Colombian Spanish () is a grouping of the varieties of Spanish spoken in Colombia. The term is of more geographical than linguistic relevance, since the dialects spoken in the various regions of Colombia are quite diverse. The speech of the northern coastal area tends to exhibit phonological innovations typical of Caribbean Spanish, while highland varieties have been historically more conservative. The Caro and Cuervo Institute in Bogotá is the main institution in Colombia to promote the scholarly study of the language and literature of both Colombia and the rest of Spanish America. The educated speech of Bogotá, a generally conservative variety of Spanish, has high popular prestige among Spanish-speakers throughout the Americas.
The Colombian Academy of Language () is the oldest Spanish language academy after Spain's Royal Spanish Academy; it was founded in 1871.
Although it is subject to debate by academics, some critics argue that , written in the New Kingdom of Granada during the 1600s by , is the first modern novel of the Spanish America.
Phonology The phoneme is realized as a glottal "in all regions [of Colombia]" (as in southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, most of Venezuela, Ecuadorian coast, the Spanish-speaking islands of the Caribbean, the Canary Islands, and southern Spain—as well as occasionally in Chile, Peru, and Northwest Argentina). A notable exception is the Pastuso Spanish of Nariño Department, where the phoneme is realized as velar . As in most other American dialects, most of Colombian Spanish has (the merger of into ). The exception is the traditional speech of Santander and around Pasto (inland Nariño), where can still be heard. Until the 20th century, most Andean Colombian dialects maintained , including Bogotá (now, only some older speakers retain the traditional distinction). In the southern parts of Antioquia and Norte de Santander Departments, represents instead, which still contrasts with the represented by . This type of distinction also occurs in the Andean regions of Ecuador. As in most of the Americas, the Canary Islands and most of Andalusia, Colombia has (the lack of distinction between and ), making / or / homophones. Though is general in Colombia and is usually lamino-alveolar , an apico-alveolar, Northern-Spain-style , , made with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, is current in many Andean regions, especially in Antioquia Department (Medellín). That trait (unique in the Americas) is to be associated with a large number of northern Spanish settlers in Andean Colombia. The voiced consonants , , and are pronounced as stop consonants after and sometimes before any consonant, rather than the fricative or approximant that is characteristic of most other dialects: , , , , (dialectally or , rather than the , , , , (dial. etc.) of most other dialects. A notable exception is Nariño Department and most Costeño speech (Atlantic coastal dialects), which feature the soft, fricative realizations that are common in other dialects. In contrast, intervocalic , , and are consistently realized as approximants and may be elided. For example, may be pronounced without the , as . In some parts of Cundinamarca and Boyacá, the voiceless stops , , and can be aspirated. Some speakers from Boyacá may debuccalize and or pronounce them as aspirated fricatives.
Vowels As most other Spanish dialects, standard Colombian Spanish has five vowels: two high vowels (), two mid vowels () and one open vowel (). Colombian Spanish, like most other Spanish varieties, tends to resolve vowels in hiatus as diphthongs. There is regional differentiation as, in formal speech, Caribbean speakers are more likely to diphthongize than those from inland areas. However, there is no difference in informal speech.
Personal pronouns Much of the population in Colombia, especially in Bogotá, is known for using (the second-person singular pronoun considered formal in most varieties of Spanish) between friends, family members, and others whose relationship would indicate the use of or in most other dialects. Characteristic regional usages of pronouns include (using , the familiar singular "you", rather than the of other dialects) in the Paisa Region and the Valle del Cauca Department and using of (literally "your grace") in Cundinamarca and Boyacá Departments. is nonstandard and is prohibited in schools, and its use is decreasing and occurs in informal conversations. In the Eastern Highlands, such as in Bogotá, was common until the 19th century, when it began to decline. The second-person plural pronoun and its corresponding verb forms (-/-), which are common in Spain, are, as in the rest of the Americas, considered archaic and so are restricted to ecclesiastical language. There are marked differences in the use of subject personal pronouns (overt vs. null subjects) between the highlands and coast. The highland varieties have overall pronominal rates of approximately 22-26%. The coastal varieties have higher pronominal rates. For instance, the overall pronominal rate in Barranquilla is 34.2%.
Diminutives
In Colombian Spanish, the diminutive forms -ico, -ica, rather than the more conventional -ito, -ita, are often used in words whose stem ends with "t": gato ("cat") → gatico ("kitty"). That is often seen in Cuban, Venezuelan, and Costa Rican Spanish as well. The diminutive form can be applied not only to nouns, as above, but also to adjectives, to verbs. In their gerundive form, for example, corriendo ("running") becomes corriendito ("scurrying"). In adverbs, for example, ahora ("now") becomes ahorita ("later"). Even in prepositions, junto a ("next to") becomes juntico a ("right next to"). Redundant diminutives are used in which the diminutive ending is applied to both the noun and the adjective in the same phrase: el chocolate caliente ("the hot cocoa") becomes el chocolatico calientico ("the nice little cup of hot chocolate"). The emphatic diminutives are used in which two diminutive endings are applied to the same word to emphasize the sentence. For example, with ahora ("now"), Váyase ahora mismo ("Get out right now") becomes Váyase ahoritica mismo ("Get the heck out right now!"). Also, with bueno ("good"), El carro está bueno ("The car is in good condition") becomes El carro está buenecitico ("The car is in tip-top condition").
Common expressions Paradoxically, in intrafamily speech, it is common for husband and wife to address each other as mijo and mija (from mi hijo "my son" and mi hija "my daughter"), and sons and daughters are lovingly called papito ("daddy") and mamita ("mommy"). A common greeting in Colombia is ¿Quiubo? (sometimes written as qui'iubo or kiubo), a contraction of the older, still-used greeting ¿Qué Hubo?. That phrase, used by younger generations, is usually contracted to ¿Qu'iubo? (sometimes written as ¿Kiubo?). The phrase uses the preterite form of the verb haber, whose present-tense form, hay, means "there is" or "there are." Thus, ¿Qué Hubo translates literally to "what was there?" or "what has there been?" It is used like "what's up?" in English. It originated in the Paisa dialect but has spread throughout Colombia, and it is considered throughout Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world to be a very stereotypical of Colombia.
Slang words Slang speech is frequent in popular culture. In the Paisa Region and Medellín, the local slang is named "Parlache." Many slang expressions have spread outside their original areas and are now commonly understood throughout the country.
Many of the words have been popularized by the Colombian media, such as Alonso Salazar's book, No nacimos pa' semilla,Alonso Salazar, No nacimos pa' semilla: La cultura de las bandas juveniles de Medellín (CINEP: 1990) Victor Gaviria's movie Rodrigo D: No Future, or Andrés López Forero's monologue La pelota de letras ("The Lettered Ball") as well as many other cultural expressions, including telenovelas, magazines, news coverage, jokes, etc..
Some slang terms, with their literal translations and meanings, include the following:
abrirse ("to split up"): to leave. aporrear: to accidentally fall. ave María pue: ("well, Hail Mary"): Used to show surprise, especially in the Paisa region. bacán, bacano, bacana: Relative to parties god Bacchus, someone or something cool, kind, friendly. barra ("[gold] bar"): one thousand Colombian pesos. berraco ("boar"): (1) difficult; (2) an exceptionally capable person; (3) to be angry. brutal: extremely cool, really awesome (only for things). ¡Esa película fue brutal! – "That movie was so cool!" caliente ("hot"): dangerous. camello ("camel"): a job. Hard work. ¡Eso fue un camello! – "That was hard work." cantaleta: a telling off or nagging. catorce ("fourteen"): a favor. charlar: to chat, sometimes to gossip or joke. charro: funny in an amusing manner. ¡Esa pelicula fue muy charra! – "That movie was very funny." chévere: cool, admirable. chicanear: to boast, to show off. chimba: cool; ¡Que chimba, parce! – "How cool, man!", especially in the Paisa region. chino: (from the Chibcha word for child): child. cojo ("lame, wobbly"): weak or lacking sense. comerse a alguien ("to eat somebody"): to have sex/make out. dar papaya ("to give papaya"): to expose yourself to unnecessary risk. farra: Party. filo ("sharp"): hunger. fresco ("fresh"): "Be cool!" golfa: a promiscuous woman. gonorriento: worst of the worst person (considered low-class). guayabo: a hangover (resaca in other parts of Latin America). Ay, estoy enguayabado. Dame un cafecito, porfa. – "Oh, I'm hungover. Give me some coffee please". grilla: ("cricket") A prostitute or escort, so called for the way the call out to men on the street (in Antioquia), in Valle del Cauca: a low-class person jeta: mouth, in a vulgar term. levantar: (1) to pick up a woman or a man (example: Me levanté una vieja anoche — "I picked up a girl last night"); (2) to beat someone up. ligar ("to tie"): to give money, to bribe (in Antioquia), in Valle del Cauca: to woo someone llave ("key"): friend (considered low-class). locha: laziness. lucas: (the Roman numeral L that is 50, the highest valued paper money in for a long time in the country) with same usage of the word barra (considered low-class). mamar: to suck off. Also, to annoy, irritate. Estoy mamado de esto. "I'm tired of this situation." mañe: trashy, lacking class. mariconadas: joking around (Deje las mariconadas – "Stop joking around"). marica ("faggot"): a term of endearment used among friends. Depending on the tone of voice, it can be understood as an insult. Maricón is a harsher, less-friendly variant. mierda ("shit"): fecal matter. mono(a) ("monkey"): a person with blonde hair or/and light skin or/and light eyes. morado(a) ("purple; bruised"): a black person mostro: friend (considered low-class). onces ("elevenses"): merienda, similar to British Elevenses. paquete ("package"): one million Colombian pesos, also used as an insult. parar bolas ("to stop balls"): to pay attention. parce or parcero: "comrade" (derived from parcelo, slang for owner of a plot of land (parcela)). Originally used as "cell mate" (sharing the same plot of land), its usage devolved into "partner in crime". Used only in criminal circles from the late 1970s, it is now used openly in almost every urban center. It is especially common in the Paisa dialect. Also, it has a drug trafficking-related background: traffickers adapted the Brazilian Portuguese word parceiro ("partner, friend or fellow"). perder el año ("lose the year"): (1) to flunk (fail to be promoted to the next grade) in school; (2) to die. pilas ("batteries"): a word used for warning. plata ("silver"): money. plomo ("lead"): bullets.