Bozal Spanish

Bozal Spanish is a possible extinct Spanish-based creole language or pidgin that may have been a mixture of Spanish and Kikongo, with Portuguese influences.[1] Attestation is insufficient to indicate whether Bozal Spanish was ever a single, coherent or stable language, or if the term merely referred to any idiolect of Spanish that included African elements.

The Spanish distinguished negros ladinos[2] ("Latinate Negros", those who spent more than a year in a Spanish-speaking territory) and negros bozales (wild, untamed[3] Negroes; those born in or freshly arrived from Africa).[4] Similarly, the Portuguese distinguished between índios mansos (tamed, domesticated Indians) and índios bravos (untamed, wild Indians), and between negros crioulos or ladinos (blacks born in the territory of a European empire, cf. Spanish criollo meaning natively-born white person from the colony; crioulo is now the main anti-black slur in Brazilian Portuguese) and negros africanos or boçais (blacks born in Africa).

Bozal Spanish was spoken by African slaves in Cuba,[1] Uruguay[5] and other areas of South and Central America from the 17th century up until its possible extinction at around 1850.[6] Although Bozal Spanish is extinct as a language, its influence still exists.[6] In some Cuban folk religious rituals today, people speak what they call "Bozal".[7] Similarly, many songs of the afro genre, which flourished in Cuba in the 1930s and '40s, contain lyrics reminiscent of the language.

In Puerto Rico esclavos bozales were slaves ("esclavos") brought from Africa, as opposed to those born in Puerto Rico from slaves. Such slaves spoke different languages, other than Spanish, which they eventually learned while enslaved. These slaves were primarily used in the fields and agriculture as opposed to those born under bondage who were generally used in domestic chores.[8]