The Canarian Academy of Language responds

What criteria are followed to consider a word as a Canarianism?

Frequently asked questions about the Spanish of the Canary Islands

September 21 2024 (09:52 WEST)

Updated in October 13 2024 (09:59 WEST)

Canarianisms are those voices typical of our regional variety that are not general in Spanish and that, therefore, are not included in dictionaries, such as that of the Royal Spanish Academy, which address the common lexicon of our language. Exclusivity is not a necessary feature of Canarianisms, that is, the fact that they are only used in the Islands. Some are recorded in other Spanish-speaking regions, often on the American continent, and this does not mean that they lose their status as voices that characterize our dialectal modality.

The following groups of Canarianisms can be established:

1. Common Spanish voices that present characteristic meanings in the Canary Islands. This would be the case of capirote as ‛a certain type of bird’, which, together with the general meaning in Spanish, has another particular one in the Islands.

2. Words derived from general voices through the processes of suffixation, prefixation or composition. An example may be the adjective morrudo.

3. Words from other regional varieties of Spanish that in the Islands have undergone a certain phonetic evolution that has significantly distanced them from the original word (piola, rozón).

4. Voices and meanings of general use in the Spanish of the time of the conquest and colonization and that, at present, are considered antiquated or disused in the Peninsula. This is the case of meritar as ‛to deserve’.

5. Voices from other regional varieties of Spanish, both peninsular and American. Among the first, Andalusianisms stand out (such as cigarrón ‛locust’ or sardinel ‛step in the entrance door of the house’), due to the important role played by the Andalusian region in the conquest and colonization of the Islands. From the group of Americanisms, which are the result of the close relations between the Canary Islands and some regions of this continent, we highlight some general ones such as papa, guanajo, pibe, etc.

6. Words from the languages spoken by the aborigines of the different islands. For the most part, the common nouns in this group refer to species of flora or fauna of the Archipelago, to certain aspects of shepherding work or to elements of the aboriginal cultural world. Among them, perenquén, tabaiba, tafor, etc.

7. Words taken from Portuguese and other peninsular languages. It is necessary to emphasize the importance that the Portuguese colonists, coming from both peninsular and insular regions, had in the settlement and material and cultural development of the Islands. We find them in all categories of words and referring to different aspects of life: from the agricultural and livestock field (bago, latada, mollo), from the marine world (engodo, leito, maresía, marullo), from housing (frechal, locero), from food (conduto, mojo), etc.

8. Loans from other non-peninsular languages. In this group, which is not very numerous, it would be necessary to highlight the Arabisms (such as majalulo or jaique), which are explained by the secular relations between the Islands and the neighboring African region of the Sahara; and the Anglicisms (chercha, naife, queque), the result of the commercial presence of England in the Archipelago throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.