Colombian Spanish

Colombian Spanish is a term for diverse dialects spoken in different regions of this country, because we have been influenced by a big background of Colombians. Colombian Spanish is characterized by a kind of musical intonation and a very clear pronunciation although there are so many different accents and dialects throughout the country. 

Colombia has one of the most beautiful forms of spoken Spanish also is similar to the Costa Rican Spanish in aspects like the accent. There is a big difference among the Spanish spoken in different regions of the country. The region of the coasts has influence from English and African languages.

The Spanish spoken in Bogotá has a better pronunciation just perfect for the foreigner who speaks Spanish.

Colombian Spanish is used to use "usted" (you) in formal and informal situations although "vos" is very common in some regions.

 The diminutive also turns "-ito" into "-ico" for example: gatito = gatico. We use this diminutive with nouns, adjectives, verbs and prepositions! We share this characteristic with Venezuela, Puerto Rico and as I said before with Costa Rica.
Here I just post a funny video about What Colombians use to say, have fun!

Sure if you have Colombian friend you will have fun! Please feel free to post your comments here about your experiences with Spanish Language and Colombian People.

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History of the Spanish Language

Is very important to know the origin of the languages we speak, in this case Spanish.

Spanish is derived from a dialect of spoken Latin evolved in the north-central part of the Iberian Peninsula after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century. Castilian Spanish originated after the decline of the Roman Empire, as a continuation of spoken Latin.

Castellano (castilian) borrowed many words from Arabic after defeat by the Muslims in 711. The first steps toward written Castilian were taken in the 13th century by the King Alfonso X.

Cristóbal Colón

Antonio de Nebrija wrote the first grammar of Spanish in 1492. Nebrija gave his writing to Queen Isabel, as if anticipating the empire that was about to be founded with the voyages of Colombus.

Beginning in the 16th century, Spanish Colonization brought the language to the Americas (México, Central America, western and southern South America), where it is spoken today.

Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus) was an Italian explorer, navigator and colonizer. He was a commissioned by the Catholic Monarch of Spain and completer four voyages across the  Atlantic Ocean that lead to general European awareness of the American Continents. Those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, initiated the Spanish Colonization of the New World.

Colón never knew that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans. He thought he had reached the East Indies (India). Colón called the inhabitants of the lands he visited "Indios".

Here I found a video about the History, it has good information and examples about the changes Spanish had in its history.

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Fun Facts about Spanish Language

In Ecuatorial Guinea, Western Sahara and Philippines spanish is spoken too!

• Spanish rank as the world #2 of terms of how many people speak it as their first language. 

• Spanish has at least 3 million native speakers in 44 countries, making it the fourth mostly geographically widely spoken language.

• To the people who speak it, Spanish is sometimes called español and sometimes castellano (the Spanish equivalent of "Castilian"). The labels used vary from region to region and sometimes according to political viewpoint. 

• After Latin, the language that has had the biggest influence on Spanish is Arabic. Today, the foreign language exerting the most influence is English, and Spanish has adopted hundreds of English words related to technology and culture.

The most of words taken from Arabic normally start with "al-" for example "álgebra""alquimia" and like this like 4000 words more!

• Spanish is the most popular foreign language to learn in America and Europe.
• Spanish is called in two ways "Español" (spanish) and "Castellano"(castilian). 
• Spanish spelling is very very easy because Spanish is one of the world's most phonetic languages so if you know how a word is spelling will be so easy to know how it's pronounced!
• Spanish become quickly the most frequently spoken language in the US.

As I said before millions of people worldwide speak Spanish.

• Learning Spanish is very useful because it opens a whole new Job Market. Spanish speakers have skills and interests then don't matter what kind of work you do then would be easy to increase your job opportunities or will make you a more valuable employee.
• Latin culture is on the rise! then learning Spanish is your ticket for new experiences, new friends, songs, movies, TV ...
• Spanish is the 4th most spoken language in the world and to be able to communicate easily with people will expand your horizons.
• Learning Spanish can give you a jump-start on learning other languages.

Then what are you waiting for starting to learn Spanish! 

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