Central American Spanish
Español centroamericano
Pronunciation	[espaˈɲolsentɾoameɾiˈkano]
Native to	Guatemala El Salvador Honduras Nicaragua Costa Rica Belize Chiapas (Mexico)
Native speakers	Native: 42 million (2024)[citation needed] L2: 5 million (2024)[citation needed]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Spanish Latin American Spanish Central American Spanish
Early forms	Old Latin Classical Latin Vulgar Latin Old Spanish Early Modern Spanish
Dialects	Guatemalan Honduran Salvadoran Nicaraguan Costa Rican Belizean
Writing system	Latin (Spanish alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Guatemala  El Salvador  Honduras  Nicaragua  Costa Rica
Regulated by	Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua Academia Hondureña de la Lengua Academia Salvadoreña de la Lengua Academia Nicaragüense de la Lengua Academia Costarricense de la Lengua
Language codes
ISO 639-1	es
ISO 639-2	spa[1]
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
IETF	es-GT es-BZ es-HN es-SV es-NI es-CR
Varieties of Central American Spanish
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Central American Spanish (Spanish:español centroamericano orcastellano centroamericano) is the general name of theSpanish languagedialects spoken inCentral America. More precisely, the term refers to the Spanish language as spoken inCosta Rica,El Salvador,Guatemala,Honduras,Belize andNicaragua.Panamanian Spanish is considered a variety ofCaribbean Spanish, it is transitional between Central American and Caribbean dialects.

Some characteristics of Central Americanphonology include:

• /s/ at the end of a syllable or before a consonant is pronounced like[h] quite often in the three central nations of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. This is less frequent in formal speech, like TV broadcasts. In the casual speech of some Salvadoran and Honduran speakers, this may also occur syllable or even word-initially.^[2]
• j (/x/), is aspirated; it is soft as the/h/ in English (e.g.: Yahoo).^[2]
• /ʝ/ (⟨y⟩ or⟨ll⟩) frequently disappears when in contact with/i/ or after/e/.^[2]
• Word final/n/ is velarized, being pronounced as avelar nasal[ŋ].^[2]
• Both central Guatemala and central Costa Rica have a tendency toassibilate/r/.^[2]
• Use ofseseo.

Most phonological features of Central American Spanish are similar toAndalusian,Canarian, andCaribbean, and most other coastalLatin American Spanish dialects.

The most common form for the second person singular in informal contexts inCentral America isvos.usted is the dominant second person singular pronoun in formal or polite contexts.Vos is used in Spanish-speaking Central America, with the exception of Panama, among family members, close friends, and in other informal situations. When addressing strangers,usted is used. In a friendlier but still formal environment,tú might be appropriate, depending on the country. The Panamanian department ofChiriquí and the Mexican state ofChiapas are two regions wherevos is commonly heard.

Voseo originates in a formal form of address (roughly equivalent to modernusted) that eventually began to be used among peers in Spain. While condemned byAntonio de Nebrija on the firstSpanish language grammar in 1492, the change in usage was slower, as in the Americas it became associated with lower classes or in despective usage to servants and indigenous people.^[3] Scholar Carlos Gagini claims Spaniards that migrated kept the usage as to pretend noble origins.

The use ofvoseo enjoys low prestige in formal usage and is often considered incorrect. Officially, all of Central America istuteante, howeverSandinista Nicaragua adoptedvoseo as a symbol of nationalism. Educated Costa Ricans are also more comfortable usingvos, and negative attitudes towardsvoseo have been changing as of late.^[2] Usingvos between two acquainted males implies trust, while the usage oftú might be perceived as effeminate; conversely, in a male-female conversation, the usage oftú can be perceived as respectful and polite.^[3]

Theimperative of verbs used withvos is formed formed by dropping the final -R of the infinitive, and then adding an acute accent to the final vowel to retain the stress:

The only irregular conjugation in the imperative is the verbir andser.

The conjugation of the present tense follows the pattern of replacing the final -R of the infinitive with an -S and adding an acute accent to the previous vowel:

Note how the conjugation ofvos presents fewer irregularities compared totú.

The main difference of thevoseo in Argentina is the conjugation of the subjunctive.Rioplatense Spanish prefers thesubjunctive forms oftú, whereas in Central America, thevos forms are retained.

The pronounusted is used when addressing older, unfamiliar or respected persons, as it is in most Spanish-speaking countries; however, in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras it is frequently used with younger people, and in Honduras between husband and wife, and friends. In Nicaragua, the pronoun is only used among youth during special or formal occasions or when addressing unfamiliar individuals in a formal manner. It's also used with most, if not all, profanities familiar to the region.^[4]

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v t e

As previously mentioned, one of the features of the Central American speaking style is thevoseo: the usage of the pronounvos for the second person singular, instead oftú. In some Spanish-speaking regions wherevoseo is used, it is sometimes considered a non-standard lower-class or regional variant, whereas in other regionsvoseo is standard.Vos is used with forms of the verb that resemble those of the second person plural (vosotros) in Spanish from Spain.

Some people prefer to say "tú" instead of "vos" while conjugating the verbs using the vos forms; for instance: tú cantás, tú bailás, tú podés, etc. This is avoided in Southern Central America, especially in Costa Rica and Nicaragua where is associated with bad education by mixing 2 different pronouns (tú-vos).

The second person plural pronoun, which isvosotros in Spain, is replaced withustedes in C. American Spanish, like most other Latin 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. Usted is particularly used in Costa Rica between strangers, with foreign people and used by the vast majority of the population in Alajuela and rural areas of the country.

As an example, see the conjugation table for the verbamar in the present tense, indicative mode:

(²)Ustedes is used throughout all of Latin America for both the familiar and formal. In Spain, it is used only in formal speech for the second person plural.

Although apparently there is just a stress shift (fromamas to amás), the origin of such a stress is the loss of the diphthong of the ancientvos 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:

For the-ir verbs, the Peninsularvosotros forms end in-ís, so there is no diphthong to simplify, and Central Americanvos employs the same form: instead oftú vives,vos vivís; instead oftú vienes,vos venís (note the alternation).

Spanish language
A manuscript of theCantar de mio Cid, 13th century
Overview
Pronunciation stress Orthography Names
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Dialectology
Seseo Yeísmo Voseo Leísmo Loísmo
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v t e

The imperative forms forvos are identical to the plural imperative forms in Peninsular minus the final-d (stress remains the same):

• Hablá más alto, por favor. "Speak louder, please." (hablad in Peninsular)
• Comé un poco de torta. "Eat some cake." (comed in Peninsular)
• Vení para acá. "Come over here." (venid in Peninsular)

The plural imperative uses theustedes form (i. e. the third person plural subjunctive, as corresponding toellos).

As for the subjunctive forms ofvos verbs, most speakers use the classicalvos conjugation, employing thevosotros form minus thei in the final diphthong. However, some prefer to use thetú subjunctive forms like in Paraguay.

• Espero que veas orEspero que veás "I hope you can see" (Peninsularveáis)
• Lo que quieras or (less used)Lo que querás "Whatever you want" (Peninsularqueráis)

In thepreterite form, ans is often added, for instance(vos) perdistes. This corresponds to the classicalvos conjugation found in literature. Compare Iberian Spanish formvosotros perdisteis. However, the trailing 's' is deemed incorrect and afaux-pas in educated use of 'vos'.

Other verb forms coincide withtú after thei is omitted (thevos forms are the same astú).

• Si salieras "If you went out" (Peninsularsalierais)

Although literary works use the full spectrum of verb inflections, in colloquial Central American Spanish (as well as many other Spanish dialects), the future tense has been replaced by a verbal phrase (periphrasis) in the spoken language.

This verb phrase is formed by the verbir ("go") followed by the prepositiona and the main verb in the infinitive. This is akin to the English verbal phrasegoing to + infinitive verb. For example:

• Creo que descansaré un poco →Creo que voy a descansar un poco
• Mañana me visitará mi madre →Mañana me va a visitar mi madre
• Iré a visitarla mañana →Voy a ir a visitarla mañana

Thepresent perfect (Spanish:Pretérito perfecto compuesto), just likepretérito anterior, is rarely used; so, it's replaced by simple past.

• Juan no ha llegado →Juan no llegó todavía
• El torneo ha comenzado →El torneo comenzó

There are also many words unique to Central America.

For example,chunche orchochadas can be used to mean "thing" or "stuff."^{[citation needed]}

In Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador,chucho means dog. In the same three countries, money is calledpisto, a term derived from the Spanish dish pisto.^[5] However,plata (lit. "silver") is a common slang word used to mean "money" in all Central American countries except Belize.

Also, local words can vary by country and even department:

• Spanish dialects and varieties
• Guatemalan Spanish
• Salvadoran Spanish
• Honduran Spanish
• Nicaraguan Spanish
• Costa Rican Spanish

• REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA DICCIONARIO PANHISPÁNICO DE DUDAS
• History of Voseo
• Lexicon of Nicaraguan Spanish
• Dropping ofS in word endings in Nicaragua
• voseo in El Salvador

• Central American Spanish

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