Popular Speech vs. Bad Spanish

There are some posts in the Spanish forum that once again have inspired me to post my thoughts in my mini blog. Why do I resort to my blog? Well, I can clearly see from some of the posts that there's a large knowledge gap when it comes to certain aspects of the Spanish language specifically sociolinguistics.

The latest issue seems to be what's deemed as bad Spanish or uneducated Spanish based on the title of a song 'Tú me tiene amarrao'. Bad Spanish? How does one define bad Spanish? IMO, bad Spanish is incorrectly spelled words like ablar instead of hablar and incorrectly conjugated verbs. For example, two weeks ago I was speaking with a Peruvian man about driving and he said to me 'yo no conducí tomado'. I was stunned. I don't know when was the last time I heard conducir conjugated incorrectly. Conducí should be conduje. Bad Spanish is poor sentence structure or obvious poor spoken speech in written form. However, popular speech used in a song is bad Spanish? Well, then that will eliminate a large part of songs on the market especially in the tropical music category. It's very questionable. Grammarians don’t classify the 'ao' as bad Spanish but rather as el habla popular and I totally agree. The suppressed form of the past participle 'ado' to 'ao' is popular speech among Spanish speakers that crosses all class lines. This is not an issue of educated speakers vs. an uneducated speakers. Over centuries it has become a salient feature of the Spanish language.

The dropping of the 's' may also be deemed as bad speech by some and I certainly do have my opinion about it, however, it's a salient feature of a significant percentage of Spanish speakers. In the Caribbean vernacular it's almost a given whereas if you compare the speech patterns of speakers from select South American countries one will not hear 'tu tiene', tú dice, 'tú está' etc. As well the dropping of the 's' directly creates an over excessive usage of the pronoun 'tú' which IMO, is a sign of uneducated speech. In Spanish, subject pronouns are not required. They generally are only used for clarity in ambiguous phrases or for emphasis. However, a person who uses 'tú' frequently reveals his/her speech class or education level.

Songs in general reflect popular speech and this applies to all languages not just Spanish. Song titles such as the one above are a reflection the local vernacular, slang, colloquialisms etc. Do people speak this way in Spanish? Absolutely. Is it a desirable way of speaking? To each his own. It's just important to recognize that broad generalizations in language serve no purpose but rather it is more beneficial to understand the linguistic dynamics at play. For example, one song I really like by Héctor Acosta, Tengo una novia reflects Héctor's way of speaking. He's not only a typical cibaeño from Bonao but his speech has many of the salient features of Caribbean Spanish. Therefore, should one not listen to his music or automatically put him in a certain category because of the way he speaks which is a typical reflection of el habla popular? Having said this please keep in mind many Dominicans of all class levels enjoy Acosta's music.

My point is the speech patterns and variations that exist in the Dominican vernacular, Caribbean Spanish, Spanish spoken in South America and in the Spanish-speaking world is a complex paradigm and not as simple as saying this is 'bad Spanish'.

Here are the first part of the lyrics- Tengo una novia:

Ya no me preocupa andar a pie o montao,
ya cuando yo pueda ya no es obligao,
ya dejé el amor que me tenia forzao,
ya encontré un cariño desinteresao

coro:
Ya yo me conseguí una novia nueva que
no se anda fijando en mi cartera
y tengo una novia que me quiere que no me exije
que tenga un mercedes que me bese sin hacerle un cheque
que tengo una novia que me adora que no me deja
ni un minuto a solas que contento
yo me siento ahora ( tengo una novia)
que no me exije que tenga un mercedes
que me bese sin hacerle un cheque que tengo una novia
que me adora que no me deja ni un minuto a solas
que contento yo me siento ahora.

lyrics taken from letra de Tengo una novia de Héctor Acosta, - MUSICA.COM
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-ldg.