Thanks to Bad Bunny, Puerto Rican Spanish has gone global. But what makes a dialect different?
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The explosive success of Bad Bunny brought Puerto Rican Spanish, a Caribbean dialect known for its musical rhythms, to worldwide attention.
The language has been looked down upon in the past, but some experts say the popularity of the Grammy Award winner’s music may change that.
In the weeks leading up to Sunday’s historic Super Bowl halftime performance, which will be presented entirely in Spanish, a number of tutorials have appeared on social media and YouTube about Puerto Rican Spanish words and how they appear in Bad Bunny characters.
Even Duolingo is getting in on the fun, with an Instagram post featuring a rendition of the Bad Bunny alphabet.
WATCH | A YouTuber breaks down Puerto Rican phrases with Bad Bunny lyrics:
The use of Puerto Rican Spanish permeates the Grammy Award-winning singer’s album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS again can be seen just by looking at the track listing, says Ramón Antonio Victoriano-Martinez, an assistant professor of Spanish at the University of British Columbia.
Many of the song lyrics are spelled how they would be phonetically pronounced in the dialect, such as song. Veldawhich is often spelled “verdad” in Spanish, he explained. Verdad translates to truth or truth in English.
“This is a very Puerto Rican album,” says Victoriano-Martinez.
Over the past 10 years, Victoriano-Martinez said she has seen more students become interested in learning Spanish because of reggaeton singers who sing in Puerto Rican Spanish.
Victoriano-Martinez, who is from the Dominican Republic, said she found it encouraging to see the Caribbean dialect represented on such a large scale.
“For us Caribbean people, it’s good to have our Spanish variation, if not formalized, but recognized around the world,” he said.
Language differences
If you look closely at the language, there are certain characteristics that distinguish it from the Spanish you hear elsewhere in Latin America or Spain, says Cristina Cuervo, associate professor of languages and Spanish at the University of Toronto.
The most important feature is the use of the “l” sound instead of the “r” in certain words, Cuervo said.
“This is a common phenomenon in Puerto Rico, but it is found … in other parts of Spain, especially in the south,” he said.
For example, the word “mi amor” (“my love” in English) might be pronounced “mi amol,” something that can be heard in other Bad Bunny songs, he said.
Another feature of the dialect is dropping the “s” sound at the end of certain words, he said.
Historically they were looked down upon
In the past, Puerto Rican Spanish was often maligned in the Spanish-speaking world as imprecise or inauthentic, said Petra Rivera-Rideau, associate professor of American studies at Wellesley College and co-author. IP FKN R: How the Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.
That’s partly based on the colonial history of Puerto Rico, which is a sovereign territory of the United States, and the interference of English words with Puerto Rican Spanish, he said.
In addition, Rivera-Rideau, who has Puerto Rican roots, said she remembers that words she learned at home were left out of Spanish books at school.
“So I think it’s great to see people learning a form of Spanish that’s not so close to Spain, because most of the Spanish speakers in the United States are not from Spain.”
‘Language tolerance advocate’
Ana Celia Zentella, who is a professor from the University of California San Diego, in the department of ethnic studies, said that she hopes that the popularity of Bad Bunny helps to promote tolerance and encourage people from Spanish-speaking countries to be proud of their origins.
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny won big at this year’s Grammy Awards and used the opportunity to speak out against US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
That’s especially important at a time when the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration has many in the Spanish-speaking community living in fear, she said.
“It’s much broader than just asking someone to be able to understand what he’s saying in the middle of a football game. He’s really an advocate for linguistic tolerance and linguistic justice, and we think that goes far beyond learning Spanish,” Zentella said.
“It’s about honoring all the different languages that have come to the United States and created this wonderful country with all of their contributions.”
