Overview The unique features of Paraguayan Spanish developed in part due to Paraguay's early isolation; for example,
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the country's president until 1840, sealed Paraguay's borders. Other experiences with geographic, political, and economic isolation relative to its neighbours allowed Spanish spoken in Paraguay to develop its own unique characteristics, even apart from the wide-ranging influence of Guarani. (see
Yeismo) •
Voseo: pronominal and verbal, identical to
River Plate Spanish. •
Leísmo: when one uses
le in the context of a direct object pronoun instead of the personal pronouns
lo and
la. • Contains fewer pauses and less "musical" intonation than River Plate Spanish. • Lexicon borrowed from
Guarani,
Lunfardo, and other European languages.
Pronunciation • The grouping "tr" is pronounced as a voiceless postalveolar affricate [tɹ̝̊], similar to the sound of the digraph . •
Assibilation of the "r" to . • Wide diffusion of
labiodental ʋ~v] for [β]. • Word-final /n/ has alveolar articulation, not velar. • Velar, rather than glottal realization of /x/. •
Hiatus conservation. • Stable vowel system. • Articulation of /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ as approximants not only in the intervocalic position but sometimes also in the initial position. • Use of the alveolar approximant [ɹ] for the pre-consonantal and final "r," similar to the pronunciation in American English or Hollandic Dutch. Example: firmar [fiɹˈmaɹ].
Dynamics of Guarani-Spanish Typical Paraguayan Spanish has a strong influence from the sentence structure of Guarani as translated to Spanish, as well as the words and borrowed particles of
Guarani for colloquial expressions. These are some common cases: • Guarani particles among Castilian words to emphasize expressions. Examples: •
-na ("por favor"). E.g.: Vamos na = Vamos por favor •
-pa, -pió, -piko, -ta (interrogative particle without translation). E.g.: ¿Para qué pa?, ¿Para qué pió? = ¿Para qué? •
-ko, -nio, -ngo (particle to emphasize something). E.g.: Ese ko es de ella. • Words taken from Guarani for use in everyday Spanish. Examples: • ''-gua'u'' (falsehood). E.g.: De gua'u nomás era = Era solo una mentira. •
¡Mbore! (exclamation, rejecting something). Synonymous with: ¡Ni loco! •
¡Kore!, ¡Nderakóre! (exclamation, colloquially used for something terrible). Synonymous with: Oh no! •
che kapé (my friend) E.g.: ¿Qué tal, che kapé? = What's up, my friend? • ''¿Mba'éichapa?
, ¿Mba'etekó?
, or ¿Ha upéi?'' (greeting). Synonymous with: What's up? •
Porã or
iporã (good). •
¡Nde tavy! (exclamation, expressing surprise or bewilderment, lit. 'you're crazy!') • Sentences taken from Guarani translated partially or erroneously translated for use in everyday Spanish. Examples: • "Se fue en Itauguá" (from the Guarani "oho Itauguápe", since the 'pe' is used interchangeably as 'a' or 'en') • "Voy a venir" (literally from the Guarani "aháta aju", used as a synonym of "voy y vuelvo") • "Vení un poco" (calque of the word "ejúmina" in Guarani) • "Demasiado mucho calor hace" (calque of the word "hetaiterei" in Guarani) • "Te dije luego" (from the Guarani "ha'e voi ningo ndéve", in which the "luego" emphasizes the previous action) • "Me voy a ir ahora después" (calque of the Guarani sentence "aháta aga upéi", in which the "ahora" emphasizes when the action will take place) • "Habló por mi" (literally from the Guarani "oñe'ẽ cherehe", used as a synonym of "habló de mi") • Paraguayisms, words and sentences in Spanish, but influenced by Guarani. Examples: • "Me hallo" ("hallar" is used as a synonym for "alegrar" instead of indicating the location situation) • "Anda por su cabeza" (influenced by the Guarani "oiko iñakãre", which would be "hace lo que quiere, sin control, sin juicio") • "Te voy a quitar una foto" ("quitar" is used as a synonym for "sacar" or "tomar" in the case of taking pictures)
Similarities with Rioplatense Spanish Due to the geographical and cultural proximity of Paraguay and
Argentina, the two countries' dialects are often confused. In fact, along the border between Argentina and Paraguay, the local dialects of both countries have fused, creating a northeastern Argentine variety very similar to Paraguayan Spanish in the provinces along the border. Examples: • Common use of the expression «che». • Sporadic aspiration of /s/ in colloquial speech. • Educated
voseo and similar in conjugation. • Shares part of the River Plate lexicon (e.g., some words in
Lunfardo).
Voseo Voseo is a peculiar characteristic of Paraguayan Spanish which is heavily influenced by the
River Plate dialect (since historically in Paraguay
Guarani was always spoken, and Spanish was relegated to the inhabitants of the capital or the most favored classes in the interior of the country). Another characteristic of voseo is how long it has been around for. "Voseo is the oldest form of Castilian Spanish". After the second half of the 20th century, the teaching of voseo depended on whether the teacher used vos or not. Adding to the strong Argentinian influence, either by the media or by the geographical and cultural proximity, voseo stayed as a distinctive characteristic of Paraguayan. Although it is rarely taught in schools today, voseo is beginning to regain some popularity in the form of an accepted regional dialect. ==Dialects==