Cuba / Puerto Rico / República Dominicana·~25 millones
Spanish Caribbean (Cuba / PR / DR)
Tres países, un sistema fonético común. El más cercano al español canario y andaluz.
Pronunciation
Aggressive 's' aspiration and elision — 'los amigos' becomes 'lo amigo'. End-of-word 'r' often becomes 'l' (Puerto Rico especially: 'amol' for 'amor') or disappears (DR: 'amó'). Yeísmo + seseo throughout. Very fast tempo. Music-influenced rhythmic stress.
Grammar and register
Ustedes for plural. Tuteo standard. Subject pronouns often kept where peninsular Spanish would drop them ('tú vienes' rather than just 'vienes'), partly because the elided endings make person identification harder.
Distinctive words
buddy / friend (Cuban)
“¿Qué bolá, asere?”
what's up (Cuban)
“¿Qué bolá contigo?”
cool / nice (PR exclamation)
“¡Wepa, qué bien!”
thing / stuff (DR + Venezuela)
“Pásame esa vaina.”
bus (PR + Cuba — same as Canarias)
“Cogí la guagua de las cinco.”
cool (shared with Colombia, Venezuela)
“Qué chévere ese sitio.”
Context
The phonetic family that includes Canary-Islands Spanish and Andalusian Spanish — the dialect that the conquistadors first brought to the Americas, preserved most cleanly in the Caribbean islands they reached first. Salsa, son cubano, reggaeton, bachata — most of the world's Spanish-language popular music has Caribbean roots, and its lyrics are often the gateway for non-Spanish speakers to learn the variant.