Puerto Rican accents

Puerto Rican accents, both in Spanish and English language, could be described as a reflection of Puerto Rico's culture.

To understand the concept of the Puerto Rican accent in Spanish, one must remember that every country in Latin America has different accents in this language, many of which are very similar. The Argentine and Uruguayan accents, for example, were heavily influenced by the presence of Italians in those countries. Brazilians, with Portuguese as their native language, have an accent in Spanish that is strongly influenced by their Portuguese background.

In Puerto Rico's case, Spaniards arrived from many regions within Spain and brought with them their own regional dialects/accents. However, the great majority of European immigrants to Puerto Rico throughout its history came from the Hispano-Arabic area of Spain known as Andalusia. Another great majority arrived from North Africa, most notably the Canary Islands. It is the accents of these regions which served as the basis of the style of Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico.

Arawak indigenous culture (in Puerto Rico, specifically that of the Taíno Amerindian) , though destroyed by Spanish slave owners, survived through its miscegenated descendants and, as the first fusion of a non-European language to Spanish, became the major tying force which brought together all the other cultural contributions which would soon come. The Arawak language, Lokono, has left behind thousands of words. It has added to Puerto Rican Spanish the pleasant speaking tone which is often said to roll off the tongue like a song.

Africans in Puerto Rico were brought in as slave labor, the majority for work on coastal or lowland sugar plantations. They contributed hundreds of words, colloquialisms, intonations, and rhythm.

Chinese Puerto Ricans and other Asians that have established themselves in Puerto Rico also adopt the accent, but also keep a tinge of an east Asian accent.

The Puerto Rican accent is very strikingly similar to the accents used by those from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean basin, including: Cuba and the Dominican Republic and those from the Caribbean regions of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It also continues to be similar to the accent of the Canary Islanders and Andalusians in southern Spain.

Features of the Puerto Rican accent in spoken Spanish:

*Seseo:This refers to the changing of the sound of the "C" or "Z" for the sound of an "S". Examples include "sapato" instead of "zapato" and "asul" instead of "azul". This is also common in most other Latin-American countries.

*Aspiration or elimination of the IPA|/s/: This usually occurs before a consonant or at the end of a word, IPA|/s/ is debuccalized to IPA| [h] or eliminated altogether. Examples include IPA| [las muˈxeɾeh] instead of IPA| [las muˈxeɾes] (las mujeres, 'the women') IPA| [loh ðoh] instead of IPA| [los ðos] (los dos, 'the two'). This is also common in other Caribbean basin Spanish-speaking countries.

*Elimination of IPA|/d/ between vowels:This usually happens usually near the end of a word. Examples include IPA| [ehˈtao] instead of IPA| [esˈtaðo] (estado, 'state'), and IPA| [ˈto.o] instead of IPA| [ˈtoɾo] (todo, 'all').

*Elimination of IPA|/d/ at the end of a word: In this case, a stress is usually placed on the final vowel. Examples include IPA| [pä're] instead of IPA| [pä'reð] (pared, 'wall') and IPA| [mäð'ɾi] instead of IPA| [mäð'ɾið] (Madrid).

*Change of the IPA|/ɾ/ to IPA|/l/: This occurs at the end of a word or syllable. Examples include "cantal" instead of "cantar", "olden" instead of "orden" and "rencol" instead of "rencor".

*"'Change of IPA|/r/ to IPA|/x/: Many rural Puerto Ricans do not roll their tongues on the "double "r" sound in words (ex. "arroz" or "carro"), making it sound like the Scottish "loch".

*Shortening of words: Puerto Ricans also often shorten words by eliminating whole syllables. A good example is the words "para" and "padre" ("for" and "father"). Puerto Ricans might pronounce those as "pa'" ("para") and "pai" ("father").

=U.S.-Puerto Rican accent in Spanish=

U.S.-resident Puerto Ricans, descended from the large number of migrants who left the island throughout the 20th Century, can be found today en masse along the Eastern coast of the United States. In addition to major metropolitan areas such as New York, many Puerto Ricans also migrated to areas such as Chicago, Florida, Boston, and even California. Because of their high-rates of military enlistment, large Puerto Rican populations are also found in isolated spots across the U.S. near military installations.

The accent of post-first generation Puerto Rican migrants to the U.S. is heavily influenced by their predominantly English-speaking surroundings. While still sounding Puerto Rican, their accents are tinged by the area of the United States where they grew up. Often lacking formal instruction in Spanish in the U.S., their grammatical composition is sometimes modeled on that of American English rather than Spanish.

Puerto Rican accent in English

Once again, this accent is influenced by history and by surroundings. Many of the islands near Puerto Rico were United Kingdom properties, and the United Kingdom actually once tried to invade Puerto Rico and some African slaves came from former British-controlled Caribbean islands. The fact that Puerto Rico was owned for about four centuries by Spain also influenced the Puerto Rican accent in English; many people think native Puerto Ricans sound like Europeans when they speak English. Some non Puerto Ricans actually claim that when they speak English, native Puerto Ricans actually sound like Australians.