Languages
Native
Spanish
99%
Secondary languages
Haitian Creole
12%
Language Samples
Hola, ¿cómo tú estás?
Hello, how are you?
Estoy muy bien, gracias.
I am very well, thanks.
Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Dominican Spanish is a Caribbean variety shaped by the same Canarian and Andalusian roots as Cuban Spanish, but with its own distinct evolution. The island of Hispaniola — shared with Haiti — has the longest continuous history of European settlement in the Americas, founded by Columbus in 1492. African linguistic influence is also strong, reflected in vocabulary and the unique 'L/R' neutralisation common in coastal speech. Haitian Creole is widely spoken by the large Haitian immigrant community and second-generation Dominico-Haitians.
Similar Languages
Spanish (Cuba)
96%
Spanish (Puerto Rico)
95%
Spanish (Venezuela)
92%
Portuguese
89%
Media
The Cathedral of Santa María la Menor in Santo Domingo — the oldest cathedral in the Americas, built 1512–1541
Photo: Reinhard Link · CC BY-SA 2.0
Did You Know
01
Santo Domingo, founded in 1496, is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas — the cradle of New World Spanish.
02
Dominican Spanish is famous for 'lambdacism' — the tendency to replace /r/ with /l/ so that 'comer' (to eat) sounds like 'comel' in casual speech.
03
The country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, making it one of only two islands in the world where two sovereign nations — and two entirely different languages — coexist.