Cuban Spanish is the variety of theSpanish language as it is spoken inCuba. As aCaribbean variety of Spanish, Cuban Spanish shares a number of features with nearby varieties, includingcodaweakening andneutralization, non-inversion ofWh-questions, and a lower rate ofdropping of subject pronouns compared to other Spanish varieties. As a variety spoken in Latin America, it hasseseo and lacks thevosotros pronoun.

Cuban Spanish
español cubano (Spanish)
Pronunciation	[espaˈɲolkuˈβano]
Ethnicity	Cubans
Native speakers	11 million (2021)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Castilian Spanish North American Spanish Caribbean Spanish Cuban Spanish
Early forms	Old Latin Classical Latin Vulgar Latin Old Spanish Early Modern Spanish
Writing system	Latin (Spanish alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Cuba
Regulated by	Academia Cubana de la Lengua
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	cuba1237
IETF	es-CU
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Cuban Spanish is most similar to, and originates largely from, the Spanish that is spoken in theCanary Islands andAndalusia. Cuba owes much of its speech patterns to the heavy Canarian migrations of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The accent ofLa Palma is the closest of the Canary Island accents to the Cuban accent. Many Cubans and returning Canarians settled in the Canary Islands after therevolution of 1959. Migration of other Spanish settlers (Asturians,Catalans,Castilians), and especiallyGalicians^[2] also occurred, but left less influence on the accent.

Much of the typical Cuban vocabulary stems from Canarianlexicon. For example,guagua ('bus') differs from standard Spanishautobús. An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verbfajarse ('to fight').^[3] In Spain, the verb would bepelearse, andfajar exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of askirt.

Much of the vocabulary that is peculiar to Cuban Spanish comes from the different historic influences on the island. Many words come from theCanary Islands, but some words are of West African, French, or indigenousTaino origin, as well as peninsular Spanish influence from outside the Canary Islands, such as Andalusian or Galician.

The West African influence is due to the largeAfro-Cuban population, most of whom are descended from African slaves imported in the 19th century.Some Cuban words of African origin includechévere 'wonderful',asere 'friend', andorishá 'Yoruba deity'. In addition, different Afro-Cuban religions and secret societies also different African languages in their practices and liturgies.^[4]

Many Afro-Cubans in the 19th century also spokeBozal Spanish, derived from the termbozales, which originally referred to muzzles for wild dogs and horses, and came to be used to refer to enslaved Africans who spoke little Spanish. Some elements of Bozal Spanish can still be found in the speech of elderly Afro-Cubans in remote rural areas, inPalo Mayombe chants, and in trance states during possession rituals inSantería.^[4]

Due to historical commercial ties between the US and Cuba, American English has lent several words, including some for clothing, such aspulóver (which is used to mean "T-shirt") andchor ("shorts", with the typical Spanish change from Englishsh toch, like mentioned above,⟨ch⟩ may be pronounced [ʃ], the pronunciation of English "sh"). Anglicisms related to baseball, such asstrike andfoul, are frequently employed, with Spanish pronunciation.^[4]

Cuban Spanish is marked by a variety of phonological features that make it similar to, and distinct from, many other dialects of Spanish. Like other Latin American Spanish varieties, this dialect isseseante, meaning there is no distinction between ⟨s⟩, ⟨z⟩, and soft ⟨c⟩ sounds, differing from aPeninsular Spanish dialect. Cuban Spanish is also similar to most other Latin American dialects by usingyeísmo; the letters ⟨y⟩ and ⟨ll⟩ are both pronounced [ʝ].^[5]

Similar to speakers of otherCaribbean dialects, Cuban Spanish speakers exhibit theweak pronunciation of consonants, especially at the end of a syllable. A syllable-final/s/ may either beaspirated and be pronounced as[h] or may even be deleted, in a process known aselision. Where some speakers would pronounce a word likeestar ('to be') as [esˈtaɾ], pronouncing /s/ as alveolar, many Caribbean Spanish speakers aspirate the /s/ and produce [ehˈtaɾ],^[6] or elide it altogether, pronouncing [eˈtaɾ].^[5][6] This trait is shared with most American varieties of Spanish spoken in coastal and low areas (Lowland Spanish), as well as withCanarian Spanish and the Spanish spoken in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

Take for example, the following sentence:

Esos perros no tienen dueños (Eso' perro' no tienen dueño')

[ˈesoh ˈperoh no ˈtjeneŋ ˈdweɲoh]

('Those dogs do not have owners')

Also, because this feature has variable realizations, any or all instances of [h] in the above example may be dropped, potentially rendering [ˈeso ˈpero no ˈtjeneŋ ˈdweɲo]. Other examples:disfrutar ("to enjoy") is pronounced [dihfɾuˈtaɾ], andfresco ("fresh") becomes [ˈfɾehko]. InHavana,después ("after[ward]") is typically pronounced [dehˈpwe] (de'pué'/despué').

Another instance ofconsonant weakening in Cuban Spanish (as in many other dialects) is the deletion of intervocalic /d/ in the participle ending-ado (-ao/-a'o), as incansado (cansao/cansa'o) [kanˈsao] ("tired"). More typical of Cuba and the Caribbean is theelision of final /r/ in some verb infinitives, or merger with -/l/; e.g.parar, 'to stop', can be realized as [paˈɾal] or [paˈɾa] (paral/pará).

The voiceless velar fricative [x] (spelled ⟨g⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ and ⟨j⟩) is usually aspirated or pronounced [h], which is also common in Andalusian and Canarian dialects and some Latin American dialects.

Another common characteristic of Caribbean Spanish is the tendency for other processes to affect consonants in the final position such as /n/velarization andneutralization of liquid consonants.^[5] Word-final/n/ becomes[ŋ], such as in the wordhablan (“they talk”), pronounced [a βlaŋ #].^[5][7] Syllable-final/r/ may become[l] or[j], or even become entirely silent. Final/r/ more frequently becomes/l/ in the eastern and central regions of Cuba.^[8] For example, in words such ascarne (“meat”) oramor (“love”) many speakers of this dialect will produce the words as [kalne] or [amol].^[9] Postvocalic[ð] tends to disappear entirely. All of these characteristics occur to one degree or another in other Caribbean varieties, as well as in many dialects inAndalusia (in southern Spain)—the place of historical origin of these characteristics.

In some areas of Cuba, the voiceless affricate [tʃ] (spelledch) isdeaffricated to [ʃ].

The Spanish of the eastern provinces (the five provinces comprising what was formerlyOriente Province) is closer tothat of the Dominican Republic than to the Spanish spoken in Havana.^[10]

There also exists a phonological feature unique to Cuba called thetoque orgolpe (“tap” or “hit”). This phonological process occurs within a consonant cluster that is composed of aliquid consonant, i.e., [ɾ] or [l], and anocclusive ornasal consonant, i.e., [p][t][g][b][t][k][n][m]. Instead of producing the liquid, a Cuban speaker may produce theglottal stop consonant [ʔ].^[5] For example, a word likealgodón ('cotton') will have the [l] phoneme substituted for the [ʔ] sound, producing [aʔ-go-ˈðon].

In western Cuba/l/ and/ɾ/ in asyllable coda can bemerged with each other andassimilated to the following consonant, resulting ingeminates. At the same time, the non-assimilated and unmerged pronunciations are more common. Example pronunciations, according to the analysis ofArias (2019) which transcribes the merged, underlyingphoneme as/d/:^[11]

Cuban Spanish typically uses the diminutive endings-ico and-ica (instead of the standard-ito and-ita) with stems that end in/t/. For example,plato ("plate") >platico (instead ofplatito), andmomentico instead ofmomentito; butcara ("face") becomescarita.^[12] This form is common to the Venezuelan, Cuban, Costa Rican, Dominican, and Colombian dialects.

The suffix-ero is often used with a place name to refer to a person from that place; thushabanero,guantanamera, etc.^[12] A person fromSantiago de Cuba issantiaguero (comparesantiagués "fromSantiago de Compostela (Galicia,Spain)",santiaguino "fromSantiago de Chile").

Wh-questions, when the subject is a pronoun, are usually not inverted. Where speakers of most other varieties of Spanish would ask "¿Qué quieres?" or "¿Qué quieres tú?", Cuban speakers would more often ask "¿Qué tú quieres?"^[12] (This form is also characteristic ofDominican,Isleño, andPuerto Rican Spanish.^[12][13])

Cuban Spanish also frequently uses expressions with personalinfinitives, a combined preposition, noun or pronoun, and verbal infinitive where speakers in other dialects would typically use a conjugated subjunctive form. For example,eso sucedió antes de yo llegar aquí, instead of…antes de que yo llegara… 'that happened before I arrived here'. This type of construction is found elsewhere in the Caribbean and occurs in all speech styles.^[8]

Cuban Spanish uses the familiar second-person pronountú in many contexts where other varieties of Spanish would use the formalusted.While Cuban Spanish has always preferredtú tousted, the use ofusted has become increasingly rare after the Revolution.^[8]Voseo is practically non-existent in Cuba.^[12] It was historically present in the countryside of eastern Cuba.Pedro Henríquez Ureña alleged that it often used the object and possessive pronounsos andvuestro instead ofte andtuyo. Its present-tense conjugations ending in-áis,-éis, and-ís, and future-tense conjugations in-éis.^[14][15]

In keeping with the socialist polity of the country, the termcompañero/compañera ("comrade" or "friend") is often used instead of the traditionalseñor/señora.^[16][17] However,Corbett (2007:137) states that the termcompañero has failed to enter the popular language, and is rejected by many Cubans opposed to the current regime, citing a misunderstanding with a Cuban who refused to be addressed ascompañera.

Many words in traditional Cuban Spanish can be traced to those of the Spanish spoken in theCanary Islands.^[18] Many Canary Islanders emigrated to Cuba and had one of the largest parts in the formation of the Cuban dialect and accent. There are also many elements from other areas of Spain such as Andalusian, Galician, Asturian, Catalan, as well as some African influence. Cuban Spanish is very close to Canarian Spanish. Canarian emigration has been going on for centuries to Cuba, and were also very numerous in emigration of the 19th, and 20th centuries.

Through cross emigration of Canarians and Cubans, many of the customs of Canarians have become Cuban traditions and vice versa.

The music of Cuba has become part of the Canarian culture as well, such asmambo,salsa, son, andpunto Cubano. Because of Cuban emigration to the Canary Islands, the dish "moros y cristianos" (black beans and rice mixed together with traditional spices, different from "frijoles negros", which is a thick black bean soup served over white rice), also known as simply "moros", can be found as one of the foods of the Canary Islands; especially the island ofLa Palma. Canary Islanders were the driving force in thecigar industry in Cuba, and were called "Vegueros". Many of the big cigar factories in Cuba were owned by Canary Islanders. After theCastro revolution, many Cubans and returning Canarians settled in the Canary islands, among whom were many cigar factory owners such as the Garcia family. The cigar business made its way to the Canary Islands from Cuba, and now the Canary Islands are one of the places that are known for cigars alongside Cuba,Dominican Republic,Nicaragua, andHonduras. The island ofLa Palma has the greatest Cuban influence out of all seven islands. Also, La Palma has the closest Canarian accent to the Cuban accent, due to the most Cuban emigration to that island.

Many of the typical Cuban replacements for standard Spanish vocabulary stem from Canarianlexicon. For example,guagua (bus) differs from standard Spanishautobús the former originated in the Canaries and is anonomatopoeia stemming from the sound of aKlaxon horn (wah-wah!). The term of endearment "socio" is from the Canary Islands. An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verb fajarse^[19] ("to fight"). In standard Spanish theverb would bepelearse, whilefajar exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of askirt. Cuban Spanish shows strong heritage to the Spanish of the Canary Islands.

Many names for food items come from the Canary Islands as well. The Cuban saucemojo, is based on the mojos of the Canary Islands where the mojo was invented. Also, Canarianropa vieja is the father to Cuban ropa vieja through Canarian emigration.Gofio is a Canarian food also known by Cubans, along with many other kinds.

• Spanish dialects and varieties

• Arias, Álvaro (2019)."Fonética y fonología de las consonantes geminadas en el español de Cuba".Moenia.25:465–497.
• Canfield, D. Lincoln (1981),Spanish Pronunciation in the Americas, University of Chicago Press,ISBN 0-226-09263-1
• Corbett, Ben (2007).This Is Cuba: an Outlaw Culture Survives. New York: Basic Books.ISBN 9780465009961. Retrieved8 February 2022.
• Guitart, Jorge M. (1997), "Variability, Multilectalism, and the Organization of Phonology in Caribbean Spanish Dialects", in Martínez-Gil, Fernando; Morales-Front, Alfonso (eds.),Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of the Major Iberian Languages, Georgetown University Press, pp. 515–536
• Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (1940).El Español en Santo Domingo (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Instituto de Filología de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.
• Lipski, John M. (1994),Latin American Spanish, Longman,ISBN 978-0-582-08761-3
• Lipski, John M. (2011)."Language: Spanish"(PDF). In West-Durán, Alan (ed.).Cuba: People, Culture, History. Cengage Gale. pp. 539–543.ISBN 9780684316819. Retrieved8 February 2022.

• Cuba language
• Learn Cuban Spanish^{[permanent dead link]}
• Cuban Spanish 101
• Cuban Spanish Guide
• Learn Spanish and Cuban SlangArchived 2 April 2019 at theWayback Machine