Español rioplatense, Porteños Spanish



Español rioplatense, Porteños Spanish

Many countries have Spanish as their mother tongue but besides the general understanding between them, there are different dialects in each region.

Castellano rioplatense is the name of the dialect used the areas around Rio de la Plata, in the city of Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos Province and Uruguay.

This dialect has several characteristics:


Fonetics
In the castellano rioplatense there is no sound /θ/ (that corresponds to the “z”), very common in almost all Spain. This sound is replaced by /s/. For example: “zapato” is pronounced /sapato/.

The consonants “ll” and the “y” are pronounced with/ ʒ / or / ∫ /. For example: “lluvia” is pronounced like /shuvia/ and “ayer” is pronounced as /asher/.

Related to phonetics is intonation. The “porteños” (people born in the city of Buenos Aires) have a special intonation that can be compared to the one of the Italians. It is much more melodic than the Spanish from Spain.


Personal pronouns

  • The use of “vos” as the second person singular instead of “tú”.
  • The use of “ustedes” as the second person plural instead of “vosotros”.


Verb conjugation

  • Voseo. Besides the use of the personal pronoun “vos”, the castellano rioplatense presents a different verbal flexion in some verb tenses.

The present tense suffers changes in the regular and irregular verbs.

Regular verbs

Castellano rioplatense

Personal pronouns

Trabajar

Yo

trabajo

Vos

trabajás

Él – Ella – Usted

trabaja

Nosotros – Nosotras

trabajamos

Ellos - Ellas - Ustedes

trabajan

 

Español peninsular

Personal Pronouns

Trabajar

Yo

trabajo

trabajas

Él – Ella - Usted

trabaja

Nosotros - Nosotras

trabajamos

Vosotros - Vosotras

trabajáis

Ellos – Ellas

trabajan


Irregular verbs

Some irregular verbs

Castellano rioplatense

Español peninsular

Ser

Vos sos

Ustedes son

eres

Vosotros sois

Poder

Vos podés

Ustedes pueden

puedes

Vosotros podéis

Pedir

Vos pedís

Ustedes piden

pides

Vosotros pedís

Entender

Vos entendés

Ustedes entienden

entiendes

Vosotros entendéis

 

Imperative

 

Castellano rioplatense

Español peninsular

Trabajar

Vos trabajá

Ustedes trabajen

Tú trabaja

Vosotros trabajad

Comer

Vos comé

Ustedes coman

Tú come

Vosotros comed

Escribir

Vos escribí

Ustedes escriban

Tú pide

Vosotros pedid

 

Use of Verb tenses

  • The use of the simple preterit (“Viajé”) instead of the compound preterit (“He viajado”).
  • The use of verbal phrase (“Voy a viajar”) instead of the simple future (“Viajaré”).

 

The vocabulary
Our Spanish has received the influence of different languages. This produced a multiplicity of vocabulary related to a wide range of themes. Our vocabulary has been enriched by words from native cultures, from dialects of neighboring countries, from other countries from Europe like French and English and last but least from Italian.

Castellano Rioplatense

Español Peninsular

suéter / pulóver

jersey

ricota

requesón

remera

camiseta

poroto

judía

pollera

falda

papa

patata

frutilla

fresa

durazno

melocotón

damasco

albaricoque

computadora

ordenador

celular

móvil

valija

maleta


Lunfardo is part of our vocabulary. It is an argot born from a dialect created at the beginning of the 20th century with the arrival of millions of immigrants. Nowadays many of those words have been incorporated in our daily language. Some examples:

Lunfardo

Castellano

plata / guitar / mango

dinero

un palo

un millón de pesos

un palo verde

un millón de dólares

laburar

trabajar

afanar / chorear

robar

mina

mujer

quilombo

lío, confusión

boliche

discoteca

pibe

muchacho

la cana

la policía

birra

cerveza

morfar

comer

 

Lorena Hebe Sinso
Buespanish School is a Spanish School in Argentina that offers Spanish courses in Buenos Aires for foreigners.
www.buespanish.com.ar