Spanish is the main official language of Venezuela, since it is spoken by a large part of the population of this South American country. However, in addition to Spanish, Venezuela also has other foreign languages, as well as more than 40 Indian languages spoken in various regions of the country.
Venezuelan languages
For 95% of the population of Venezuela, Spanish is native, and the remaining 5% know it as a second language. Therefore, Spanish is the most common in the country, in addition, it is the official language of Venezuela. Venezuelan Spanish is characterized by certain features regarding the tonality of pronunciation, the expressions used and other attributes of the language.
Knowing the answer to the question what language is spoken in Venezuela, it should also be noted that in this country they speak Indian languages in various regions. In addition, there are communities of foreigners who use English, French, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, and Portuguese to communicate with each other.
The influence of all of them on Spanish led to the formation of the Venezuelan Casteiano, which has distinctive features in comparison with the languages of other Spanish-speaking countries.
Venezuelan Spanish
The geographical location of Venezuela led to the historical development of its Spanish language, which was greatly influenced by the languages of Central America and the Caribbean.
Spanish as the official language of Venezuela during its formation was strongly influenced by the Castiano Canary Islands, some African dialects, as well as European languages, mainly English and Italian.
The diminutive suffix "iko", for example, in the word "momentico" (from Spanish momento - instant, instant), is a characteristic feature of Venezuelan Spanish, and in this regard it looks like a Colombian dialect. On the other hand, the Venezuelan pronunciation with a sigh of the letter "S" makes it look like the Spanish of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
Due to historical, geographical and social features, Venezuela has formed a special Spanish language that differs from the language of other Spanish-speaking countries in South America by its emphasis, vocabulary and manner of speaking. This language of Venezuela is more similar to one of the variants of Spanish typical for the Caribbean.
General Spanish Differences by Region of Venezuela
Spanish in Venezuela is not homogeneous, but differs in different regions of the country. In the center of the country and on the Caribbean, it is considered the official standard for teaching at universities and broadcasting.
Marabin Spanish is common in western Venezuela. Its distinguishing feature is the so-called "Boseo". For example, in Spanish castiano they say “that eres” (you are), while in Marabino Spanish the same thing will sound like “Bos Sois”.
The Spanish language of Margarita Island in Venezuela is characterized by the likeness of the Dominican and Puerto Rican dialects due to its "seseo" in the pronunciation of many words.
In addition, the official language of Venezuela is very rich in various regionalisms, which are often used by the population of this country instead of the usual words of the Castilian dialect. Also in Venezuela, as throughout Latin America, the practice of using abbreviations from the words of the standard Castiano is widespread.
Classification of Spanish dialects of Venezuela
Within the country, the following Spanish dialects can be distinguished:
- The central or dialect of Caracas, which is considered the official standard of the country.
- A dialect of Margarita Island, which is distinguished by the replacement of the letter "R" by the letter "L" in a number of words, as well as a set of specific abbreviations, for example, instead of "mi iho" (my son) they say "miho" here.
- Guaro (Lara region), the peculiarity of which is the reduction of verbs in the infinitive (khug instead of khugar), as well as the often used expression “guar”, which does not have a specific translation, but reflects the speaker’s emotions in accordance with the context.
- Gocho (Andean region), which is similar to the dialect of marabino and is due to the influence of Colombian Spanish.
- Marabino, which is common in the region of the country of Zulia.
- A plain dialect that contains many words from Native American languages.
European languages spoken in Venezuela
Due to the emigration of people from various European countries to Venezuela, European languages such as English and Italian are spoken in this South American country. In addition, in some regions of the country you can hear French and even German speech. All of them had a corresponding impact on the main official language of Venezuela - Spanish.
English can be considered the second language in the country after Spanish, as it is a compulsory subject in all Venezuelan schools.
In the XX century, about 300 thousand Italians immigrated to Venezuela, since then many schools in Venezuela teach this language along with English.
Venezuelan Native American languages
In addition to Spanish and European languages, more than 40 different dialects of the Indian tribes are used in Venezuela. The following examples can be cited:
- wyuu (Wayuu);
- Warao
- piaroa (Piaroa);
- Yomomami (Yanomami) and others.
They also have the status of official languages of Venezuela.
For socio-economic reasons, many Indians moved to large cities, as a result of which many of their languages ceased to be used and eventually disappeared completely, for example, this happened with the languages of the Mapoyo and Sape tribes.
Among the actively used languages of the country of Venezuela, vayuu should be distinguished, which is spoken by about 170 thousand Indians. A few years ago, the Waiuu Thai organization, in collaboration with Microsoft, introduced the first dictionary of this language, which took 3 years to complete.
According to statistics, there are currently about 25 Native American languages that are actively used by the respective tribes in Venezuela. All of them are combined into 7 large language groups, and 6 Indian languages are not included in any of these groups. Note that the second language for all Venezuelan Indians is Spanish.