Chilean Spanish

We Chileans are among the fast-talkers of the Hispanic world. "¿Cómo estas? - Maomeno noma." (= 'mas o menos, no mas'; in English, 'so-so'). Other suffixes are shortened, too. Often, '-ado' will become '-ao' (volao), '-ada' a stressed '-á' (ensalá), and 'para' a short 'pa' or 'para el' simply 'pal'.

As everywhere in South America, the Castilian vosotros with its corresponding conjugation ismissing only to be replaced by ustedes after which the verb is conjugated like after ellos.

Chilean slang presents an especially tricky feature: The endings for the second person in the plural ('-as', '-es') are replaced by '-ai' and '-ís', so viajas will become viajai, sabes - sabís. And consequently ¿A dónde vai? (Where are you going?), ¡No seai tonto! ! (Don't be an idiot!), ¿Me podís darfuego? (Do you have a light?). Using these very informal expressions is strictly sanctioned in some circles, and since they sound strange coming from the mouth of a foreigner anyway, they are best left alone.

A popular means of emphasis that is used in many countries but seems especially popular in Chile is repeating words. This is also done to emphasize trueness or purity. So, in a restaurant,it's a good idea to order café café, if you want the real thing instead of the ubiquitous instant coffee. And someone living in the very center of the city might say, Yo vivo en el centro centro.

The massive use of the diminutive suffixes '-ito' und '-ita' can also be found in other Latin American countries. They do not just mean 'little', as in niñito (little boy) or mesita (small table), butthey have additional functions such as expressing endearment by using '-ito/ita' (mamita) or diminishing the urgency, directness or importance of a thing or an action. So, if someone says Espérese un momentito (Wait a moment) that doesn't mean at all that the moment will be short, but instead that the speaker wants to make waiting more palatable while possibly indirectly hinting that the moment mayactually turn out to be quite long. | |
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--In Chile, there are not many differences between the Spanish spoken in the Northern, Central and Southern areas of the country, although there are notable differences in zones like Aysén, Magallanes, Chiloé, or Arica (especially in their accent). There is remarkable variation in the Spanish spoken by different social classes, however. Italso has strong influences from the Extremadura Castúo in rural areas from Santiago to Valdivia.[1][2]
Phonetics and phonology
There are a number of phonetic features common to most Chilean accents, though none of them individually are unique to Chilean Spanish[citation needed]. Rather, it is the particular combination of features that sets Chilean Spanish apart from other regional Spanishdialects[citation needed]. These features include:[3][4]
* Yeísmo, the merger of the phonemes /ʎ/, spelled <ll>, with /j/, spelled <y>. Thus, cayó ("fell") and calló ("fell silent") are homophones, both pronounced [kaˈjo]. In dialects which lack yeísmo, the two words would be pronounced respectively [kaˈjo] and [kaˈʎo]. Though yeísmo is common to most of Latin America, it is not the casethat this feature should be considered a Latin American one, because both in Spain and Latin America there are regions with and without "yeísmo". Even in Chile, there are some people, mostly elderly speakers in rural zones, that are not "yeístas".
* Word- and syllable-final /s/ is aspirated to [h] or lost entirely, another feature common to much of Latin America which is also common to CanaryIslands and Andalusia. Whether final /s/ aspirates or is elided depends on a number of social, regional, and phonological factors, but in general aspiration is more common, especially when preceding a consonant. Complete elision is most commonly found word-finally, but is somewhat less common overall in formal or upper-class[citation needed] speech . Thus, los chilenos ("the Chileans") is [lɔh...