The Dominican Republic is located in the eastern zone of Hispaniola. It is a large Caribbean country with more than 48,000 square kilometers of land. It has a population of about 10 million people and several languages are spoken in the country. What are these different dialects?
What is the official language spoken in the Dominican Republic?
The official language of the country is Spanish. However, there are some variations of this language in different parts of the Dominican Republic. The Spanish dialect commonly used is Dominican Spanish. This dialect is a subset of the Caribbean Spanish language based on the Andalusian and Canarian dialects of southern Spain. It has also borrowed terms from the Arawak language. It has some Spanish words that are moderately used in the modern Spanish language. However, some words have been borrowed from some African languages in Africa that inhabited the island after the end of the Taino. Spanish is the language used and understood by the majority of the population of this country.
What about Haitian Creole and English Samana?
Haitian Creole represents a rather minority language in this country. It is defined as the first language spoken by 160,000 people in the Dominican Republic, most of whom come from Haiti and are immigrants. The language is based on French with some influences from West African languages and Spanish. As for Samana English, it is a variety of English adopted by thousands of inhabitants in the northeast of the country, especially those descendants of black immigrants from the United States and having as a sub-name Samana. It is related to Creole English based on English and some West African languages. Samana Creole is somewhat similar to Caribbean English Creole. In particular, the language has resisted several influences from certain dialects because of the location of its peninsula, offering a fairly independent cultural life. On the other hand, due to the policy adopted by the government, Samana English was previously declined and has now become an endangered language.
What foreign languages are spoken in this country?
English is one of the most recognized foreign languages in the Dominican Republic. It is a compulsory language in all schools, although the quality of teaching is quite poor. English is mainly used by tourists visiting the country as well as expatriates who cannot speak the official language. Apart from English, French is also a foreign language that is mandatory in schools. On the other hand, other foreign languages like Italian, Japanese and Chinese are also spoken in this country.