Languages | Displace

ARGENTINA

Various Spanish Dialects in Argentina

There are many dialects of Spanish being spoken in Argentina and this is because the Spaniards brought their language to the country when they arrived to Argentina in 1536. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, large waves of European immigration to Argentina had a strong impact on the local way of speaking.

In the Argentinian Constitution of 1853, European immigration was encouraged and made easy; this brought in people from all over Europe, especially Spain, Italy, and France. Currently Castilian is the official Spanish language predominantly from Central and Northern Spain. Others include:

•Andalusian: second to Castilian, predominantly from Southern Spain

•Murcian: This dialect is spoken in the Autonomous Region of the Community of Murcia in the southeast of Spain

•Catalan, the official language of Andorra and spoken in parts of northern Spain

•Basque, the language isolate of an autonomous Spanish community in the Pyrenees

•Galician, the Portuguese-influenced language of Galicia, in north-western Spain

•Extremaduran, a three-branched language spoken in the autonomous community of Extremadura of western Spain.

•Porteno Spanish : urban vernacular Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires and Uruguay. Also referred to as Rioplatense

•Cuyo Spanish: This is the Spanish dialect spoken in the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, and certain areas in La Pampa, La Rioja, San Luis and Neuquén. Due to its proximity with Chile, it has many similarities with Chilean Spanish.

•Andino Spanish: This dialect, which is shared with other countries such as Perú and Bolivia, is spoken in the north of Argentina. influenced by two local dialects called “quechua” and “aimara”

•Cordobés Spanish: The Spanish spoken in Córdoba is popular across the country for being funny, and when you hear them speak they seem to be “singing”. One feature is they tend to extend the length of the last syllables. Some historians say this dialect differs from the rest because it is influenced by a tribe that lived in that area long time ago, called “Comechingones”.

BUENOS AIRES

Official Language is Spanish (Castilian)

Portenos (inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires) speak Porteno Spanish , an urban vernacular Spanish usually referred to as River Plate Spanish

Lunfardo, a slang which originated in the 19th century in Buenos Aires, in the slum neighbourhoods, is composed of words from many languages—among them Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and languages from Africa. Lunfardo is now often heard in the lyrics of Tango music.

Research shows some indigenous languages such as are still being spoken in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. Quechua was the language of the Tawantinsuyu Confederation (the Inca empire), which stretched from southern Colombia through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil’s Amazon region to northern Chile and Argentina. Although there are many dialects, the most widely spoken is the dialect of the northwestern province of Santiago del Estero Quecha.

Other languages include Mapuzugun, the language of the Mapuche nation, Andalusian, Basque, Galician and Guarani (official language of Paraguay) and so on. With over 13 indigenous languages spoken in Argentina, fragments of most of it can be found in Buenos Aires.