GRAN CANARIA
Language

Cities in GRAN CANARIA

Maspalomas

Playa de taurito

Playa del ingles

Popular destinations SPAIN

Andalusia	Catalonia	Costa blanca
Costa brava	Costa del sol	El hierro
Formentera	Fuerteventura	Gran canaria
Ibiza	La gomera	La palma
Lanzarote	Mallorca	Menorca
	Tenerife

Language

The Canary population speaks Castillian Spanish (Castellano), the official language of Spain. The only difference is that the pronunciation is slightly different and they have a slightly lilting Caribbean accent; there are also some similarities with Andalusian. For tourists, the pronunciation of the dialect is far too fast and unclear. For example, the slot "s" is swallowed by the "canarios", making it unclear whether one means, for example, La Palma or Las Palmas. The Guanche language is now extinct, but there are still some corrupted Guanche words in use, including "guagua" for bus and "papa" for potato.

Spanish dialects_{Photo: Stephen Shaw at the English Wikipedia CC 3.0 Unported no changes made}

Castellano (Castilian) has been the official state language since around 1250. In other countries, Castellano is actually always called "Spanish". Castellano is a Romance language with many derivations from Latin, but also from many other languages. Spanish contains about 100 words that were brought to the peninsula by the Visigoths, among others. During the rule of the Moors about 4000 words were introduced into the Spanish language. Furthermore, many words have been borrowed from French and Italian and more recently from English.

Examples of derivations are:

Arabic	Frech	West-Gotic	English
Alcázar	monje	guardia	lider
Aldea	vinagre	ropa	mitin
Acequia	menú	tapa	tractor
Alcoba	coqueta	espuela	fútbol

Castellano differs greatly from other Romance languages in some respects, especially in pronunciation. The letters of the Spanish alphabet are: a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, rr, s, t, u, v, x, y, z.

The name 'Gran Canaria' is first mentioned on a Spanish map from 1339. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder called the island 'Canaria', possibly referring to the large dogs (dog = canis in Latin) that lived on the island.

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Sources

Anderson, B. / Gran Canaria
Deltas

Evers, K. / Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote
Gottmer/Becht

Gruschwitz, B.F. / Canarische Eilanden
Het Spectrum

MacPhedran, G. / Gran Canaria
Kosmos-Z&K

Rokebrand, R. / Reishandboek Gran Canaria
Elmar

Weniger, S. / Gran Canaria
Van Reemst

CIA - World Factbook

BBC - Country Profiles

Last updated October 2024
Copyright: Team The World of Info