Why You Can’t Understand Dominican Spanish Speakers
Item
issuer
Spanish con Salsa
Language
English
Date Accepted
11/29/19
list of contributors
Kesia Sousa
Title
Why You Can’t Understand Dominican Spanish Speakers
content
Host: So there’s three main regions in the Dominican Republic. I think what we’ll do first is let’s talk a little bit about some of the characteristics of the accent of Dominican Spanish. What a lot of people tell me is that, ‘Wow, when I hear someone speaking Spanish and they’re from the Dominican Republic, they talk so fast, and I have no idea what they’re saying.’
Host: Okay, so it just sounds like that one -
Kesia: But it doesn’t matter if it’s masculine or femenine, yes we drop the letter ‘d’.
Host: And I guess that would be confusing if I’m hearing that and I’ve never heard it before, especially with some connected speech not just hearing the word in isolation. It could be a little difficult to pick up on that. I think that one of the reasons why people perceive that Dominicans speak faster because, honestly, I think Spaniards also speak pretty fast. I went to Panama and they also speak pretty fast. I think a lot of people speak fast, almost like it’s a competition like, “We speak the fastest Spanish!” Right? I think that when you add that with dropping off these letters and the words get shorter, a lot of it is the shortening of the words that people don’t know is happening so they perceive it as being faster than it may really be because these words are just...there are syllables missing, right? There are entire letters missing.
Host: Okay, so it just sounds like that one -
Kesia: But it doesn’t matter if it’s masculine or femenine, yes we drop the letter ‘d’.
Host: And I guess that would be confusing if I’m hearing that and I’ve never heard it before, especially with some connected speech not just hearing the word in isolation. It could be a little difficult to pick up on that. I think that one of the reasons why people perceive that Dominicans speak faster because, honestly, I think Spaniards also speak pretty fast. I went to Panama and they also speak pretty fast. I think a lot of people speak fast, almost like it’s a competition like, “We speak the fastest Spanish!” Right? I think that when you add that with dropping off these letters and the words get shorter, a lot of it is the shortening of the words that people don’t know is happening so they perceive it as being faster than it may really be because these words are just...there are syllables missing, right? There are entire letters missing.