También pa' la Miranda... La Republica Dominicana

[bovinecomet]

Okay, because I am totally lazy, I'm going to post this outline of Dominican Spanish/history in Spanish because that's how I had to outline it for my class. But fear not! I'll do my best to simplify the technical words (for instance, I won't start talking about organs of the mouth or use weird symbols for pronunciation), and if by some chance you

Comments

[rarecarthusian]

You, once again, are an amazing person. :D

I'm actually surprised that I understand just about all of this. Interestingly, I never picked up on most of it in hearing my Dad speak... probably because he speaks accent-less Spanish. I have noticed the "rr" being pronounced as "hr".

I have one thing to add to the lexicon: the all-powerful, all-purpose word vaina. It doesn't translate into English very well, though.

[bovinecomet]

Yay! I knew you would get it. Maybe when I see you again you can help me figure out what some of this actually sounds like. (Everything is pretty much theoretical to me right now, and my best tool for comprehension is my imagination. Where are Dominicans when you need em, huh?)

Hm. Wordreference.com seems to define it as "thing", "unimportant thing", and "a bother" in different contexts, and it apparently used to be vulgar but has since lost that connotation. I'd have to hear it used in order to come up with a better definition, but for now it seems like, in some situations, it's a lot like "lata" as in "Que lata!" ("What a pain/bother/bore!").

[rarecarthusian]

Aw, come on, Dominicans are everywhere... particularly in restaurant kitchens! XD

I'd say vaina is a little stronger than just a "thing"... sometimes it's more like "sh**". I've heard my Dad use it when speaking with Dominicans, and my relatives from down there use it a lot. You might say, "Dame la vaina," ("Give me that stuff/thing") or "¡Que vaina (esa)!" which functions like "WTF!" in English. That's the best I can do to explain it; when I asked my dad, he didn't really know what to say about it, either.

[bovinecomet]

Actually, there's this guy who came to fix my window about a week ago, and when he started speaking Spanish to his buddy, I asked him where he was from and he said he was Dominican. I just wish I had met him after I learned about the DR! I would've paid much more attention. I see him around the building a lot, though, so maybe I'll get another chance to hear him speak. (I tried to speak with him a bit at the time, but he didn't understand what I was saying. I think he was distracted. I asked him, "¿De dónde es usted?" and he just replied with "Wha?" until I translated. Weird.)

Yeah, I read about that, too, but judging by the fact that you don't even want to type the word...well, I think I was right not to bring it up! It's unfortunate that there isn't an equivalent word in English. I wouldn't want to use it unless I really understood what it meant, no matter how useful it might be.

[jhg812]

¡Ay, díos mío!
Porque el español sale más y más de mi cerebro cada día, responderé en francés, si está bien.

HISTORIA
• C'est trop! Chais pas comment tu vas faire tout!

INFLUENCIAS LINGÜÍSTICAS EXTRAHISPÁNICAS
• Très intéressant! J'veux apprendre ces choses.

FONÉTICA Y FONOLOGÍA
• Pourquoi Mmes. Arcila et Dominguez ne me l'ont jamais enseigné?

MORFOLOGÍA
• Chuis plus et plus jaloux.

SINTÁXIS
• Plus jaloux.

LÉXICO
• Puis-je prendre le contrôle de ton corps?

[bovinecomet]

'S fine, but I won't understand half of it. I'll do my best, though (and without Google or Wordreference).
Btw, when you want to say "Because" at the beginning of a sentence, you should use Como (without an accent, since it's not a question). It's like saying "Since."

HISTORIA: ...Yeah... I think I remember trop being something like "too much" and pas is negative and faire is "to do/make" and tout is "all". And, oh, comment works like como in Spanish. But putting it together is giving me a headache

[jhg812]

This comment was way too entertaining to read.

HISTORIA. "That's too much! I don't know how you'll do all of it!"
FONETICA. Oh, they're not. I thought you were talking about Spanish in general... Oops.
MORFOLOGIA. I get jealous of people who get to study phonology, orthography, morphology, and syntax when I can't do so.

[bovinecomet]

"Too entertaining to read"? Alrighty. :P

FONETICA: Hehe, no, that's why the title of the entry is "Also for Miranda...the Dominican Republic."
MORFOLOGIA: Aww, pobrecito. Well, if I ever see you again, I can explain some cool linguistic phenomenons if you want. (It's better in person 'cause a lot of it has to do with pronunciation.)