Llanero Spanish

The Llanero Spanish (Spanish: español llanero) is a variety of Spanish spoken in the Llanos region of Colombia and Venezuela. It is characterized by the mixing of elements from Old Spanish with indigenous elements.

Features

Phonetics

Characteristic features of Llanero Spanish include yeísmo, rhoticism (e.g., articulation of the /l/ as an /r/ (vorqueta instead of volqueta, a phenomenon seen in Arauca, Colombia), and final /r/ dropping infinitives (e.g., ventiá, aserrá, ordeñá, cogé).

Llanero Spanish is also characterized by the articulation of the implosive /s/, the aspirated /s/ (e.g., maíh for maíz), and /s/ deletion (e.g., cataplahma for cataplasma) as well. Prevocalic aspiration in place of /s/ can also occur (e.g., (ji jeñol, eso je li olvida = sí señor, eso se le olvida). The phoneme /x/ is even aspirated [h], like most of the rest of Colombia and Venezuela.

Intervocalic stops such as /b/, /d/, and /g/ weaken or disappear in llanero speech (auacero for aguacero).

The dialect preserves the sound of the written "h" (e.g., joyo, jumo, mojo, jallan, sajuma, ajoga, ajita for hoyo, humo, moho, hallan, sahúma, ahoga, ahíta) where other dialects have dropped this consonant. It is a feature more seen in Venezuela, Arauca and Casanare

Grammar

Llanero Spanish suppresses or weakens the final "-s" of plural nouns (e.g., los antioqueño, loj perro, cuatronarice (cuatronarices is a local snake species), loj padrino.

Llanero Spanish also has a similar nominal composition to costeño dialects, e.g., pativoltiao (pata + volteado ie noun + adjective).