Should Dominican Spanish be its own language like Haitian Creole?

[souljanyn3]

What do you think, I mean Dominican Spanish is significantly different from Spanish like Haitian creole is significantly different from French...should it become its own language at an official status It has alot of African and Native American Arawak/Taino wrods in it as well as variations of english words to create a new language spoken within both the nation and immigrants from the nation...I think it should, here are few examples I have collected from othe threads and sources:

Taino--------------------------
Aji = n : Hot Pepper.
Anacaona = n : Golden Flower.
Areito = n : A Traditional Dances with spoken historic songs.
Arepa = n : Corn Cake.
baguada= tropical storm
Bara = n : Kill or Death, also a whip.
Barbacoa = n : A Stand, a four legged stand, made of sticks, used in the cooking process of roasting meat.
Batata = n : Sweet Potato.
Bohio = n : small square house (typical countryside homes).
Cocuyo = n : Small Lighting Bug, with a blueish light, they come out at night.
Colibri = n : Hummingbird.
Cana = n : Any number of Palmetto trees (A type of palmetto are the palms that line the malecon of Santo Domingo)
Ceiba = n: Silkcotton Tree (These are gigantic trees visible in the Cibao valley especially, many are upwards of 300 years old!)
Canoa = n : Small Boat.
Cacike = n : Chief.
Catey or Katey = n : Disturb, bother.
Cibao = n : Stone Mountains (today Cibao is the name of the valley, not the mountain range which Cordillera Central)
Conuco= plot of cultivated land or small farm
Cojiba = n : Rolled Tabacco
Cucubano = n : Large Lighting Bug.
Choreto = n : Abundance.
Guaraguao = n : Red Tailed Hawk.
Guama = n : Large Shade Tree, a fruit Tree.
Guagua = n : Bus or Car, a form of transit.
Guajey = n : Gord Scraper also known as a Guira.
Guayo = n : Grater.
Hamaca = n : Hanging Bed.
Hutia = n : Rat like roden, native to Hispaniola.
Iguana = n : Large Green Lizard.
Jaiba = n : River Crab or Freshwater Crayfish River.
Jicotea = n : Land Turtle.
Jibaro = n : Man of the Forest.
Manati = n : Sea Cow.
Mabi = n : A Fruit tree.
Maraca = n : Gord Rattle, Musical Instrument made of Higuera gord.
Macu = n : Big Eyes.
Maco = n: Frog.
Maguey = n : Big Sun, a Drum. (See the word Mayohuacan).
Manicato = n : A Bold person, valiant of a good heart.
Mime = n : Little Fly.
Mucaro = n : Owl.
Naiboa = n : The poisonous juice of the Yuca brava.
Nana = n : Girl. (Dominicans often say Nena as oppose to Nana).
Sabana = n : Big Valle or Large Plain.
Sanaco = n : Clown, Dope or Stupid.
Tabacu = n : Tabacco.
Tiburon = n : Shark.
Yagua = n: A small palm native to Hispaniola.
Yabisi = n : Tree.

English---------------------------------
Chicle - chicklet
duble buble - Dubble Bubble (gum)
cote - Kotex
Camelia - Maxi Pad
guachiman - Watchman
domplin - Dumplin
Jipeta - Jeep (SUV)
Selofen - Rinse from Sebastian called Chelophen (sp?) now every rinse from any maker is called that.
Kachu - Ketchup
cloro - Clorox or any bleacher
panckei - panckakes
siro - sirup
chirio - Cheerios or any cereal
Suera - Sweater
Cou - Coat
pocon - popcorn
wiki - wiski
Tro - Truck (used mostly by dominicanyorks)
play - baseball field
beibol - beisball
mycroway - Microwave
Osesio - Obsesion (male cologne)
dona - doughnut
Madona - Mc. Donalds
Happy mio - Happy Meal
bi ma - Big Mac
nitendo - Nintendo
tenni - tennis shoes

African--------------------
Toto= Vagina
Bembe= Lips
Mangu= Mashed Plantains
Kongo= an afro-caribbean religion in DR
Cola?=vagina, ass? in the Ewe language of Togo in West Africa(which by the way practice voodoo) cola means vagina...
By the way there are MANY more...

[montreal]

Most of those taino words are used in all Latin American countries, not just the Dominican Republic. Remember they came from Venezuela and spread their language around by travelling quite a bit.

Haitian creole is NOTHING like french. Some words are the same. It cannot be compared to the difference between Dominican Spanish and say Columbian Spanish. Dominicans do have words that are not used in the rest of latin america (of which most are usually also used in PR). This also occurs in Cuba, Argentina.... but the biggest difference is in pronunciation. I would compare it more to the difference between the french spoken in France and Canada (god knows I don't understand half the words coming out of a Frenchman's mouth) or the English spoken in France and the US.

[Chirimoya]

No comparison. A French speaker has to learn Kreyol. A non-Dominican Spanish speaker encountering Dominican Spanish for the first time has no more difficulty than a British English speaker going to Australia.

[fightfish]

I agrreeChirimoya, the Spanish is the same with some exceptions. Beans in Mexico are frijoles, in the D:R: habituelas for example. But 99% are the same except for slang.

[NALs]

Even though the potential "life" of this thread has been cut short, I still think this thread should be in the Spanish 101 forum.

And no, Dominican Spanish is not its own language much in the same manner that Mexican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, Cuban Spanish, Colombian Spanish, Argentinian Spanish, etc. are not their own languages either.

There might be some differences in syntax and phonetics of a few words, but those are minor differences. In written form, Dominican Spanish is indistinguishable from the Spanish of anywhere else.

Haitian Kreyol is the complete opposite of what has been stated here.

-NALs

[Rocky]

I don't get it.
A lot of those words are the common Spanish translation, and not exclusive to the DR, like tiburón, batata, sabana, colibri, manatee, iguana, etc and some are mistranslated, like ajie means a pepper, not a hot pepper.
I think someone needs some Spanish lessons.

[higuey84]

hey rocky,
i was reading in an very intersting article that a lot of dominican words come from our taino heritages. apparently it was discovered that not all "TAINOS" were dead, apparently some of them went to the woods to hide with some "Africans", the Taino culture is really strong in dominican republic. go to this link: La sobrevivencia de la cultura Taina en la Republica Dominicana
as a dominican, i freaked out. there's a lot more about my history and culture to learn.

[fightfish]

As and American, I am certain that is true for myself as well. In Mexico, my family has a live-in maid/nanny, who says that when she goes home to her province, everyone speaks their indian language, not spanish. Different country, obviously, but it shows how native language can survive and even remain in the forefront of languages used. She has taught me a few words, but my brain is only good for two languages!

[puertoplataexpat]

Hi everyone,
My Spanish is a little rusty...but discussions like this bring the memories and Dominican Spanish straight back to me.
I don't think Dominican Spanish is a language in its own right, but let me add, I do have more difficulty understanding "European" Spanish, probably because I have become accustomed to "Latin" Spanish...the accent being very different.

Thankyou higuey84 for the great link.....will study it at length later.
My kids are 1/2 Dominican, and although their father looks more African, many of his family have "Indian features".
It will be nice to give my kids an insight to the culture of their forefathers.

[SuperConejo]

I think that it depends on the part of d.r, in the main cities of D.R, its less creolized then in the countryside, in the deep isolated dominican countryside there are some towns and families that definetely can classify as their own language. I compare it like this.
Haitian Kreyol is as Creolized as Jamaican Patois
and Dominican Spanish is as Creolized as Southern Afro-american english.
In other words all of them are creolized but to different extencts, Haitian kreyol has more grammar rules from African languages, then all of them. Haitian kreyol also has a good amount of Taino in it as well, like Dominican spanish.

I'll add some African words to that list.
ñame
malanga
ñampear
ñato
ñoño
bongo
musongo
sarandunga
bomba
kikonde
kalunga
simbi
ogun balenyo
fufu
san (jugar un san)
guineo
guinea
kambumbo
ñangotarse
ñeñe
Muñunga
guedeh
zumbar,
mango
mongo

And there are more that are probably not even documented, and used in these countrysides, the same can be said for the hundreds if not thousands of taino words that are used in common countryside lingo. PLEASE don't call it slang, these are real words with real meanings, they are NOT made up. By the way most of these African words i listed are either Igbo or Kongo, which was the main ethnic groups bought to D.R. This is why Dominican spanish is so close to Coastal Venezeulan spanish of Barlovento and other highly African areas of venezuela, also very close to the spanish spoken in Santiago, Cuba where there were thousands of Haitians after the revolution that were forced to cuba by the french. Afro-puertoricans from Loiza, Mayaguez also sound alot like Dominicans, u can go around meeting people from these areas and you will notice they cluster the most with dominican speech.