Costa Rican Spanish

The distinguishing characteristics of Costa Rican phonetics include the following:

• Assibilation of the "double-R" phoneme in some speakers (spelled {{Grapheme|r}} word-initially and {{Grapheme|rr}} intervocalically), especially in rural areas, resulting in a voiced alveolar approximant ({{IPA|/ɹ/}})—thus {{lang|es|ropa}} {{IPA|[ˈɹopa]}} ("clothing"), carro {{IPA|[ˈkaɹo]}} ("car"). Assibilation also affects the sequence {{IPA|/tɾ/}}, giving it a sound that is similar to {{IPA|[tɹ̝̥]}}.{{Harvcoltxt|Canfield|1981|p=39}}{{Harvcoltxt|Lipski|1994|p=222}}
• The double-R phoneme and the single-R phoneme after a t, can also be realized as voiced alveolar approximant [ɹ] by the majority of speakers, with a sound similar to the {{IPA|/r/}} of American English. Thus ropa {{IPA|[ˈɹopa]}} ("clothing"), carro {{IPA|[ˈkaɹo]}} ("car") and cuatro {{IPA| ['kwatɹo]}} ("four"). Except before a consonant (this does not apply to all speakers) in which case is pronounced as a voiced alveolar trill [r] . Thus puerta {{IPA |[ˈpwerta] }} ("door"), guardar {{IPA | [ɡwarˈðaɹ] }} ("to save"). {{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}

Note: This does not apply to the single-R phoneme which is typically pronounced as an alveolar tap [ɾ] as in most varieties of Spanish.

• Velarization of word-final {{IPA|/n/}} (before a pause or a vowel), i.e. pronunciation as the velar nasal {{IPA|[ŋ]}}.
• {{IPA|/ʝ/}} can be lost in contact with the front vowels {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/i/}}.
• The Costa Rican dialect adopted the voiceless alveolar affricate {{IPA|[t͡s]}} and the cluster {{IPA|[tl]}} (originally {{IPA|/tɬ/}}) represented by the respective digraphs {{angbr|tz}} and {{angbr|tl}} in loanwords of Nahuatl origin, for example quetzal and tlapalería {{IPA|[t͡ɬapaleˈɾia]}} ('hardware store'). Even words of Greek and Latin origin with {{angbr|tl}}, such as {{Wikt-lang|es|Atlántico}} and {{Wikt-lang|es|atleta}}, are pronounced with {{IPA|/tl/}}: {{IPA|[aˈtlantiko]}}, {{IPA|[aˈtleta]}} (compare {{IPA|[aðˈlantiko]}}, {{IPA|[aðˈleta]}} in Spain and other dialects in Hispanic America{{Harvcoltxt|Navarro Tomás|2004|section=98}}).
• Syllable-final {{IPA|/s/}} is only infrequently aspirated, or pronounced as an {{IPA|[h]}}, among middle-class speakers in central Costa Rica. It may be aspirated most often at the end of a word and before another word which begins in a vowel, but {{IPA|/s/}} still occurs most of the time. Costa Rica's border regions with Panama show higher rates of {{IPA|/s/}}-reduction (syllable-final /s/ is pronounced in border regions of Costa Rica and Nicaragua).{{cite journal |last1=Lipski |first1=John M. |author1-link=John M. Lipski |title=/s/ in Central American Spanish |journal=Hispania |date=March 1985 |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=143–149 |doi=10.2307/341630 |jstor=341630 |url=http://www.personal.psu.edu/jml34/cents.pdf}}
• Between vowels, {{IPA|/s/}} is frequently voiced. This is most common in faster, spontaneous speech, before unstressed vowels, and word-finally, and is also more common among men than women.{{Cite journal |last=Chappell |first=Whitney |last2=García |first2=Christina |date=2017-05-01 |title=Variable production and indexical social meaning: On the potential physiological origin of intervocalic /s/ voicing in Costa Rican Spanish |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/shll-2017-0001/html |journal=Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=1–37 |doi=10.1515/shll-2017-0001 |issn=1939-0238|url-access=subscription }}
• The phoneme represented by {{angbr|j}}, {{IPA|/x/}}, is typically just a weak aspiration, like {{IPA|[h]}}. In words like {{lang|es|trabajo}} 'work', it can barely be heard.{{Harvcoltxt|Lipski|2008|p=143}}

Usted is the predominant second person singular pronoun in Costa Rican Spanish. Young men have been leading a trend in addressing close friends and peers with {{Lang|es|usted}}, which is not typical of other Spanish dialects.{{Citation |last1=Michnowicz |first1=Jim |title=The changing system of Costa Rican pronouns of address: Tuteo, voseo, and ustedeo |date=2016-08-15 |url=https://benjamins.com/catalog/ihll.10.12mic |work=Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics |volume=10 |pages=243–266 |editor-last=Moyna |editor-first=María Irene |place=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |language=en |doi=10.1075/ihll.10.12mic |isbn=978-90-272-5809-0 |access-date=2022-05-07 |last2=Despain |first2=J. Scott |last3=Gorham |first3=Rebecca |editor2-last=Rivera-Mills |editor2-first=Susana|url-access=subscription }} Some speakers use only usted in addressing others, never vos or {{Lang|es|tú}}. Others use both usted and vos, according to the situation.

Vos is a second person singular pronoun used by many speakers in certain relationships of familiarity or informal contexts. Voseo is widely used between friends, family, people of the same age, etc. It is also commonly used in the university context between students. Some adults use vos to address children or juveniles, but other adults address everyone regardless of age or status with usted. Costa Ricans tend to use usted with foreigners. {{Lang|es|Vos}} has become less popular in adults below the age of thirty, as of 2016.

Tú is occasionally used in Costa Rican Spanish. However, due in part to the influence of Mexican television programming, Costa Ricans are familiar with tuteo, and some television viewers, especially children, have begun to use it in limited contexts. It used to be much rarer, and is often considered not really "Costa Rican." As of 2016, young adults use {{Lang|es|tú}} as infrequently as do older adults.

Costa Ricans are colloquially called "ticos" (based on the frequent use of the diminutive ending -ico following a /t/, as in momentico), and thus colloquial expressions characteristic of Costa Rica are called tiquismos. Tiquismos and pachuquismos are used frequently in Costa Rica. The latter are expressions of popular street Spanish which can be considered vulgar and offensive if used in the wrong context. Many of these words, even when found in a standard Spanish dictionary, do not have the same meaning there as in Costa Rica. Learning colloquial expressions can be a guide to understanding the humor and character of the Costa Rican culture.{{Harvcoltxt|Howard|2010}}[http://www.costaricaspanish.net/ Guide to Costa Rican Spanish] (blog).

Here are some examples of Costa Rican slang.

• Mae, ese chante es muy tuanis: "Dude, that house is pretty cool".
• Esta panta no me cuadra porque me chima las piernas: "I don’t like these shorts because they chafe my legs".
• ¡Qué taco me dio esa vara!: "That thing really scared me!"

{{Reflist}}

• {{Citation

|last = Canfield

|first= D. Lincoln

|year= 1981

|title=Spanish Pronunciation in the Americas

|place=Chicago

|publisher=University of Chicago Press

|isbn=978-0-226-09262-1

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G8ZY3dVGF7cC&q=costa+rica

}}

• {{Citation

|last = Howard

|first= Christopher

|year= 2010

|title=Christopher Howard's Official Guide to Costa Rican Spanish

|publisher=Costa Rica Books

|place = Miami

|isbn=978-1-881233-87-9

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KtXj8-6Do4sC&q=costa+rica+spanish&pg=PP1

}}

• {{Citation

|last = Lipski

|first= John M.

|year= 1994

|title=Latin American Spanish

|publisher=Longman

|isbn=978-0-582-08761-3

}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Lipski

|first1=John M.

|author-link=John M. Lipski

|title=Varieties of Spanish in the United States

|date=2008

|publisher=Georgetown University Press

|location=Washington, D.C.

|isbn=9781589012134

|chapter=Central American Spanish in the United States

|pages=142–149

}}

• {{cite book |last1=Navarro Tomás |first1=Tomás |author-link=Tomás Navarro Tomás |title=Manual de pronunciación española |date=2004 |publisher=Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas |location=Madrid |isbn=9788400070960 |edition=24}}

• [http://www.jergasdehablahispana.org/?pais=Costa+Rica&tipobusqueda=1 Jergas de habla hispana] (Spanish dictionary specializing in slang and colloquial expressions, featuring all Spanish-speaking countries, including Costa Rica).

• Latin American Spanish

{{Spanish variants by continent}}

{{Languages of Costa Rica}}

Category:Central American Spanish

Spanish