Salvadoran Spanish is geographically defined as the form of Spanish spoken in the country of El Salvador. The Spanish dialect in El Salvador shares many similarities to that of its neighbors in the region, but it has its stark differences in pronunciation and usage. El Salvador, like most of Central America, uses voseo Spanish as its written and spoken form, similar to that of Argentina. Vos is used, but many Salvadorans understand tuteo. Vos can be heard in television programs and can be seen in written form in publications. Usted is used as a show of respect, when someone is speaking to an elderly person.

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  Message from President Fidel Sánchez Hernández of July 18, 1969 in the framework of the 100 Hour War
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  The original Act of Independence of Central America that remains in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador
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  Museum of the Revolution (El Salvador)
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  First book printed in El Salvador
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  The Coat of Arms of El Salvador with its phraseology (República de El Salvador en la América Central)
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  The Civil Flag of El Salvador with the country's national motto (Dios Unión Libertad)

Quick Facts Pronunciation, Native to ...

Salvadoran Spanish
Español salvadoreño
Pronunciation	[espaˈɲol salβaðoˈɾeɲo]
Native to	El Salvador
Region	Central American Spanish
Native speakers	6.5 million in total (2019)[1] L2: 19,200 (Instituto Cervantes 2019)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Castilian Spanish North American Spanish Central American Spanish Salvadoran Spanish
Early forms	Old Latin Classical Latin Vulgar Latin Old Spanish Early Modern Spanish
Dialects	Caliche Lenca
Writing system	Latin (Spanish alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	El Salvador
Regulated by	Academia Salvadoreña de la Lengua
Language codes
ISO 639-1	es
ISO 639-2	spa[2]
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
IETF	es-SV
Two varieties of Salvadoran Spanish by Azcúnuga López (2010).   Caliche   Lenca
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Notable characteristics of Salvadoran phonology include the following:

• The presence of seseo wherein /θ/ and /s/ are not distinguished. Seseo is common to Andalusian, Canarian, and all Latin American Spanish varieties.
• Syllable-final /s/ is realized as glottal [h]^[3][4] (mainly on the Eastern departments as Usulután and San Miguel). In the casual speech of some speakers, this may also occur syllable-initially.^[5] This is most common word-medially, in an unstressed position, as in casa [ˈkaha] 'house', and is much less common in a word-initial stressed position, as in siglo [ˈsiɣlo] 'century'.^[6] Syllable-final [s] is always or mostly pronounced in the formal speech, like TV broadcasts.
  • A voiceless fricative which sounds similar to [θ] is also used in the speech of some Salvadorans.^[7] According to Brogan 2018, this is the result of a gestural undershoot. It is on an acoustic continuum between [s] and [h], representing an intermediate degree of lenition.^[8]
• /x/ is realized as glottal [h].^[3][4]
• Intervocalic /d/ often disappears; the ending -ado is often [ao].^[3][4]
• There is no confusion between final /l/ and /r/, unlike in the Caribbean.^{[citation needed]}
• Word-final /n/ is pronounced velar [ŋ].^[3][4]
• As El Salvador was part of the First Mexican Empire, the Salvadoran dialect adopted the voiceless alveolar affricate [t͡s] and the cluster [tl] (originally [tɬ]) represented by the respective digraphs ⟨tz⟩ and ⟨tl⟩ in loanwords of Nahuatl origin, quetzal and tlapalería [t͡ɬapaleˈɾia] ('hardware store'). Even words of Greek and Latin origin with ⟨tl⟩, such as Atlántico and atleta, are pronounced with /tl/: [aˈtlantiko], [aˈtleta] (compare [aðˈlantiko], [aðˈleta] in Spain and other dialects in Hispanic America).^[9]

In El Salvador and Guatemala it is common to place an indefinite article before a possessive pronoun, as in una mi tacita de café lit. 'a my cup of coffee'. Very rarely the possessive can be combined with a demonstrative pronoun, like aquella su idea lit. 'that his/her/their idea'. This construction was occasional in Old Spanish and still found in Judaeo-Spanish, but its frequency in El Salvador and Guatemala is due to similar constructions being found in various Mayan languages.^[13]

The definition for Caliche is an informal term for Salvadoran Spanish due to colloquialisms and unique indigenous lexical words that are different from Salvadoran Spanish. Caliche refers to the Nawat (Pipil) influenced dialect of Spanish spoken in El Salvador. Many words have gone through the process of deletion, vowel assimilation, or epenthesis to make it easier for the speaker to understand. Salvadoran Caliche is used across social classes, although professional individuals tend to avoid it because it is not considered "proper" Spanish.

For example, this table shows the difference between Standard Salvadoran Spanish and Caliche:

Words like this are not unique to El Salvador, and when heard by someone that is Salvadoran or from neighbouring countries they are understood. Nawat's influence appears in the word chiche, which means "breast".^[14] But chiche in El Salvador also means "not easy”. Another word is guishte,^[15] which means a piece of broken glass, which comes (from Witzti “thorn”). This word does not appear in any dictionary so its origin cannot be traced, but the only hypothesis behind this word was proposed by Pedro Geoffroy Rivas—an anthropologist, poet, and linguist—who believed that it came from the Pipil language, since El Salvador's Spanish has been heavily influenced by it.^{[citation needed]}

Unfortunately, Caliche is not described in studies on Salvadoran Spanish. The philologist John M. Lipski points out that Centro American Spanish (including the Spanish spoken in El Salvador) lacks adequate sources for linguistic and literary research. Lipski further elaborates that such linguistic shortage indicates a possible generalization that in recent decades Salvadoran dialectology has failed to advance as rapidly as the comparative work in other Latin American nations.

Look up Category:Salvadorian Spanish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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