Spanish (Dominican Republic)

Dominican Spanish (Spanish: español dominicano; locale es-DO) is the national variety of Spanish in the Dominican Republic and belongs to the Caribbean Spanish group. Seseo and yeísmo are general, while syllable-final consonants are often weakened: /s/ may be aspirated or deleted, intervocalic and final /d/ may disappear, and final /r/ and /l/ can be reduced or exchanged, with patterns varying by region and social style. The sound written j, or g before e or i, is commonly pronounced [h] rather than the stronger Castilian [x]. Dominican speech also has distinctive vocabulary shaped by Taíno, African, and wider Caribbean histories, and uses ustedes rather than vosotros for the second-person plural. Standard Spanish orthography is used, while careful formal speech generally preserves more consonants than casual conversation.