Puerto Rican Spanish voice overs: what you need to know

Puerto Rican Spanish is a group of Spanish varieties that are spoken across the island of Puerto Rico. Around 6 million people are native Puerto Rican Spanish speakers.

Approximately 3 million of the native speakers live in Puerto Rico and the rest reside in Puerto Rican communities across The United States. The Puerto Rican language variety is common in New York, Cleveland, Miami, and the Virgin Islands.

Puerto Rican Spanish belongs to the dialect zone called Caribbean Spanish which includes the Spanish varieties used in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Panama, and the Caribbean coast of Colombia.

Puerto Rican Spanish History

Puerto Rican Spanish history is very similar to other Latin American Spanish varieties. The language was brought to the island by Spanish conquistadors during Spain’s colonization of the Americas. By the beginning of the 16th century, Spanish immigrants had fully settled on the island.

Just like in other Spanish colonies, the language of the settlers was used for all administrative reasons as well as everyday communications. Over time, the Spanish reigned supreme over the local indigenous languages and became widespread. The European diseases that the settlers brought killed a significant number of the local population, reducing the speakers of the local languages even more.

Spanish stayed the lingua franca of the Caribbean after the Spanish colonial era. However, the European language that was brought to the island in the 16th century developed into a unique and different variety that’s spoken to this day.

Puerto Rican Spanish vs Other Spanish Varieties

Puerto Rican Spanish has many similarities with other Caribbean Spanish variants that are spoken in Cuba, Venezuela, Panama, and other territories. Since the biggest part of Spanish settlers came from Andalusia, Andalusian Spanish is thought to be the basis of Puerto Rican Spanish.

But where Puerto Rican Spanish really stands out from other Spanish variants is the vocabulary. Puerto Rican vocabulary has been greatly influenced by local indigenous languages, most notably Taíno as well as by several African languages.

Plenty of local Taíno words have entered the Spanish language in general, including words such as tobacco, hammock, and hurricane.

Puerto Rican Spanish pronunciation has its own distinctive pronunciation It’s common for Puerto Rican speakers to drop the final ‘s’ at the end of the words, pronounce the letter ‘r’ as ‘l’ (Puerto Rico → Puelto Rico), as well as dropping the ‘d’ sound in between the vowels (cansado → cansao).

Accents and Voice Over Tips

Puerto Rican Spanish doesn’t have strict dialectal zones. The spoken language across the island is homogeneous with the exception of local accents that might vary by region. In general, the spoken Puerto Rican Spanish accent is unique to the island.

When recording a Puerto Rican Spanish voice over, keep in mind that Puerto Ricans tend to include many anglicisms in their spoken language. If you want to keep the language natural, don’t be afraid to include an English word here and there. Locals use many English words for everyday situations, for example, parking, sandwich, laundry, etc.

Make sure you don’t pronounce the letter ‘d’ in the words that end with -ado. The dropping of the ‘d’ letter is thought to be the most prominent feature of the spoken Puerto Rican speech.

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