Peruvian Ribereño Spanish

Dialect

Peruvian Ribereño (Costeño) Spanish or Peruvian Coastal Spanish is the form of the Spanish language spoken in the coastal region of Peru. The Spanish spoken in Coastal Peru has four characteristic forms today: the original one, that of the inhabitants of Lima (known as limeños) near the Pacific coast and parts south (formerly from the old section of the city from where it spread to the entire coastal region); the inland immigrant sociolect (more influenced by Andean languages); the Northern, in Trujillo, Chiclayo or Piura; and the Southern. The majority of Peruvians speak Peruvian Coast Spanish, as Peruvian Coast Spanish is the standard dialect of Spanish in Peru. Between 1535 and 1739, Lima was the capital of the Spanish Empire in South America, from where Hispanic culture spread, and its speech became the "purest" since it was the home of the famous University of San Marcos of Lima. Also, it was the city that had the highest number of titles of nobility from Castile outside of Spain. Colonial people in Lima became used to living an ostentatious and courtly life style that people in the other capital cities of Spanish America did not experience, with the exception of Mexico City and later the city of Bogotá.

Since the use of 'vos' instead of 'tú' as a familiar form of address was a marker of low social class in post medieval Spanish, it exists throughout contemporary Latin America but it was never used in the capitals of the viceroyalties, such as Lima or Mexico City. Prescriptive Limeño Spanish has adjusted considerably to more closely resemble the standard Spanish linguistic model, because of the city's disdain of the contact with the Andean world and autochthonous languages for centuries. However, until the beginning of the 20th century, speech on the Northern Peruvian coast was similar in many ways with how individuals spoke on the Ecuadorian Colombian coast. The most remarkable variation from the Castilian norm was the presence of 'vos', which was used to refer to one's family and is completely missing today. This part of Northern Peru also had a strong influence on the extinct Muchik or Mochica language.

This popular variety of Coastal Peruvian dialect is the result of not only Andean but also foreign influences: Anglicisms and Argentinisms are all very present in the lexicon. Pitucos, young people from Lima's higher socioeconomic strata, have also developed a peculiar and mannered form of speaking, noticeable particularly in the way that they alter their tone of speaking.

Anticucho = typical food consisting almost always of grilled chicken or cow heart. Disforzarse = to be anxious. Tombo = police officer or soldier. Calato = nude. Chicotazo = whiplash. Fresco/a (or conchudo/a) = shameless person. Fregar (or joder) = to bother, to ruin. Gallinazo = a turkey vulture or black vulture. Garúa = tenuous rain. Guachimán = adaptation of the English word watchman, meaning the same. Huachafo = ridiculous, gaudy (said of clothing). Huasca = to be drunk. Alucina = a word that more or less means: "can you believe it?". Jarana = a party with folk music. Juerga = a party. Óvalo = a roundabout. Panteón = a cemetery. Penar = said of a place, to have ghosts roaming around. Pericote = a mouse. Poto = buttocks. Zamparse = to break into a place (as in a waiting line, or crashing a party), or to get drunk.

Peruvians of foreign blood, especially of Chinese and Japanese descent, from first and second generations have a tinge of their native languages' rhythm and intonation to Lima accent, but most of the younger generations have no trace of their ancestry languages' accent, if they speak it in the first place.

Some Peruvian slang comes from inverting the syllables of a word. This can be seen in words like 'fercho', which comes from the word 'chofer', driver, the word 'tolaca', which comes from 'calato'. Slang words do not always have to be the exact inverse of the original word: for example 'mica' comes from the word 'camisa', which means shirt. Or 'jerma' which comes from 'mujer' meaning woman. Peruvian slang originally developed in the 1970s and 1980s with the experience of military dictatorships and the ever present threat of terrorist activities from Maoist groups such as the MRTA and Sendero Luminoso.