Spanish-Speaking Territory To Hold First U.S. Presidential Primary
According to an Associated Press account, the party's central committee this week approved the primary to encourage wider participation in the presidential process. Puerto Rico Democrats previously have held caucuses.
Puerto Rico is sending 55 delegates to the Democratic National Convention based on the primary results — about the same as Louisiana or Oregon, and more than many U.S. states. If the party's presidential contest stays as competitive as it is, the leading candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, almost certainly will be campaigning in the territory. Under the current primary schedule, the Puerto Rico primary would be the largest by far of June, eclipsing the final primaries of the season, in Montana and South Dakota, to be held two days later.
Campaigning to Spanish speakers is nothing new for Clinton and Obama, although this will be the first primary ever where voters are predominantly use Spanish as a first (and often only) language. Both have frequently run Spanish-language ads, and there have even been Spanish-language campaign songs performed.
Both Spanish and English are official on the island territory, although English is used as a first language by a relative handful (fewer than 100,000, according to Ethnologue.com). Because of Puerto Rico's relative isolation and the fact that most residents are descended from particular areas of Spain, its Spanish features some distinctive pronunciation and vocabulary (including a heavy dose of anglicisms). Distinctive pronunciation features include pronouncing the r much the same as the l at the end of a syllable, so that carne ends up sounding like calne; and dropping the s at the end of syllables, so that "¡Cómo estás?" sounds like "¡Cómo etá?" The d at the end of words can also be very soft (or nonexistent), so that libertad sounds like libertá.
Although Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, Puerto Rico does not vote in U.S. presidential elections because it is not a state. But both major parties have long given territorial residents representation at their national conventions.
Puerto Rico Democrats' plans for a primary are subject to approval by the Democratic National Committee, but there is no known opposition. The original plans had called for caucuses on the same day rather than the primary.
Comments
Good Article. Very informative.
Terrible article! Who cares if we say libertá and omit the d?
I wasn’t making a value judgment about pronunciation — it’s simply different from what many people are used to outside Puerto Rico, neither inherently better nor worse. And it’s helpful for people who are traveling to know what to expect.
One thing that would be of interest to the reader is to know why Puerto Rico is involved in something like a primary or convention when the citizens there do not vote in the general election. What is the reasoning there and how did this come about? How do the Puerto Ricans themselves react to this “half” involvement in the process to elect a U.S. president?
Respectfully, I question the validity of the following text having any relevance with the subject of the article:
Because of Puerto Rico’s relative isolation and the fact that most residents are descended from particular areas of Spain, its Spanish features some distinctive pronunciation and vocabulary (including a heavy dose of anglicisms). Distinctive pronunciation features include pronouncing the r much the same as the l at the end of a syllable, so that carne ends up sounding like calne; and dropping the s at the end of syllables, so that “¡Cómo estás?” sounds like “¡Cómo etá?” The d at the end of words can also be very soft (or nonexistent), so that libertad sounds like libertá.
Consequently, one will find accent variations throughout Latin America, in like manner to regional differences here in the U.S.
I don’t think disrespect was the intent.Puerto Rican accents were mentioned because the article was about same and this is a language forum. As a non-native speaker, I teach English to people from various countries and areas of Mexico, and my Spanish teachers have been from Columbia and Spain. I find many differences in accents and some are hard to understand, at times. So discussion is always helpful to me.
I agree, I am sure there was no disrespect intended. I think the point of the article is to introduce a couple of items about Puerto Rico to the non-native audience. We all have difficulty keeping facts in our memories, and putting things on a “peg” like this is a great way of remembering.
I enjoyed the article. I teach Spanish to students who often speak at home. The understanding of their native pronunciation informs my teaching practice, and helps me to help them! Thanks - I had heard the “calne” for carne before, but never seen it confirmed in writing!
The value of the primary vote, versus a presidential vote will definitely be a topic for discussion next week in my classes!
I am a native Spanish speaker and that particular way of pronunciation is quite similar in some places in the South coast of Spain (Andalucía), particularly, in Cadiz and nearbounds.
Nice article.
Greetings:
I am Puertorican and I want to congratulate Mr. Gerald Erichsen for this article, my respects because he has demonstrated that he is an educated person, his knowledge and explanation of our political and language situations are accurate, therefore he must have search for this information. He talked about our dialect because this is a Spanish Language blog and if he were not going to talk about our speaking singularities then there would not have been a reason to write about us.
As any Country or region, we have our language peculiarities, this are but only few of them. If you are reading this article and comments look for the language characteristics of your Country or region, you will be amaze by them. Enjoy you Language, study your Dialect!!! It’s unique…
Puerto Rico had Presidential Primaries in the 80’s.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4D61230F93BA25750C0A96E948260
I have heard that in Puerto Rico, people don’t pronounce the “rr” (or the “r” at the beginnings of words) with such a strong trill as in most dialects of Spanish. Rather, it supposedly either just sounds like a regular “r”, or a softer mixture of “r” and “l”. Does anyone know about this? Gracias..
yeeppppppppppp daaaaa dooo dooo ha ha iii seee yooou booo brraapppp
Ingita, the country in South America is Colombia. not Columbia.
The Spaniards that settled in the island in the 1500s were mostly from Southern Spain. The accent of their decendants did not change as much as it did in other Spanish colonies. 1)Because we did not have huge native civilizations like the Aztecs or the Incas, the language contribution of the Taino indians is limited to names (places, flora, fauna), and 2) Being an island, we were not exposed to other influences on a regular basis.
I’m with Michael. Why do they participate when they can’t vote. What is that about? Why bother..