In the Canary Islands, the preposition of más to nada, nadie (also to ninguno, although less so), and to the temporal adverb nunca is very frequent. This order is not exclusive to Canarian speech. The highest use of the constructions más nada, más nadie and más nunca in the Spanish language as a whole is in Venezuela, where it is part of the cultured language.
Some have seen in this use the influence of the western peninsula or, more specifically, Portuguese on the Spanish of the Islands; others, the fewest, have understood that it is a trait from Andalusia, where it is also frequent.
The Royal Spanish Academy says in this regard: «When más accompanies nada, nadie, ninguno and nunca, the normal thing in general Spanish is the postposition of más [...]; but in colloquial American speech, especially in the Caribbean area, and in the Spanish of Andalusia and the Canary Islands, the preposition of más is frequent in these cases» (Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, s. v. más). This use constitutes, therefore, a characteristic of the speech of these areas compared to «the normal thing in general Spanish», so it can be considered a Canarianism (although, given its distribution, surely better a characteristic trait of Atlantic or southern Spanish), which alternates with the use traditionally considered normative.
Our words
achicar
1. v. GC. Speaking of drinks, pour them. By extension, it also applies to meals. Pour me a beer quickly, I'm in a hurry.
2. v. Lz., Fv., GC. y LP. Speaking of alcoholic beverages, drink them. He's not going to be crazy with the rum he drank yesterday!
3. v. GC. y LP. Pay, shell out. For the lottery, we have to shell out fifty cents each.
4. prnl. In a drag race of the envite, play the card or the triumph of less value and keep the others for the following rounds of the game. Shrink yourself, because I have triumphs to win this hand.
envite
1. m. Card game in which two teams compete, and where the most characteristic thing is the signs with which the cards are communicated by those of the same side, as well as the bid or challenge that, at the voice of envido, a player from one team launches to those of the other. The envite is not played the same on all the islands.
Information on the location of voices and meanings
Fv: Fuerteventura
GC: Gran Canaria
Go: La Gomera
Hi: El Hierro
LP: La Palma
Lz: Lanzarote
Occ: Western Islands (Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro)
Or: Eastern Islands (Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria)
Tf: Tenerife
