Canarian Spanish

Canarian Spanish or Canary Island Spanish (Spanish terms in descending order of frequency: español de Canarias, español canario, habla canaria, or dialecto canario) is a variant of standard Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands by the Canary Islanders.
Canarian Spanish heavily influenced the development of Caribbean Spanish and other Latin American Spanish vernaculars because Hispanic America was originally largely settled by colonists from the Canary Islands and Andalusia; those dialects, including the standard language, were already quite close to Canarian and Andalusian speech. In the Caribbean, Canarian speech patterns were never regarded as either foreign or very different from the local accent.
The incorporation of the Canary Islands into the Crown of Castile began with Henry III (1402) and was completed under the Catholic Monarchs. The expeditions for their conquest started off mainly from ports of Andalusia, which is why the Andalusians predominated in the Canaries. There was also an important colonising contingent from Portugal in the early conquest of the Canaries, along with the Andalusians and the Castilians from mainland Spain. In earlier times, Portuguese settled alongside the Spanish in the north of Gran Canaria, but they were assimilated by the Spanish. The population that inhabited the islands before the conquest, the Guanches, spoke a variety of Berber (also called Amazigh) dialects. After the conquest, the indigenous Guanche language was rapidly and almost completely eradicated in the archipelago. Only some names of plants and animals, terms related to cattle ranching and numerous island placenames survive.
Their geography made the Canary Islands receive much outside influence, with drastic cultural and linguistic changes. As a result of heavy Canarian emigration to the Caribbean, particularly during colonial times, Caribbean Spanish is strikingly similar to Canarian Spanish.
Canarian vocabulary has its own regionalisms different from standard Castilian Spanish vocabulary. For example, guagua ("bus") differs from standard Spanish autobús. The word guagua is an onomatopoeia stemming from the sound of a Klaxon horn ("wawa"). An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verb fajarse ("to fight"). In standard Castilian Spanish, the verb would be pelearse, while fajar exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of a skirt. The term of endearment socio is a very popular Canarian term.
The Canarian vocabulary has a notable influence from the Guanche language, especially in the toponymy. In addition, many Canarian personal names come from the Guanche language, such as Gara, Acerina, Aydan, Beneharo, Jonay, Tanausú, Chaxiraxi, Ayoze, Yaiza and Zebenzuí.
As Canarian Spanish was influenced by Andalusian Spanish, a few words of Andalusi Arabic origin are found, and there are some doublets of Arabic-Latinate synonyms with the Arabic form being more common in Canarian, such as cuarto or alcoba for standard habitación or dormitorio ("bedroom"), alhaja for standard joya ("jewel"), or alacrán for standard escorpión ("scorpion"); Arabic influence in Canarian Spanish was also brought by returning Canarian settlers and their children from Spanish Sahara after its independence. Other examples include guayete ("child") or jaique ("poorly made and loosely fitting dress"). There are also numerous words of Arabic origin to designate different plants (aciba, ahulaga, albohol, alcatripa, algafita, algahuero, almácigo, alpispillo, almulei, bahaza, orijama, tarahal, aliacán...). These words may have come directly from North Africa, favored by the presence of many common plants, or they may have naturalized first in the peninsula and then come to the Canary Islands (this seems to be the case of the words ahulaga and tarahal), so they are also rooted in peninsular Castilian Spanish.
These, due to their origin and nature, can be classified into three large groups, depending on whether they come from current Spanish and its dialects, from old Castilian or if, finally, they come from languages other than Spanish. Thus, the words "formed" in the Canary Islands from other words of the Spanish language, the close influence of Portuguese, or the many terms that came to the Canary Islands from dialectal variants such as Latin American Spanish, the result of the historical links between both shores of the Atlantic. Thus, the Canarian lexicon is the reflection of centuries of island history, cultural miscegenation and adaptation of the language to the unique conditions that existed on the islands.
Canarismos from Spanish and its dialects The Canarian voices that come from the Hispanic language itself or from its dialects are framed here. In this group, it would be necessary to distinguish between canarisms originating from some dialect of Spanish and those that derive from a pan- Hispanic voice, but which in the Canary Islands have undergone some linguistic process ( derivation, simplification, formal change, metonymic displacement, etc.), giving rise to a new or modified voice. Thus, the word «allege» means in Castilian to adduce merits to substantiate some request, while in the Canary Islands it is used as a synonym for conversing . There are also canarisms formed by derivation of words from general Spanish, such as "bizcochón" (cylindrical cake made from eggs, flour and sugar ), or "fragilón" ( stupid, presumptuous, vain ), which come from the Pan-Hispanic terms "biscuit" and "fragile", respectively, to which they have been added in the Canary Islands the suffix "-on".
On the other hand, among the canarismos coming from dialectal forms of Castilian, the following stand out:
In other words, its origin is indeterminate, possibly engineered on the spot. For example, pollaboba, is a special case, because it went from being an insult (with a pejorative meaning similar to impotent or celibate ) to even being used in common speech, sometimes losing the initial meaning.
Although currently in disuse, on the island of El Hierro it is customary to say "o" ( où, in French) for "dónde está", "¿o las llaves?" instead of "¿dónde están las llaves?" (Where are the keys?)
The chart shows the similarities and differences in the dialects of Canarian Spanish, Andalusian Spanish, Castilian Spanish, and Caribbean Spanish.
The word caldera/caldero means "cooking pot" in Spanish (compare "cauldron"). In the Canary Islands, it was also applied to several volcanic places. The term caldera was introduced into the geological vocabulary by the German geologist Leopold von Buch when he published his memoirs of his 1815 visit to the Canary Islands, where he first saw the Las Cañadas caldera on Tenerife, with Mount Teide dominating the landscape, and then the Caldera de Taburiente on La Palma.