| Rioplatense Spanish | |
|---|---|
| Argentine–Uruguayan Spanish | |
| Castellano rioplatense[1] (Castellano argentino-uruguayo) | |
| Pronunciation | [kasteˈʝanori.oplaˈtense] |
| Native to | Argentina,Uruguay |
| Ethnicity | Argentines Uruguayans |
Early forms | |
| Dialects | Outer Dialects: Norteño (Northern) Guaranítico (Northeastern) Cuyano (Western) Cordobés (Central) Inner Dialects: Litoraleño (Coastal) Bonaerense (Eastern) Patagónico (Southern) Uruguayan |
| Latin (Spanish alphabet) | |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Academia Argentina de Letras Academia Nacional de Letras de Uruguay |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | es |
| ISO 639-2 | spa[3] |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
| IETF | es-AR |
 Rioplatense Spanish-speaking regions, including Patagonian variants | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Rioplatense Spanish (/ˌriːoʊpləˈtɛnseɪ/REE-oh-plə-TEN-say,Spanish:[ˌrioplaˈtense]), also known asRioplatense Castilian[4] orRiver Plate Spanish,[5] is avariety ofSpanish[6][7][8] originating in and around theRío de la Plata Basin, and now spoken throughout most ofArgentina andUruguay.[9] This dialect is widely recognized throughout theHispanosphere due to its strong influence fromItalian languages, a result of significant historicalItalian immigration to the region.[10] As a consequence, it has incorporated numerous Italian loanwords—giving rise to thelunfardo argot—and is spoken with an intonation similar to that of theNeapolitan language fromSouthern Italy.[11]
It is the most prominent dialect to employvoseo (the use ofvos in place of the pronountú, along with special accompanying conjugations) in both speech and writing.[12] Many features of Rioplatense Spanish are also shared with the varieties spoken insouth and eastern Bolivia, as well as inParaguay, particularly in regions bordering Argentina. It also strongly influences thefronteiriço, apidgin spoken inUruguay's border regions with Brazil, as a result of continuous interaction between the communities of both nations.[13]
As Rioplatense is considered a dialect of Spanish and not a distinct language, there are no credible figures for a total number of speakers. The total population of these areas would amount to some 25–30 million, depending on the definition and expanse.
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Rioplatense is the predominantSpanish variety spoken in both Argentina and Uruguay. In the former, it is primarily centered in major urban areas such asBuenos Aires,Rosario,Santa Fe,La Plata,Mar del Plata andBahía Blanca—along with their surrounding suburbs and the regions connecting them, whereas in the latter, it is spoken nationwide, where it takes the form ofUruguayan Spanish.[14]
Beyond these core areas, Rioplatense Spanish extends to regions that, while not geographically adjacent, have been culturally influenced by these linguistic centers, including parts ofParaguay and the border regions of Brazil and Uruguay.[15] It serves as the linguistic standard in audiovisual media across both Argentina and Uruguay.[8]
The Spanish language was introduced to the region during thecolonial era. The Río de la Plata Basin, which originally formed part of theViceroyalty of Peru, was granted its own status as theViceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776.[12] Following the independence of both nations in the first half of the 19th century, the language spoken in the area—criollo Spanish—was largely unaffected by external linguistic influences and varied primarily due to regionalisms.
From the 1870s until the mid-1960s, large waves ofEuropean immigrants, primarily fromItaly andSpain, began to arrive in Uruguay and Argentina.[16] As a result, the ethnic and cultural composition of both countries, which were in the process of consolidating asnation-states, was profoundly influenced by the cultures of the new arrivals. The language adopted various features from the native languages of these immigrants, such asNeapolitan andSicilian, which played a significant role in shapingRioplatense.[17]
Several languages, especially Italian, influenced the historicalcriollo Spanish of the region because of the diversity of the settlers and immigrants to Argentina and Uruguay:
Due to the disappearance of theindigenous population in Uruguay during the early years of the country as an independent state and the absence of a lasting cultural legacy from these peoples, there was no significant influence of native languages onUruguayan Spanish.[18] In contrast, in Argentina, there was a strong interaction with the languages of theindigenous peoples of the northern regions.[19] Therefore, words fromGuarani,Quechua, and otherindigenous languages were incorporated into the local form of Spanish, and then spread.
Some words of Amerindian origin commonly used in Rioplatense Spanish are:
Rioplatense Spanish distinguishes itself from other dialects of Spanish by the pronunciation of certain consonants.
| Labial | Dento-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||||
| Stop | p | b | t | d | tʃ | k | ɡ | |
| Continuant | f | s | ʃ ~ʒ | x | ||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
In Rioplatense Spanish, syllable-final/s/ is almost invariably aspirated to[h] before a following consonant.[30] Among speakers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, this aspiration—often culminating in deletion—extends to all coda environments, including before vowels and at utterance-final pause.[31] Frequent deletion of word-final/ɾ/ in the same speech style further simplifies codas and favours a consonant–vowel (CV) rhythmic pattern in rapid informal speech.[32]
Rioplatense Spanish, especially the speech of all of Uruguay and the Buenos Aires area in Argentina, hasintonation patterns that resemble those ofItalian dialects. This correlates well with immigration patterns, since both Argentina and Uruguay have received large numbers of Italian settlers since the 19th century.[33]
According to a study conducted byNational Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina[34] Buenos Aires and Rosario residents speak with an intonation most closely resemblingNeapolitan. The researchers note this as a relatively recent phenomenon, starting in the beginning of the 20th century with the main wave of Southern Italian immigration. Before that, theporteño accent was more like that of Spain, especiallyAndalusia,[35] and in case of Uruguay, the accent was more likeCanarian dialect.
One of the features of the Argentine and Uruguayan speaking style is thevoseo: the usage of the pronounvos for the second person singular, instead oftú. In other Spanish-speaking regions wherevoseo is used, such as in Chile and Colombia, the use of voseo has at times been considered a nonstandard lower speaking style, whereas in Argentina and Uruguay it is standard.
The second person plural pronoun, which isvosotros in Spain, is replaced withustedes in Rioplatense, as in most other Hispanic American dialects. Whileusted is the formal second person singular pronoun, its pluralustedes has a neutral connotation and can be used to address friends and acquaintances as well as in more formal occasions (seeT–V distinction).Ustedes takes a grammatically third- person plural verb.
As an example, see the conjugation table for the verbamar (to love) in the present tense, indicative mode:
| Person/Number | Peninsular | Rioplatense |
|---|---|---|
| 1st sing. | yo amo | yo amo |
| 2nd sing. | tú amas | vos amás |
| 3rd sing. | él ama | él ama |
| 1st plural | nosotros amamos | nosotros amamos |
| 2nd plural | vosotros amáis | ustedes aman[2pl 1] |
| 3rd plural | ellos aman | ellos aman |
Although apparently there is just a stress shift (fromamas toamás), the origin of such a stress is the loss of the diphthong of the classicalvos inflection fromvos amáis tovos amás. This can be better seen with the verb "to be": fromvos sois tovos sos. Invowel-alternating verbs likeperder andmorir, the stress shift also triggers a change of the vowel in theroot:
| Peninsular | Rioplatense |
|---|---|
| yo pierdo | yo pierdo |
| tú pierdes | vos perdés |
| él pierde | él pierde |
| nosotros perdemos | nosotros perdemos |
| vosotros perdéis | ustedes pierden |
| ellos pierden | ellos pierden |
For the-ir verbs, the Peninsularvosotros forms end in-ís, so there is no diphthong to simplify, and Rioplatensevos employs the same form: instead oftú vives,vos vivís; instead oftú vienes,vos venís (note the alternation).
| Verb | Standard Spanish | Castilian in plural | Rioplatense | Chilean | Maracaibo Voseo | English (US/UK) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cantar | tú cantas | vosotros cantáis | vos cantás | tú cantái | vos cantáis | you sing |
| Correr | tú corres | vosotros corréis | vos corrés | tú corrí | vos corréis | you run |
| Partir | tú partes | vosotros partís | vos partís | tú partí | vos partís | you leave |
| Decir | tú dices | vosotros decís | vos decís | tú decí | vos decís | you say |
The imperative forms forvos is formed by dropping the final -r from the infinitive and stressing the last syllable. Thus the form is identical to stressing the last syllable of allregular imperative forms in Peninsular:
However, irregular verbs in Peninsular are not identical except for stress:
The verbir (to go) is not used in this form except for the Argentine province ofTucumán, where it's conjugatedite. The corresponding form of the verbandar (to walk, to go) substitutes for it.
The plural imperative uses theustedes form (i. e. the third person plural subjunctive, as corresponding toellos).
As for the subjunctive forms ofvos verbs, while they tend to take thetú conjugation, some speakers do use the classicalvos conjugation, employing thevosotros form minus thei in the final diphthong. Many consider only thetú subjunctive forms to be correct.
In thepreterite, ans is sometimes added, for instance(vos) perdistes. This corresponds to the classicalvos conjugation found in literature. Compare Iberian Spanish formvosotros perdisteis.
Other verb forms coincide withtú after thei is omitted (thevos forms are the same astú).
| Standard Spanish | Rioplatense / other Argentine | Chilean | Maracaibo Voseo | Castilian in plural | English (US/UK) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lo que quieras | lo que quieras/querás | lo que querái | lo que queráis | whatever you want | |
| espero que veas | espero que veas/veás | espero que veái | espero que veáis | I hope you can see | |
| no lo toques | no lo toqués | no lo toquís | no lo toquéis | don't touch it | |
| si salieras | si salierai | si salierais | if you went out | ||
| si amaras | si amarai | si amarais | if you loved | ||
| vivías | vivíai | vivíais | you lived | ||
| cantabas | cantabai | cantabais | you sang | ||
| dirías | diríai | diríais | you'd say | ||
| harías | haríai | haríais | you'd do | ||
In the old times,vos was used as a respectful term. In Rioplatense, as in most other dialects which employvoseo, this pronoun has become informal, supplanting the use oftú (compareyou in English, which used to be formal singular but has supplanted the former informal singular pronounthou). It is used especially for addressing friends and family members (regardless of age), but may also include most acquaintances, such as co-workers, friends of one's friends, etc.
Although literary works use the full spectrum of verb inflections, in Rioplatense (as well as many other Spanish dialects), the future tense tends to use a verbal phrase (periphrasis) in the informal language.
This verb phrase is formed by the verbir ("to go") followed by the prepositiona ("to") and the main verb in the infinitive. This resembles the English phraseto be going to + infinitive verb. For example:
Thepresent perfect (Spanish: Pretérito perfecto compuesto), just likepretérito anterior, is rarely used: the simple past replaces it. However, the Present Perfect is still used in Northwestern Argentina, particularly in the province ofTucumán.
But, in the subjunctive mood, thepresent perfect is still widely used:
InBuenos Aires a reflexive form of verbs is often used – "se viene" instead of "viene'', etc.
InChilean Spanish there is plenty of lexical influence from the Argentine dialects suggesting a possible "masked prestige"[36] otherwise not expressed, since the image of Argentine things is usually negative. Influences run across the different social strata of Chile. Argentine tourism in Chile during summer and Chilean tourism in Argentina would influence the speech of the upper class. The middle classes would have Argentine influences by watching football oncable television and by watching Argentine programs in thebroadcast television.La Cuarta, a "popular"tabloid, regularly employslunfardo words and expressions. Usually Chileans do not recognize the Argentine borrowings as such, claiming they are Chilean terms and expressions.[36] The relation between Argentine dialects and Chilean Spanish is one of "asymmetric permeability", with Chilean Spanish adopting sayings of the Argentine variants but usually not the other way around.[36] Despite this, people inSantiago, Chile, value Argentine Spanish poorly in terms of "correctness", far behindPeruvian Spanish, which is considered the most correct form.[37]
Some Argentine words have been adopted inIberian Spanish such aspibe,piba[38] "boy, girl", taken into Spanish slang where it producedpibón,[39] "very attractive person".
Many studies have shown that within the last 70 to 80 years, there has been a strong transition towards the voiceless [ʃ] in both Argentina and Uruguay, with Argentina having completed the change by 2004 and Uruguay following only recently [...]
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