Sebastian Becker from Germany asked us: Does Puerto Rican Spanish differ from “normal” standard Spanish?
Here is our answer:
This questions prompt me to ask another one: What is standard Spanish? I believe (and this is my opinion) that it is difficult to point out what is standard Spanish. Would it be the Spanish from Spain, or perhaps from Mexico? I don’t think so. All these countries have variations of Spanish. Spanish is uniform and diverse at the same time. Uniform because a native speaker from Puerto Rico will be able to communicate and understand a native speaker from Spain (or any other Spanish-speaking country). But also, it is diverse because each country has differences in the meaning of many words, pronunciation and accent.
With that in mind, I can conclude that all countries have variations of Spanish, and Puerto Rico is not the exception. There are words that have different meanings and we have particular pronunciation traits that distinguish our accent. Some pronunciation traits are shared among other Caribbean countries -Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Caribbean coast of Colombia- It’s worth pointing out that the Spanish in Puerto Rico has a huge influence from English (anglisismos) due to the relationship we have with the United States. For example, in Puerto Rico the word for a car’s windshield wipers is wipers instead of the more common limpiaparabrisas.
-Diana
Check out these other Learning Puerto Rican Spanish Slang articles.