Archive for the ‘Languages and Multiculturalism’ Category

Most Colombians speak Spanish. There are some dialects of Spanish language spoken: the Rolaid dialect of Bogotá, also called cachaco (“educated” or “refined”); the related Cundiboyacense dialect, known for its archaic second person pronoun sumercé; the Paisa dialect, the only dialect outside Spain that preserves the voiceless apicoalveolar fricative or hissing “S” sound; and the coastal dialect, which is a form of Caribbean Spanish.

Over 80 endangered indigenous languages, Palenquero, and English (on San Andrés y Providencia) are minority languages. Historically marginalized and isolated groups of Afro-Colombians and Indigenous Colombians have some cultural rights and have political groups like the National Movement for the Human Rights of Black Communities in Colombia (Spanish acronym CIMARRON) and the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia.

The Colombian Spanish accent is the variation of Spanish language with an accent spoken in Colombia, which has some distinctive features in contrast to the Spanish spoken in Spain and in other countries of Latin America. The Caro y Cuervo Institute in Bogotá is the institution in Colombia that promotes the good use of the Spanish language in Colombia.

Common expressions · paradoxically, in intra-family speech it is common to address the husband as “mijo” (short for mi hijo= my son), and the wife as “mija” (my daughter); while the sons are called “papito” (daddy) and the daughters are called “mamita” (mommy).

· Sometimes, sentences are started with an out of place preposition “que” (that), which denotes a hesitant sense to the sentence. For example: “que era para decirte” ([that] I try to say you). “que gracias” ([that] thank you).Providence Island Sign Language (also known as “Providencia Sign Language”) is the sign language used by the deaf community on the small island community of Providence Island in the Western Caribbean, off the coast of Nicaragua but belonging to Colombia. The island is about 15 square miles and the total population is about 2,500, of which a large number are deaf.It is believed that the sign language emerged in the late 19th or early 20th century. Brief sociological studies have suggested that deaf people on the island are not regarded as inferior in the areas of marriage, mental ability, occupations, and social integration.

The system of Colombian numeration is the synthesis of a code used to express the numbers with the fingers of the hands in Colombia and in other places. This system is positional and possesses an additional numeral to express the dozens.

Denomination	Position of the hand	Numeral Colombian
Zero
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten

Multicultural elements

The essence of Colombian culture lies in the mixing of Spanish, indigenous, and African cultures. The greatest expression of the mélange is perhaps the Carnival of Barranquilla, whose rhythm is the cumbia, and which was proclaimed by UNESCO in November 2003 as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The culture of Spain is still very dominant in Colombia: the layout of towns, bull fighting, holy week processions, and the “refined” dialect of Bogotá are part of its legacy. Afro-Colombians have historically been marginalized from society. Nonetheless, they have contributed greatly to Colombian culture, including its music, dance and folklore. Cumbia is said to be derivative of the cumbe dance of Equatorial Guinea. Small numbers of Roma or “gypsies” are scattered throughout the country. Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews exist in several of the larger cities; Bogotá has five synagogues. Germans settled in parts of Santander, including Bucaramanga. They also brought the accordion to Valledupar, which would become a key instrument in the very popular vallenato music genre.

Afro Colombians refers to Colombians of Black African ancestry, and the great impact they have had on Colombian culture.

Criollo is a term that dates back to the Spanish colonial casta system (caste system) of Latin America. It referred to a person born in the Spanish colonies deemed to have limpieza de sangre (literally, “cleanliness of blood”) in respect of an individual’s purity of European (Iberian) ancestry.

The term Criollo is often translated into English as Creole, but this word has a much broader meaning.