Costa Rican Spanish is the form of Spanish language

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 spoken in Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

.

Phonetics

The unique or distinguishing characteristics of Costa Rican phonetics include the following:

• Many Costa Rican speakers pronounce the letter "r" not as an alveolar trill
  Alveolar trill
  The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. It is commonly called the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R...
  
  , as is done in most Spanish-speaking regions, but as an approximant consonant
  Approximant consonant
  Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...
  
   as is done in English-speaking countries.

Usted

"Usted" is the dominant second person singular pronoun in Costa Rican Spanish. Some speakers use only "usted" in addressing others, never "vos" or "tu." Such speakers address even small children with "usted."

Vos

"Vos" is a second person singular pronoun used by many speakers in certain "familiar" relationships or informal contexts. Voseo

Voseo

Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it....

 is most commonly used in the university context between students. Some adults use "vos" in order to address children or juveniles, but other adults address everyone regardless of age or status with "usted."

Tú

"Tú" is not used in Costa Rican Spanish, However, due in part to the influence of Mexican television programming, Costa Ricans are familiar with tuteo, and some television viewers, especially children, have begun to use it in limited contexts.

See also

• Latin American Spanish

Костариканско-шпански дијалект

External links

• Jergas de habla hispana Spanish dictionary specializing in slang and colloquial expressions, featuring all Spanish-speaking countries, including Costa Rica.