Spanish is one of the biggest languages in the world—its 493 million native speakers position it as the world’s second-biggest language in terms of native speakers, second only to Mandarin, and its additional 100 million second-language speakers put it squarely in fourth place for total number of speakers, behind English, Mandarin, and Hindi. Spanish is an official language in 20 countries but may be spoken by sizable portions of the population in even more countries, including the United States and the Philippines. Any language this large and influential inevitably develops a variety of dialects, and Spanish is no exception.
The Caribbean was the first part of the Americas to be discovered by European colonizers, who brought the Spanish language to its shores. With the indigenous populations of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico all but extinct in a matter of decades, Spanish quickly developed a strong foothold on the islands, though the vernacular did pick up influences from Taíno, the primary indigenous language of the area. The Spanish originally spoken in these Caribbean nations eventually morphed into the Caribbean Spanish of today, though most translation agencies fail to offer dedicated translation services for the dialect. We at TranslationServices.com, however, are pleased to announce our dedicated Caribbean Spanish translation team.
If you want to see a quote for our Caribbean Spanish translation services, don’t hesitate to ask!
Exploring what makes Caribbean Spanish unique
Today, the Caribbean countries of Cuba and the Dominican Republic, as well as the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, still speak Spanish—specifically, the Caribbean Spanish dialect. Under the strictest definition, these are the only regions that speak Caribbean Spanish. A broader definition of Caribbean Spanish, however, expands beyond the actual Caribbean territories, with speakers also found along the Caribbean coasts of Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
It’s not just the pronunciation that distinguishes Caribbean Spanish from the myriad other dialects that make up the Spanish language of today—Caribbean Spanish also features its own distinct vocabulary and grammar patterns. In Caribbean Spanish, like in other varieties of Latin American Spanish, ustedes has replaced the traditional vosotros as the second-person plural pronoun, but tú has remained as the second-person singular pronoun, while most Latin American dialects have replaced it with vos. The differences in pronouns are particularly noteworthy because Caribbean Spanish uses pronouns more than most dialects of Spanish, which are prone to omitting pronouns when they’re not necessary for comprehension.
What kind of translation services do you need for Caribbean Spanish?
To accommodate as many clients as possible, we’ve sourced our Caribbean Spanish translators from not only Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico but also from all along the Caribbean coast in Central and South America. This ensures that no matter which form of Caribbean Spanish you want to work with, we can help you. Our translators are proud native speakers of Caribbean Spanish, and thanks to their diverse backgrounds, which includes knowledge in a variety of fields, we can translate documents on just about any topic.
Some of our translators are specialized in business translation, perfect for any business leader looking to break into Caribbean Spanish-speaking areas or local business owners who want to take their operations to other countries. From marketing collateral to internal business documents, we can translate both to and from Caribbean Spanish.
Other translators on our team are well-versed in academic translation, able to help local scholars get published in international journals while simultaneously aiding foreign academics in their research activities in the Hispanic Caribbean. Our translation team covers a wide range of disciplines—just let us know your specialty!
Of course, we’re not limited to business and academia—we can also translate literature, digital media, historical documents, personal messages, and just about anything else under the sun. For all your translation needs to and from Caribbean Spanish, we’re here—send us a message today!