Canarian Spanish

Canarian Spanish (Spanish: español de Canarias, español canario, habla canaria, isleño, dialecto canario or vernacular canario) is a variant of standard Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands by the Canarian people. The variant is similar to the Andalusian Spanish variety spoken in Western Andalusia and (especially) to Caribbean Spanish and other Latin American Spanish vernaculars because of Canarian emigration to the Caribbean and Hispanic America over the years.

Contents

• Grammar
• Pronunciation
• Vocabulary
• References

Canarian Spanish, therefore, heavily influenced the development of Caribbean Spanish and other Latin American Spanish vernaculars. Hispanic America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands were originally largely settled by colonists from the Canary Islands and Andalusia so the dialects of the region, including the standard language, were already quite close to Canarian and Andalusian speech. In the Caribbean, Canarian speech patterns were never regarded as either foreign or very different from the local accent.

The incorporation of the Canary Islands into the Crown of Castile began with Henry III (1402) and was completed under the Catholic Monarchs. The expeditions for their conquest started off mainly from ports of Andalusia, which is why the Andalusians predominated in the Canaries. There was also an important colonising contingent from Portugal in the early conquest of the Canaries, along with the Andalusians and the Castilians from mainland Spain. In earlier times, Portuguese settled alongside the Spanish in the north of Gran Canaria, but they died off or were absorbed by the Spanish. The population that inhabited the islands before the conquest, the Guanches, spoke a variety of Berber (also called Amazigh) dialects. After the conquest, the indigenous Guanche language was rapidly and almost completely eradicated in the archipelago. Only some names of plants and animals, terms related to cattle ranching and numerous island placenames survive.

Their geographic situation made the Canary Islands receive much outside influence, causing drastic cultural changes, including linguistic ones. As a result of heavy Canarian emigration to the Caribbean, particularly during colonial times, Caribbean Spanish is strikingly similar to Canarian Spanish.

When visiting Tenerife or Las Palmas, Venezuelans, Cubans, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans are usually taken, at first, for other Canarians from a distant part of the Canary archipelago.