Cuban Spanish, Panamanian Congo, Caribbean Creole/Krio, Garifuna. Colombian Palenquero, Puerto Rican Spanish. Costa Rican Mek I Tell Yu, Panamanian Guari-Guari, Cuban Anagó... https://twitter.com/duanecia/status/1302427472798134272

In Panamanian Congo, Afrodescendants spoke spanish backwards to confuse the human traffickers so if they said "arriba" they really meant "abajo." Remnants are still found in how certain Black populations still say "is" (ees) instead of "si."

The pronunciation of certain words & the tendency to say a 'D' in the place of an 'R' ie- adiba for "arriba" is still a trope of how "Black people speak" in Panama. It also has overlap w/ how anglophone Caribbeans pronounced Spanish...you hear this in Panamanian reggaeton

That pronunciation was signature of the Costa Arriba which includes those territories of the Africans who liberated themselves and among the areas of the Congo tradition. Coincidentally the Costa Abajo was where a lot of Black Caribbean Canal workers settled. +

So then it just became another trope of "how any Black person spoke" in Panama.

Guari-guari or wari-wari is another antiblack language trope given to Creole English of not only the Caribbean laborers in Panama (1800s onward) but also the generations of English speakers (who predate any of the railroad & Canal projects in the country) in Bocas del Toro.

It's given that name to make fun of what folks are saying it sounds like, "mumbo-jumbo" to them.

I did a "habitat for humanity" trip in Belize when I was in college and didn't know better. Before we left they "warned" us "they speak Creole there so you may not understand." I'm like this is English what is there not to understand?

Then it became a "Panamanian" thing to say "que xopa/sopa" when this is taken directly from Black Caribbeans in Panama. MOST the shit folks know and love of Panama is from the Black Caribbeans, Black Panamanians, and indigenous ONLY. Even the famous pollera came from Black ppl.

And the thing is, Black people be speaking/knowing 3-4 languages just off jump. And this is what the mestizos and whites be degrading us for. While they barely know one fucking language. Pathetic.

The English I speak with my grandmother is not the same English I speak with my mother, which is not the same English I speak with my Cuban husband. Who noticed that my friend who is from Texas, speaks English differently from me, who is from NY.

My husband speaks four languages. All of them are African derived. Including his Cuban Spanish. The other three are said in ceremony and when he be singing me songs on demand he has to translate them to Spanish so I understand them.

That pronouncing "R"s like "L"s in Caribbean Spanish is wholly African-derived. That is special. We are speaking our legacy with every word formed out our mouths. That is incredible to me. **tear**

And it's not even a matter of they *can't* actually "roll the 'r's"...it's a matter of custom. That's how Spanish is being spoken in that region. And what of it?

My thing is, you understood what the said right? Yes? Ok. moving tf on. Da fuq.

And in some ways, yes, your ear do gotta get accustomed to it. I've had plenty a many of friends from various countries in Latin America native Spanish speakers, LOST with Cuban Spanish. But the Dominicans visiting Cuba, were like what's the difficulty??? Anyways...lmaoooo

Then the various kriol/creole languages of the continent of Africa. The pronunciation/enunciations remind me of the creole languages and dialects in the Americas....naturally of course. That's the roots.