{"id":142731,"date":"2023-06-06T17:35:30","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T21:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/equatorial-guinea-spanish\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T07:11:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T12:11:31","slug":"equatorial-guinea-spanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/spanish\/equatorial-guinea-spanish\/","title":{"rendered":"Equatorial Guinea Spanish and How it’s Unique"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re a Spanish speaker or learner, you probably know about the differences between Castilian and Latin American Spanish<\/a>.\u00a0But did you know that both of these differ from Equatorial Guinea Spanish? .f the countries that speak Spanish<\/a>, Equatorial Guinea is one you may have overlooked!<\/p>\n

Whether you’re planning a trip or simply want to round out your Spanish knowledge, here is everything you need to know about Equatorial Guinea Spanish, plus four resources for learning it.<\/p>\n

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A Brief History of Equatorial Guinea Spanish<\/h2>\n

Equatorial Guinea<\/a> speaks a unique version of Spanish that arose from a lengthy historical and cultural background.<\/p>\n

The African territory has been controlled by various colonizers<\/strong> throughout its history. Portugal ruled the region starting in the 1470s and ceded it to Spain in the 1770s.<\/p>\n

The Spanish wanted the country as a source of slaves for Latin America, but yellow fever soon made the Spanish retreat and the British took over instead.<\/p>\n

The Spanish returned in the 1800s and remained in the region until Equatorial Guinea declared independence in 1968.<\/p>\n

These European forces and long colonial history had a large effect on both the country and the nature of the Spanish language spoken there, making it noticeably different from any other form of Spanish in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interested learners can read more in-depth information in Dr. John Lipski’s articles “The Spanish Language of Equatorial Guinea”<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0“The Spanish of Equatorial Guinea: research on la hispanidad’s best-kept secret.”<\/a><\/p>\n

For the most important characteristics of Equatoguinean Spanish, however, simply keep reading!<\/p>\n

The Key Aspects of Equatoguinean Spanish<\/h2>\n

1. It’s noticeably influenced by indigenous languages<\/h3>\n

It’s thought that about 90% of the population of Equatorial Guinea<\/a> knows how to speak Spanish, mostly\u00a0as a second language.<\/p>\n

Most people are native speakers of languages indigenous to the region<\/a>, of which there is an abundance, including Fang, Bube, Benga, Kombe, Equatorial Guinean Pidgin and many more.<\/p>\n

Because of this linguistic diversity, native languages can influence individual speakers’ pronunciation and grammar when speaking Spanish. This produces a lot of variation in the Spanish spoken in Equatorial Guinea, which you’ll notice further in the points below.<\/p>\n

2. Pronunciation varies from other forms of Spanish and between speakers<\/h3>\n

One key difference between Equatoguinean and other types of Spanish<\/a> is pronunciation.<\/p>\n

For instance, an s<\/em> at the end of a syllable or word is usually strongly pronounced, but is sometimes omitted altogether. Additionally, d<\/em>\u00a0can sound like r<\/em>\u00a0and there is usually no distinction between r<\/em>\u00a0and rr<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are quite a few other variations that you can read about in more detail in Lipski’s previously mentioned article<\/a>. You can also see the language in use across the Spanish-speaking world on FluentU<\/a>. This program gives you access to hundreds of Spanish videos with embedded learning tools.

FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

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