate the accent a bit on formal situations. Greetings from (where else?) Puerto Rico 🇵🇷
Si fuera del francés hubiéramos adoptado otras cosas como sus vocales o y u que suenan diferentes , del portugués además de la r arrastrada adoptamos pai Mai emprestame agora
not just young people, not at all. In fact, that r is more common among older people
Right, I was always taught that it was from the influence of French settlers
I am Puerto Rican. I think one of the funnier quirks in our Spanish is the use of the word “China” (“Chinese”) for the color orange, instead of naranjada. It’s a little racist, maybe? But it’s never meant that way!
Don't forget we also use it for "oranges"
Not racist at all lol
Also guineo to call bananas 😂 poor people of guinea
May I ask u a question; Do u see yourself as American at all?
It's not racist 😂 it originally referred to the fruit, cuz the Portuguese would import them from China iirc
This video is awesome; I never thought you'd cover the topic of Puerto Rican Spanish, let alone this comprehensively! In fact, I was just talking to some of my Puerto Rican family a few weeks ago about some of these peculiarities. I am also thrilled that you pointed out the stigma surrounding the vernacular, and that most other Spanish speakers from elsewhere in Latin America may find it to be a "lazy," or "Americanized," dialect. I think Puerto Rican Spanish is actually very unique in its style and phonology, and I'd even draw some comparisons to sounds from Portuguese and Arabic, hence its connection to Andalucía! I would like to point out a few things, however, that I found to be a bit different from what I experience(d) speaking Puerto Rican Spanish casually with my family. 1. For the shortened/slang pronunciations that you used as examples, I find that there are some definitive differences. For example, to say "mai," or "pai," is not exactly a shortening of "madre," or "padre." To me, it is more akin to saying "mah," or "pops," which some parents don't particularly care for, as it is sometimes deemed too informal/slangy, and lacking respect, which is highly-emphasized in Puerto Rican culture; "faltando respeto," (forgetting/lacking respect) is something I've heard a ton from adults when they were "bochinchando," (gossiping) about other families (think of it as this: in a dialect with so much slang and informality, there must be some honorific boundaries in certain sociocultural contexts). 2. In your vocabulary section, specifically in the example you used for "pelao," I think it's important to note for those who may not be familiar with the terms "nene," or "nena," that they don't always mean "babe," and are usually contextual. Meaning, it can of course be interpreted from your example as being used in a conversation between a guy and his girlfriend; but most often, I would use "nene" or "nena," as a way of simply saying "boy," or "girl," usually when referring to someone of the same age or younger. I apologize for the essay, but I hope you continue making videos like this in the future! A few additional slang words, by the way, can be "tipo/tipa," which is like saying "guy/lady," in an informal/unfamiliar context (ex: "Este tipo/a me esta enfojonando!" - "This guy/lady is pissing me off!"). Another term I heard a lot while growing up was "socio/socia," which is a of closer kin, and is like saying "homie," or "bro." I'm not a native speaker, so forgive me for any errors (I'm trying to make my way out of being a "yo sabo," kid lol). I'd be interested to know if any other Puerto Ricans or Latinos in general share or differ from some of these linguistic characteristics!
'tipo' or ''tipa' can be a very derogatory word in Puerto Rico. we use better ''muchacho'' or ''muchacha''
Never thought you would cover PR spanish. I’m a rican and yes this is accurate, pretty cool to see. As you said most Spanish variants are not that different from each other despite having their own slang and loan words. Now with the internet it has become even easier to learn about the other accents and slangs. It makes speaking casually to other spanish speakers easier.
I was in the US Army, stationed in Panama, in the 1990s. My 2 roommates (lived in the barracks), were Puerto Rican…as we were all three Spanish linguists (I attended Defense Language Institute for Spanish 3 years prior--not a native speaker). They didn’t give me a break….and spoke Spanish 90% of the time in the room. that helped my Spanish immensely…and, thus, I understand PR Spanish better than many other varieties. Have only visited PR twice-in 2016 & 2017. Have plane tickets for another visit in March 2024…
Siempre bienvenido
Seems on brand with my experience hanging out with PRs in a summer program once. They pretty much spoke Spanish regardless of who was in the room and if you could keep up, you'd be included in the conversation, a little exaggeration but not much 😄 it was a lot of fun
Un abrazo mi pana
I’m from the west coast of Puerto Rico. Our accent differs in some ways from the one portrayed in this video.
I’m from the northern part and none of the accents sounded right, they sounded weird and unnatural, he used lots of slang as expamples too
Yeah, that was like a Mexican Bad Bunny..
Exactly what I just posted 😂 he sounds really off.
Exactly my gf is from Guayama and she barely speaks like that. But that’s how reggaeton artists be talking 😂
@@chrissmarie455 slang is dialect; what the video is covering lmao
I am from Puerto Rico, born in 1977, and I can tell you that this Spanish form was popularized in the early 2000s by the urban/reggeaton culture, which was born in the PR ghettos. Before that, only the ultra-poor and Illiterate talked like this.
Empezó con la caballota de ivy queen 😅. Pero el tema de rr viene de los Corsos/Frances. Pero no niego que eran la mayoría gente pobre que cogian Café… aunque muchos crecieron negocios y ganaron fortunas.
I couldn't have said it more accurately myself. You hit the nail on the head.
All slang starts with the poor. That’s how it works 95% of the time.
that is correct. It is caco language
I speak Salvadoran Spanish and we all feel like Caribbeans are yelling all the time haha But PR and DR are the most difficult accents for me to understand by far
I can see what you mean, it depends on the type of person though. Not everyone has that screaming type of speach. We have a word for people who speak like that, “Parcelero/a”
@@ElJosherunfortunately the popularity of Reguetón has made many believe our Spanish is a certain way when everyday people speak very differently
@@chrissmarie455 indeed.
Posiblemente es que solo escuchas reguetoneros los cuales hasta a mí se me hacen difícil de entender. Es como escuchar un Mara de tu país. Usan un vocabulario que es difícil de entender.
I think the strong influence of Portuguese and Catalan explains much of the unique nature of the Puerto Rican dialect of Spanish. But is it more closely related to the Dominican and Cuban Spanish dialects?
I was a Spanish & Italian major in college. I spoke Brazilian Portuguese from having lived in Brazil and found the jump to the other two pretty easy. Until I got into my Spanish Conversation class and didn't understand almost anything the teacher said. The rest of my class were largely of Puerto RIcan descent and they had no problems engaging the professor. I went to the Cuban head of the department and he explained that I wouldn't be able to get my degree if I didn't learn Puerto Rican Spanish as that particular professor was the only teacher of Conversational Spanish at my small University. So, I went to Puerto Rico for a semester, returned to my university only to find a non-Puerto Rican now teaching the class who I was able to understand without difficulty. I since went back to Borinquen to live for five years and now I enjoy their dialect of Spanish. I maintain, if you can understand Puerto Rican Spanish, you can understand almost every dialect of Spanish. Peruvian is the only one I know of that still gives me pause.
El chileno tmb
wow that sucks that you had to go through that! sounds frustrating. glad it worked out at least!
Muitas das palavras mostradas pelo Paul, nós falamos no português do Brasil.
Posso confirmar, que é verdade, porque nós temos influência do português. Sou de Porto Rico.
Muita verdade!
comentei ali em cima de um exemplo mais, o uso do infinitivo para evitar o subjuntivo. Nenhuma outra variedade do espanhol usa isso.
@@ingridrobyn2848 é mesmo, tens toda razão
Yo soy boricua y mi DNA mayor es Portuguese, ademas curiosamente nuestros nativos vinieron de amanozas. Creo que tenemos mucha similitud con Brazil.
I speak peninsular Spanish, in here we say a lot of things the same way. We say "acho" if we are speaking fast, but it comes from "macho" rather than "muchacho". Some regions in Spain speak with seseo as well, so this is not weird at all. Same for the "s" disappearing in some cases. The terms "mai" and "pai" for mother and father are also used in Andalucía. Some words like "chevere" or "ahorita" are more used in South America rather than Spain, but they are not foreign at all and we understand each other well. We sometimes use "mira" to call for attention, but it is rather in the literal sense of actually looking at something (¡mira a ese tío!). However, we use "oye" in a more general meaning to call for attention or let someone know they are not doing something right (the intonation changes everything here) (¡Oye, escucha lo que te digo!; "¡Oyééé, qué hacéeeeees!"). We do use "guasa" as in "¿estás de guasa?" (are you joking?") and gato for people from Madrid, for some reason or other (but it's a bit old fashioned now). We also use less loanwords from English. I think, to me, it's the order of the words that sounds stranger, in this case, but not altogether weird, as we can change sometimes the words of a sentence for emphasis or when we speak fast.
Note that that one "mira" is very peculiar. The "i" almost sounds like an "e", e it is rather lenghty
"Gato/gato" also means "pretty" in Rio de Janeiro city dialect and "brutal" is also used in Portugal with the same meaning. "O meu carro" has the same meaning of "El carro mio". Very interesting dialect!
Pero brutal también lo decimos en España
Sim, Portugal e Espanha são vizinhos e sempre houve intercâmbio entre dos dois países. No Brasil, no entanto, "brutal" não tem o significado de "cool". Exemplo: "Um amigo meu teve uma morte brutal". Ou seja, "brutal" tem o significado de "violento". Um abraço, meu caro!@@ivanovichdelfin8797
@@fabiolimadasilva3398 Así es, brutal también tiene ese otro significado
Gato/gato is not part of the Puerto Rican dialect it is slang. (The first time I heard it was 20 years ago or so meaning just a guy/gal, and in all these years I have only heard it being said once from one of my cousins and in some reggaeton song). Not only is brutal similar to Portuguese I have herd the the common PR expression "¿en serio?" used with the exact accent and meaning in Portuguese.
@@cocoa_kiss Boa tarde. Você é português ou tem vínculos com Portugal? De fato, já ouvi a expressão "em sério" dita por portugueses. Um abraço do Brasil, meu caro!
What other people from Latin America have to understand is that the way spanish is spoken in the islands is not wrong, it's simply their own dialects
I have been waiting for this video since I started following the channel 😩🇵🇷 As Puerto Rican born from the Island I have been certain the Spanish from Puerto Rico is quite an interesting topic to talk about 🇵🇷
I believe Spanglish or Code Switching could've been covered in this video too. As a Puerto Rican living on the island, I grew up learning both English and Spanish. Most people (especially younger people) who speak English tend to begin or end a sentence in English. For example: "So ayer vimos una película. No estaba mala pero it could've been better." (So we saw a movie yesterday. It wasn't bad but it could've been better). Yes, this is typical both spoken and in text messages. I enjoyed the video a lot! I thought that our 'r' was influenced more by German or French immigrants, but I can also see the Portuguese too; especially with "mai" and "pai" which also similar to "mãe" (mom) and "pai" (dad) in Portuguese. Some words used in the examples are archaic or mostly used by Gen X or early millennials like "gufiao" or "guasa". Overall, great video!! 10/10
code-switching is a New York and ''NewYorkRican'' phenomenon, not a Puerto Rico one.
@@reucat24 I would argue it's also a Puerto Rico phenomenon too and not exclusive to New York or New Yorkricans. There may be more people switching in NY due to a larger population, however I witness our code-switching daily here on the island. Also, I have partaken in research, done by college researchers from the states, studying our code switch and how we are able to do so. But it's cool to know people in NY do the same.
@reucat24 not just NYC, Boricans in CHI, MIA & TX does the same thing and so do Dominicans. Specially those not born on Islands. I speak that way also, but due to me being lazy or not really knowing the right word to put in place. BTW I'm not a PuertoRican it just how I managed to learned and used Spanish living in Latinos neighborhoods.
@@reucat24As a Puerto Rican born and raised in the island I can confirm that we do code switch in Puerto Rico. It is more prominent in Gen X and onward especially when speaking to each other. In cases, of which I saw plenty growing up, kids that were part of a school where instruction was primarily in English the kids will be speaking exclusively in English with each other. Of course, in communities where schools have a poor English language program, code switching between English and Spanish is non-existent. School is not the only way to be exposed to the English language but access to media in English (in my generation mostly cable TV) was a big factor too.
@@reucat24it happens a lot in PR as well
Excellent video! I am very amazed by how well you have described and summarized the characteristics of the Puerto Rican variety of Spanish. Congratulations and thank you! As a boricua living in Spain for almost six years now, I find this even funny because I don't hear Puerto Rican Spanish that often now. I would have talked a little more about the influence of Canarian Spanish, which is very, very important in Puerto Rican Spanish (especially in terms of vocabulary: words like "guagua", "fo", "gaveta", etc.). I would have also talked about "puñeta", which is a word widely used by Puerto Ricans in many contexts (to express emotion, anger, joy, etc.), hahaha. There are two things I wanted to comment on: the expression "al garete" is not exclusive to Puerto Rico, it is also used in areas of Spain, especially in Andalusia, although it is not as common; and Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States in 1898, not 1896.
My wife is Puerto Rican (Cuba Rican, actually), but she learned Spanish in Mexico so, when we would visit her family in Puerto Rico most people thought she was Mexican.
I'm Mexican, but I grew up in Orlando with Puerto Rican friends. I've picked up so much of the accent, vocabulary, and even tone. I think I'm better for it.😊
as a puertorican, born and raised in the island, i used to think puertorican spanish was pretty normal until i started hearing other varieties of spanish like argentine, chilean and dominican spanish and i started noticing how unique it actually is. im the type that doesnt have frenillo (the french r sound) and a lot of ppl here see it more as a sort of vocl disability rather than an accent but that may be bcuz i live in a rather rural part of the island
I do... And people look at me like I was swearing at them. Idk, es tan jaro.
I returned to Puerto Rico after living three years in California (which forced me to use a more standardized vocabulary in interactions with other Spanish speakers), and went to graduate school back home. There were 23 Boricuas and 23 Latin Americans from elsewhere, mostly Peru and Colombia. I was always the interpreter 😝. I’d take my Peruvian classmates to a Wendy’s and they’d flip out when I “translated” back and forth. We Puerto Ricans have reduced our vocabulary to a fraction of the number of words used elsewhere, but we’ve also shaved phonemes down to those that are barely essential. On the other hand, there are other versions of Spanish that are far more localized than ours (and many of our truly native words and expressions are becoming more widespread because of the strong influence Puerto Rican music is having on the rest of the continent). Just surviving the onslaught of English over 125 years of colonial rule and maintaining Spanish as the main language of 95% of us in Puerto Rico is a triumph in and of itself.
@fiquitoyunque Wow! What do you mean by the Puerto Rican vocabulary has been reduced? Due to the influx of loan words from English cause most education + secondary is conducted in Spanish.
I was born and raised in the mountains of PR, and I spoke like this until I went to college. There, I met students from all over the island as well as international students and foreign professors, and my accent and word usages changed significantly. Now i speak a more neutral Spanish with a little bit of Boricua accent. This experience is quite common, I suppose. I have noticed accents and way of speaking correlates with level of education and socio-economic situation.
I’m literally at the airport in San Juan watching this now. They put a lot of the Rs as Ls & tend to “swallow” the “s” at the end or middle of the word a lot “e’pera” = “espera”, “do” = “dos”, “Puelto” = “Puerto”, etc.
This was cool to see has a Puertorrican. I was not aware of the way I said things until hearing them here. I wish you had the time to show the difference in dialects between rural and metropolitan puertorrican Spanish. I have travelled a bit around the island when I was there and was a bit shocked finding fellow people speaking same Spanish but in their own way of expressing and some unique words. Tells you a lot about how language is also influenced in the place you live. Awesome video as always
The speaker has an accent I’ve never heard in Puerto Rico, sounds very Dominican
He was definitely a non puerto rican spanish speaker imitating a puerto rican spanish.
I was born a Puerto Rican in NYC, I moved to the island in 79. Now I live in California, I love, and I'm proud of my Borikua accent. I work at a call center for a county facility. I love it whenever people ask if I'm Puerto Rican. As a Newyorican, I love when people from the East Coast ask if I'm from New York . I love my Borikua, Newyorican accent.
Answering your question at the end, when I say I’m from Puerto Rico many people joke around saying “Puelto Lico.” This is a wrong perception. As you said, when an “r” is located at the end of a syllable we tend to pronounce it as an “l,” but when it’s placed at the beginning of a word or a double “r” sometimes you may hear it as [χ]. Puelto Rico or Puelto [χ]ico are common, but NEVER Puelto Lico.
He also forgot to mention the "precedes consonant" rule, which is another instance where the r->l, for example, cabrón always has its r pronounced, but as you mentioned, with Puerto Rico, the r becomes an l. The R in Rico does not precede a consonant, so the R is preserved.
@@basedoppenheimer1497 Can you imagine if it were “cablón?” Hahaha. 😂 Yes, you’re right!
I assure you they're not trying to be correct
@@_marcobaezyes let’s generalize we could play that game with literally every Latin country that have regions that speak a certain way that’s considered “undesirable”. The arrogance of some latinos 🙄🤡
@@chrissmarie455 ehhhh...
I am Boricua so i am waiting with great anticipation 😮❤😮. Note, "no dropped esses were harmed in this video" ❤
As a Puerto Rican I found 99% of this was accurate, though, in my opinion, it kind of represented a lower register of Puerto Rican Spanish. I think it represents a specific segment of Spanish speakers who are Puerto Rican.
I agree with you,but higher registries will also have more standarized words and grammar, making it a lot more similar with other Spanish varieties. If you listen to political speeches from the 60's, you'll notice that boricua, dominican, cuban and nicaraguan Spanish are almost indistinguishable (for non-natives).
I don’t disagree. But I still think that the variation of Puerto Rican Spanish highlighted in the examples in this video are an extreme version that doesn’t really represent a more generalized version of what Puerto Rican Spanish sounds like. I just don’t feel is accurate in its representation.
jahsjahs pero y donde tu vives que la gente no habla asi? pa la proxima le decimos que se tire un video sobre el dialecto guaynabito!!
Growing up in NYC which was heavily Puerto Rican at the time, we called the Spanish they spoke, "Newyorican", as there were so many English words sprinkled in.
We in Puerto Rico call them that too, NewYorkRicans it is hard to understand their broken spanish and code switching.
@@reucat24I knew just enough to know if I should switch subway cars at night or not...
Nuyoricans are not the only spanish speakers who add English words, not all of us add so many English words in our Spanish, and we are proud to call ourselves, and to be called Nuyorican, which includes many internationally known people and personalities.
@@DanteVelasquez That thing is we called them that since they tend to mix way too much english. In Puerto rico we have that but it mostly spanish but new york puerto rican tend to speak way too much english that it is noticeable that it is a new york puerto rican and not from the island.
@@kyordannydelvalle523 We have called OURSELVES Nuyorican because up until recently New York City has been host to the largest population of Puerto Rican Migrants and descendants. Just because people left the island did not mean that they left their culture behind, and those of us born here grew up with aspects of both American and Puerto Rican culture. We have retained both identities of being American (in this case New Yorkers) and Puerto Rican and many of us speak both Spanish and English. Naturally English will be mixed in with Spanish as languages evolve and environments always play a role. However, to generalize an entire population of millions of people by saying that it is all of us that mix in English, and to go further and say that "too much English is mixed in" is to do the same thing that other Spanish speakers do when they falsely say that ALL Puerto Ricans (those from the island and the descendants and migrants on the mainland USA) speak Spanish incorrectly and add "too much English". These are condescending, imperialist, and judgmental perceptions (we already have La RAE for all that). As the United States has the stature that it does around the world you will find that everywhere English words are mixed in with many languages, and that includes all of Latin America where English is mixed in with Spanish. Self appointed language police want to decide how much English is too much to add based on their own agendas, but languages don’t work that way. They change and evolve, and with a population of almost 8 billion people they will continue to do so in spite of anyone's opinions or desire to control them.
From my experience watching your channel, I’ve always found your way of talking about languages very interesting. I would even take classes from you if I could. I’m interested in watching this video when I have the time.
Thanks! I hope you like this video too. Just curious, if I taught a course or produced a a video course, what language would you be most interested in?
@Langfocus If I could pick anything, it would be Mandarin, but I think you should do a Japanese course. I know you are skilled at it and even though there are already many Japanese resources online, your content is very in-depth and comprehensible.
@@Langfocus I double down that you should definitely make a language course! As to what language it should be for? I would say a language that makes you happy and that you know very good. My vote goes for Hebrew which was a focus of the channel in the early days! Maybe even arabic or Japanese! Best regards to you Paul! ❤️
@@Langfocus I’m interested in a couple of them, mostly mandarin, Japanese, or Portuguese. Those courses would be extremely interesting. Your way of explaining them is really really helpful and I feel like I learn or understand a lot from your videos.
i really REALLY liked the way you seemed to interact with the speaker and with your own video in a meta way to show expressions. also this is speaker is amazing, the funnest out of any video i've watched of yours
This video got me to realize that my neighbors who I thought were Brazilian may actually be Puertorican. The vocal inflections of both sound so similar to me and I can never really make out what my neighbors are saying despite knowing Spanish and Portuguese
Thank you SO much buddy!!!! I’m really happy you took one of my requests years ago and made a video about it… Paul, You’re the COOLEST!!! 💯🇵🇷💪😎
Amazing job Paul, I've always been interested in this variety of Spanish. No wonder it's popular in today's music culture, it's so expressive and colorful.
I just want to say thank you so much for doing a video on the language of my people! I just felt so proud to hear someone talk about it and break it down! I think you did a great job!
I have been watching your videos for a long time now. I have always admired your work. Now that I am studying phonetics I understand from a student's perspective what you are doing. I am Puerto Rican and it makes me laugh because many of the slang used is daily street slang. I enjoy your work. Please keep going. Respect
Growing up mostly in New York I see how heavily influenced my Spanish has been by Puerto Ricans. I leaned Spanish in middle school and was chastised by my family for speaking Puerto Rican "slang". Clearly they had no understanding of Puerto Rican Spanish. I am proud of the influence my Puerto Rican, Dominican and Mexican friends had have on the way I speak Spanish. Great video.
As a Brazilian I'm impressed how many terms are like in Brazilian Portuguese, even those not indicated as such. Like "pai" for "father" and "gata" for a pretty and hot girl.
just be a little carefull, 'cause "gata" can have a bad connotation
@@ingridrobyn2848 Really? In Brazil it just means beautiful. But in a kinda flirtatious way. So saying that to a random strange woman, specially seriously, would sound weird. But other than that it's pretty harmless in Braizlian Portuguese. How is it used there?
@@JohnnyLynnLee mostly to say beautiful woman/man but gata can also be mistress or not so serous girlfriend, if used as I have a "gata". Also you can say habían par de gatos - there were a few people. In this sense I only use it as masculine and means people. A variation, is "pelagatos" this means people but a bit despective, like referring to them as less important. El banco estaba cerra'o, habia un pelagato afuera esperando. The bank was closed, there was a pelagato waiting outside. Implying this person means nothing to the situation.
I'm dominican, a lot of the differences are shared between both varieties! It'd have been interesting to do a video on Caribbean Spanish as a whole, because a lot of the characteristics you mention exist on a continuum between the different varieties and Puertorrican Spanish stands in the middle or closer to the standard in a lot of them! But this video was interesting nonetheless
Paul! As always it's a pleasure to have a new video of your's pop up. I love the editing style and how you made each idea flow into the next! And I really liked the enthusiastic reader XD
I’ve been a subscriber of your channel from the beginning. As a Boricua, this video makes me so happy. Thank you for featuring our dialect. Wepa!!!
As a Puerto Rican raised in New York its so refreshing to see our accent talked about in a way that's not judgmental or prescriptive ! I was constantly corrected for so many of these things in school and looked out funnily in Spain hahaha
Exactly! The Spaniards also look down on the Andalusian and Canary accents where they aspirate as well. There is a always a big debate about it over there.
The Spanish language TV moguls in Miami despised our accent… and still do… but they’ve moderated their stance since reggaeton became profitable to them as well… 😉
Fun fact: Puerto Rico is roughly the same size as Corsica or Cyprus
Finally! 🙌 I was waiting for this video for the longest!
Super excited for this video. Been a follower for years!
You did good mano, you hit it right on the spot 🇵🇷💖 Þank you 😊
The reggaeton songs I listened to while growing up started making sense now!
Thanks for covering our Dialect; your presentation was on point! Estuvo super chevere!
Great surprise video, i was not expectingthis. Ive watched your content for two years now and have always enjoyedyour content. Great job on it. ❤
Nice video, I have to mention that the guy who imitated the puerto rican accent doesn’t sound Puerto rican at all, it was way cartoonish.
He is Puerto Rican. He just got a little excited to highlight the explicitly PR features.
I’m ashamed to say I use to be ashamed of our accent 😢 I hated to hear it… 😢how young and ignorant was I !! I am NOW proud and love our accent!!! Vivaaa Puerto Rico !! Y tambien 🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉
I love it too. I'm happy you're no longer ashamed ❤
This episode is one of the funniest. Great job!
Been watching you for a while even when you did walking videos in your older channel, im puertorican and really happy that you covered Boricua Spanish in your channel. Great video as always
¡Wepa! That took me out when that was mentioned😂 it also doesn't help I'm listening to this in Spain too😂 I'm proud to be Puerto Rican!🇵🇷✊🏽
I work with mostly Boricuas and can arrest that the dropped S is very prevalent. This video is accurate to my experience with my team.
Loved the enthusiasm of your reader! I miss living in Elmhurst, Queens, now. Thank you for this episode.
Love all your videos!! Still waiting for that deep dive on the Czech language 🥰
I am Puertorican. From my father's line I am Canary descendant. Puerto Rico, Cuba and Venezuela were countries that had the mayor Canary Island migrants, specially in the XIX century. I heard people from the Canary Island and is very similar to our. Thanks for your video information. Very intetesting.
In the canary islands..Spain... The bus is la Guagua as is in PR. Cuba and DR
En Dominicana fue que más canarios llegaron. Fundaron villas incluso.
I’m Puerto rican and my other Spanish speaking friends think it sounds cool. I really enjoy listening to Colombian in Spanish it sounds very clear.
I've always loved your vlogs. Time to bring back your "Have a nice Day !"
oh boy i have been waiting for this one for a long time!
i love that, when a regeton song is being played, no matter if you are from Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Chile, Argentina.... you end up singing in puertorican accent!
for its small size, puerto rican spanish is incredibly varied. lots of different accents within puerto rico and also among the different generations and socioeconomic levels
Thanks for your high dedication to this job! I've written down all of it
I really love these videos on a particular lesser-known variety of a language (Singlish was another of yours) - it's such a cool thing to see!
Lol Nice! This is so cool!!! We got a crazy dialect. Update. It's crazy to hear all this about my dialect. It's answered a lot of questions and confirmed a lot of suspicions I have about Boricua Spanish. I love my people 🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷
Great job as always. Small correction, though: "ahorita" is not really used here. Instead we would write it as "horita," and to me at least they're two different words. Also, the L thing is something only some speakers do. Others pronounce it like in standard Spanish, and some even pronounce it with a retroflex R almost like the English R.
Also, be careful with "bichote." It means a bit more than "bigshot." It often refers to drug lords and crime lords.
Thank you for making this video❤❤❤ Hugs from PR🇵🇷
Absolutely amazing video of this variety of Spanish
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
I have to wonder if Travis Hurley-Rivera (the Spanish speaker in this video) is a voice actor; the samples are way more expressive than usual
Very interesting. As a native Puerto Rican Spanish speaker with Cuban friends, I see the greatest similarity between both dialects. Also I notice how it’s an adaptation of Canarian-Andalusian Spanish.
Más del canario que del andaluz pero si, está más próximo a estos dos acentos españoles, sobre todo el canario (a veces pienso que es la isla más alejada del archipiélago canario 😁) que del acento castellano.
I love your channel, been subbed for a couple of years, feels amazing that my accent got an episode ❤️ orgullo boricua! 🇵🇷
Btw. The year PR was ceded to USA was 1898, not 1896 😊
My experience as a Puerto Rican Spanish speaker with other non Puerto Ricans (I had a lot of Mexican coworkers) is that my speech was very fast sometimes lol. We would also look at each other weird whenever we both said vocabulary that the other didn’t know like “Habichuelas” vs “Frijoles” which means beans But BY FAR the worse offender is the word “coger” which we Puerto Ricans use to mean “to take” when it means something else for other hispanics 🙂 So you can all imagine how everyone looked at me when I was at work saying stuff like “oye tu puedes coger eso” “yo necesito coger esa caja” “hay que coger esos materiales y guardarlos”
I love how much fun the sample speaker sounds like he's having haha
“Some brainiacs think they’re all Mexicans.” Sadly, many in Latin America believe Mexican Spanish is the “right” Spanish, especially those who are fanatics of cartoons and their Mexican dubbings. Those dubbings and those who praise them, certainly don’t help to erase that idea from the brainiacs.
And the fact that all Spanish variants are getting closer and closer to each other doesn’t help with that.
Puerto Rican is American Spanish
Pues porque el doblaje mexicano es el mejor, y un ejemplo de ellos es Los Simpson (al menos en sus primeras temporadas), además de que los mexicanos, en nuestro dialecto estándar (centro del país) es posiblemente el más nítido y fácil de entender.
@@victorcb6795 Mejor?
Viva michoacan cabr0nes 😂
I'm from Puerto Rico and the word "gata/o" we really don't use it. People who grow up in the streets(gente de calle or reggaetoneros) are more prone to use it but even then they don't really use it at all. When we want to say someone is pretty(or attractive in general) we can say "Chula" or "Chulo"(especially if is a baby or a little kid), or use the expression "está bien buena", or "está bien bueno", or shortened "está buena/o". Or we can use the word right away "ella/él está bien linda/o". As for the word "Mai" and "Pai" we can say it(well not everyone says it) but it kind of sounds wrong 😂, like you should say Madre and Padre instead. And the word carro with the RR(and other words with the rr) "like the French" you can hear it more in the country side (Cordillera central mountains). The word "fostró" i honestly never heard that word in my life.
Great video! Very insightful.
Re: Breadfruit - in addition to being called "papa", it is also called "mapen". It is Not borrowed from english rather, when dry roasted it takes on the consistency of pan = bread. So yes, while the English transported it to whatever Caribe colonies they could wrest from Spain; pan es pan. Pana, as in partner is a different matter. Some think that the throaty [rr] may come from Corsican and French; the latter fled Haití in 1794 and remained for the most part in western Puerto Rico and some to Ponce in the south.
Spanish has such a huge variety of dialects that each of them seems like a rabbit hole in itself, just as much as the language itself. I can tell you had a lot of fun making this video.
I would say New world dialects are better then the European ones.
@@gamervox1707 hard agree
Thanks for valuable and useful video as always ❤❤❤
You're very welcome!
As you said learning any language is definitely exciting ! I will keep on watching some of your videos. It enhances the learning of other languages. Thank you. God bless you ¡
As a non-Spanish speaker at all, this dialect sounds so pretty and it makes me wanna visit the country lol
However, it's Puerto Rico is not a country, it's part of the United States.
@@javiermoretti1825 sadly
While we certainly are both a independent country don’t go to P.R. thinking its going to be same as the U.S.. Imagine yourself going into a latinamerican country that has been influenced by by american capitalism and pop culture. But, do come it is beautiful and you’ll likely wont run out of things to do in a trip however you need to be careful with the bad people and dangerous places such as beaches and rivers, those here don’t forgive and many tourists die because they’re ignorant of the weather conditions
The morphing of "-r" at then end of words to "-l" also happens on Cuba. We had to wait for the "inspectol" from the insurance agency after getting rear-ended by a motorcycle in our rental car.
Been waiting for this one.
I've been waiting for this for so long