The Most Unique Spanish Dialect in Latin America? Venezuelan Spanish & Voseo

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🗣️ Voseo in Venezuela 🇻🇪🌴

When I say, voseo in Venezuela, you must be thinking, “¿vos, de que hablás?”, but wait, did you know that there is a sizeable voseo speaking population in Venezuela. When you hear this unique phrase, “¡Qué molleja!”, you can probably guess which region or regions I’m referring too. For those unfamiliar with Venezuela, also known officially as, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.Venezuela is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a large continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea🏝️.

Maracaibo📌 is the second largest city in Venezuela and the epicenter of voseo in Venezuela. Although Venezuelan Spanish is most notably known for the dialect spoken in Caracas. There is another type of Spanish, spoken and conjugated in the voseo form, known as, Maracucho Spanish or Marabino Spanish, spoken by approximately 5 million speakers.

This form of voseo Spanish is widely spoken in the western regions of Venezuela, in the state of Zulia📌, in the northwest of Venezuela and the west of the Falcón state📌, in the states of Lara📌, Yaracuy📌, Mérida📌, Trujillo📌as well as parts of Táchira📌.

Now you may be asking yourself, what type of voseo do they speak in Venezuela? Is it the same as the voseo in Colombia 🇨🇴 or Nicaragua 🇳🇮? And the simple answer to that is no. Generally speaking, the voseo used in Colombia or Nicaragua and the rest of Latin America 🌎 is known as voseo dialectal americano, which is monophthong unlike the voseo of Venezuela 🇻🇪 and Panama 🇵🇦, also referred to as voseo reverencial, which still retains the original diphthong, a trait that makes it unique, since it’s vastly used within the western regions of Venezuela 🇻🇪 and has become a large part of the character of this region 🔵🟡⚫.

Curious fact 🤔, the reason for the conservation of this antiquated or original form of voseo in the western states of Venezuela is because this part of Venezuela was separated from the rest of Venezuela for several centuries and they were the last ones to join the independence cause and integrate in the greater Venezuelan society and although the battle of Carabobo led to the independence of Venezuela, it was not until 2 years later with the naval battle of Lake Maracaibo 🚢 that expelled the Spaniards 🇪🇸 from the country, and led to the end of Spanish influence in the region. These factors led to the conservation and preservation of this beautiful way of speech🗣️, like a time machine, giving us a glimpse into the past ⌛. Although this way of speech has long been gone from mainland Spain 🇪🇸, it has lived on in places such as western Venezuela🔵🟡⚫ and parts of Panama 🇵🇦 such as the Azuero peninsula.

Let’s take a look and compare voseo reverencial of Venezuela 🇻🇪, voseo dialectal americano of Colombia 🇨🇴 and tuteo of Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, with this simple sentence so you get an idea of what the differences are.

In Voseo Reverencial of Venezuela 🇻🇪:

¡Vos sabéis que te quiero!

Vos sois el amor de mi vida 💖.

In voseo dialectal americano of Colombia 🇨🇴:

¡Vos sabés que te quiero!

Vos sos el amor de mi vida 💖.

In tuteo of Puerto Rico 🇵🇷:

¡Tú sabes que te quiero!

Tú eres el amor de mi vida 💖.

Tell me, which of these do you think sounds better?

Let’s take a deeper look at the way the voseo of Venezulea also known as voseo reverencial is conjugated, with this 3 verbs, tomar, comer and vivir.

PRESENT vos tomáis / vos coméis / vos vivís

PRETERITE vos tomastes/-teis — vos comistes/-teis — vos vivistes/-teis

COPRETERITE vos tomabais / vos comíais / vos vivíais

CONDITIONAL vos tomaríais / vos comeríais / vos viviríais

FUTURE vos tomaréis / vos comeréis / vos viviréis

If you haven’t noticed already, I proudly speak with voseo 😊. As a second language speaker of Spanish 🇨🇴, English being my native tongue 🇨🇦. I took it upon myself to learn a form of Spanish that is heard all throughout the Americas 🌎 but is rarely taught to second-language speakers of Spanish ✍🏽 more particularly non-native speakers like myself👦🏽. I fell in love with voseo, when first coming in contact with Colombians 🇨🇴, the vallunos of Valle del Cauca 🌊 and the paisas of Antioquia ⛰️. It came natural to me to say 🗣️, “Vos sos” instead of 🗣️, “Tú eres”. Voseo, are like the roots to the tree🌳 that is the Castilian language 🇪🇸, although tuteo and ustedeo are used commonly throughout the Spanish speaking world🗺️, so is the voseo form, and shouldn’t just be connected to Rioplatense 🇺🇾🇦🇷 and the southern cone region of South America 🇵🇾🇨🇱. To all my voseantes,🗣️ voseá with pride! And to non-natives learning Spanish 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇬🇧, step out of your comfort zone, and speak with voseo and just look at people’s faces when you tell them you aren’t a native speaker, respond with, “Pa’ que vos lo sepás”.

Greetings👋🏽! To all my voseo speakers around the world 🌎, from your friend, Roberto 👦🏽.

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