Chilean Spanish

In Chile, there are not many differences between the Spanish spoken in the northern, central and southern areas of the country,[4] although there are notable differences in zones of the far south—such as Aysén, Magallanes (mainly along the border with Argentina), and Chiloé—and in Arica in the extreme north. There is, however, much variation in the Spanish spoken by different social classes.[5] In rural areas from Santiago to Valdivia, Chilean Spanish shows the historical influence of the Castúo dialects of Extremadura (Spain),[6][7] but some authors point to the Spanish province of Andalusia and more specifically to the city of Seville as an even greater influence on the historical development of Chilean Spanish. In general, the intonation of Chilean Spanish is recognized in the Spanish-speaking world for being the fastest-spoken accent among Spanish dialects and with tones that rise and fall in its speech, especially in Santiago and its surroundings; such intonation may be less strong in certain areas of the north of the country and more pronounced in southern areas; Chileans speak slowly for foreign settlers and tourists, including native Spanish speakers to understand the Chileans easily.

As result of past German immigration there are a few German influences in the vocabulary, accent, and pronunciation of southern Chile.[8] Speakers of Chilean Spanish who also speak German or Mapudungun tend to use more impersonal pronouns (see also: Alemañol).[9] Dialects of southern Chile (Valdivia/Temuco to Chiloé) are considered to be have a melodic intonation (cantadito) relative to the speech in Santiago.[10] A survey among inhabitants of Santiago also shows that people in the capital consider southern Chilean Spanish to be variously affected by Mapudungun, have poor pronunciation, be of rural character and, in the case of Chiloé, to be rich in archaisms.[10] The same study does also show a perception that the speech of northern Chile is influenced by the Spanish spoken in Peru and Bolivia.[10]

Chile is part of a region of South America known as the Southern Cone (Spanish: Cono Sur; Portuguese: Cone Sul). The region consists of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay; sometimes it also includes Paraguay and some regions of Brazil (Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and São Paulo). Excluding Brazil (where Portuguese is spoken), all the countries in that region have many similarities in vocabulary.

The Chilean Spanish dialect of Easter Island, most especially the accent, is influenced by Rapa Nui language.

There are a number of phonetic features common to most Chilean accents, but none of them is individually unique to Chilean Spanish.[11] Rather, it is the particular combination of features that sets Chilean Spanish apart from other regional Spanish dialects.[12] The features include the following:[13][14]

• Yeísmo, the historical merger of the phoneme /ʎ/ (spelled ⟨ll⟩) with /ʝ/ (spelled ⟨y⟩). For speakers with yeísmo, the verbs cayó 's/he fell' and calló 's/he fell silent' are homophones, both pronounced [kaˈʝo]. (In dialects that lack yeísmo, maintaining the historical distinction, the two words are pronounced respectively [kaˈʝo] and [kaˈʎo].) Yeísmo characterizes the speech of most Spanish-speakers both in Spain and in the Americas. In Chile, there is a declining number of speakers who maintain the distinction, mainly in some Andean areas, south of Santiago.[4][15]
• Like most other American dialects of Spanish, Chilean Spanish has seseo: /θ/ is not distinguished from /s/. In much of the Andean region, the merged phoneme is pronounced as apicoalveolar [s̺], a sound with a place of articulation intermediate between laminodental [s] and palatal [ʃ]. That trait, unique in the Americas, is associated with a large number of northern Spanish settlers in Andean Chile.
• Syllable-final /s/ is often aspirated to [h] or lost entirely, another feature common to many varieties of Spanish in the Americas, as well as the Canary Islands and the southern half of Spain. Whether final /s/ aspirates or is elided depends on a number of social, regional, and phonological factors, but in general, aspiration is most frequent before a consonant. Complete elision is most commonly found word-finally but carries a sociolinguistic stigma.[16] Thus, los chilenos '(the) Chileans' can be [lɔh t͡ʃiˈleːnɔ].
• The velar consonants /k/, /ɡ/, and /x/ are fronted or palatalized before front vowels. Thus, queso 'cheese', guía 'guide', and jinete 'rider/horseman' are pronounced respectively [ˈceːso], [ˈɟi.a], and [çiˈn̪eːt̪e]. Also, /x/, it is pronounced [h] or [x] in other phonological environments and so caja 'box' and rojo 'red' are pronounced [ˈkaxa] ~ [ˈkaha] and [ˈroxo] ~ [ˈroho] respectively.
• Between vowels and word-finally, /d/ commonly elides or lenites, as is common throughout the Spanish-speaking world); contado 'told' and ciudad 'city' are [kon̪ˈt̪aː.o] (contao) and [sjuˈð̞aː] (ciuda') respectively. Elision is less common in formal or upper-class speech.
• The voiceless postalveolar affricate /t͡ʃ/ is pronounced as a fricative [ʃ] by many lower-class speakers and so Chile and leche (milk) are pronounced [ˈʃiːle] and [ˈleʃe], respectively). That pronunciation is greatly stigmatized. Other variants are more fronted and include the alveolar affricate [t͡s] or an even more fronted dental affricate [t̪͡s̪], mostly in the upper class. Thus, Chile and leche are pronounced [ˈt͡siːle] or [ˈleːt͡se].
• Word-final /n/ is pronounced as a velar nasal [ŋ] only in north Chilean dialects.
• Unstressed word-final vowels are often devoiced.[17]
• Consonant cluster [tɾ] can be pronounced [t͡ɹ̝̥] or [tɻ], making cuatro 'four' and trabajo 'work' pronounced as [ˈkwat͡ɹ̝̥o ~ˈkwatɻo] and [t͡ɹ̝̥aˈbaxo ~ tɻaˈbaxo] respectively, this is an influence of Mapudungun.[18]

• Doubling the object clitics me, te, se, lo(s), la(s) and le(s) before and after the verb is common in lower-class speech. For example, 'I'm going to go' becomes me voy a irme (Standard Spanish: me voy a ir and voy a irme). 'I'm going to give them to you' becomes te las voy a dártelas.
• Queísmo (using que instead of de que) is socially accepted and used in the media, and dequeísmo (using de que instead of que) is somewhat stigmatized.
• In ordinary speech, conjugations of the imperative mood of a few of verbs tend to be replaced with the indicative third-person singular. For example, the second-person singular imperative of poner 'to put', which is pon, becomes pone; that of hacer 'to do', which is haz, becomes hace; and that of salir 'to exit', sal, becomes sale: hace lo que te pedí 'do what I asked'. However, that is not done in formal speech. Chileans also replace the etymological second-person singular imperative of the verb ir 'to go', ve, with the second-person singular imperative of andar 'to walk', anda, and ve is reserved for the verb ver 'to see': ve la hora 'look at the time'.
• Another feature to note is the lack of use of the possessive nuestro 'our', which is usually replaced by de nosotros 'of us': ándate a la casa de nosotros, literally 'go to the house of us', instead of ándate a nuestra casa 'go to our house'.
• It is very common in Chile, as in many other Latin American countries, to use the diminutive suffixes -ito and -ita. They can mean 'little', as in perrito 'little dog' or casita 'little house', but can also express affection, as with mamita 'mummy, mommy'. They can also diminish the urgency, directness, or importance of something to make something annoying seem more pleasant.[19] So, if someone says espérese un momentito literally 'wait a little moment', it does not mean that the moment will be short, but that the speaker wants to make waiting more palatable and hint that the moment may turn out to be quite long.

Chilean Spanish has a great deal of distinctive slang and vocabulary. Some examples of distinctive Chilean slang include al tiro (right away), gallo/a (guy/gal), fome (boring), pololear (to go out as girlfriend/boyfriend), pololo/polola (boyfriend/girlfriend),[21] pelambre (gossip), pito (marijuana cigarette i.e. joint) poto (buttocks),[22] quiltro (mutt) and chomba (knitted sweater)[21] wea (thing; can be used for an object or situation). Another popular Chilean Spanish slang expression is poh, also spelled po', which is a term of emphasis of an idea, this is a monopthongized and aspirated form of pues. In addition, several words in Chilean Spanish are borrowed from neighboring Amerindian languages.

Here is sample of a normal text in carefully spoken Latin American Spanish and the same text with a very relaxed pronunciation in informal lower-class Chilean Spanish:[34]

• Chile
• Languages of Chile
• Spanish language
• Spanish dialects and varieties
• Bello orthography
• The first-person narrative novel Tomáh Errázurih, an example of Chilean Spanish.
• Mapudungun
• Quechua languages

• Canfield, D. Lincoln (1981), Spanish Pronunciation in the Americas], Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-09262-1
• Lipski, John M. (1994), Latin American Spanish, Essex, U.K.: Longman Group Limited
• Oroz, Rodolfo (1966), La lengua castellana en Chile, Santiago: Universidad de Chile

• (in Spanish) Diccionario de Modismos Chilenos - Comprehensive "Dictionary of Chilean Terms".
• Pepe's Chile Chilean Slang - basic list of Chilean slang/unique colloquialisms.
• Jergas de habla hispana Spanish dictionary specializing in slang and colloquial expressions, featuring all Spanish-speaking countries, including Chile.
• Elcastellano.org