Voseo

Not to be confused with vosotros, the second person plural familiar form for Spanish conjugations.

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.

Vos is used extensively as the primary form of the second person singular in Rioplatense Spanish for Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay.

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica also exhibit an extensive use of the vos pronoun through the Central American Spanish dialect. The pronoun is also widely used in Bolivia, though the media use tú more.

Vos had traditionally not been used in formal writing except in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. This gradually changed in Central America, where even the most prestigious media networks and press began to use the pronoun vos, reflecting the informal address in Spanish as opposed to the formal address of usted. This is particularly true in El Salvador, Nicaragua and to a similar but lesser extent in Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala; all of which speak in the Central American Spanish dialect. Nowadays it is very common to see billboards and other advertising media using voseo. In the dialect of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (known as Rioplatense Spanish), vos is also the standard form for use in television media.

Vos is present in other countries as a regionalism, for instance in the Maracucho Spanish of Zulia State, Venezuela (see Venezuelan Spanish), in the Azuero peninsula of Panama, in various departments in Colombia, and in parts of Ecuador (Sierra down to Esmeraldas). In Peru, voseo is present in some Andean regions and Cajamarca, but the younger generations have ceased to use it. It is also present in the Ladino dialect of Spanish, spoken by Sephardic Jews throughout Israel, Turkey, the Balkans, Morocco, Latin America and the United States.

Voseo can also be found in the context of using verb conjugation of vos with tú as the subject pronoun, as in the case of Chilean Spanish.

History

Originally a second-person plural, Vos came to be used as a more polite second-person singular pronoun to be used among one's familiar friends. The following extract from a late 18th-century textbook is illustrative of usage at the time:

We seldom make use in Spanish of the second Person Singular or Plural, except through a great familiarity among friends, or speaking to God; also between a wife and husband to themselves, or when parents address their children, or to servants. Examples: O Dios, sois vos mi Padre verdadero, O God, thou art my true Father; Tu eres un buen amigo, Thou art a good friend.

The correct formal way to address a person you were not on familiar terms with was to address such a person as vuestra merced ("your mercy" originally abbreviated as v.m.) in the singular and vuestras mercedes in the plural. These forms logically used a third person verb form. Other formal forms of address included vuestra excelencia ("your excellence" abbreviated as ussencia) and vuestra señoria ("your lordship/ladyship" abbreviated as ussia). Today, both vos and tú are considered to be informal pronouns, with vos being somewhat synonymous with tú in regions where both are used. This was the situation when Castilian was brought to the Río de la Plata area (around Buenos Aires and Montevideo) and to Chile.

In time, vos lost currency in Spain but survived in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and many other countries and regions in Latin America, while Vuestra merced evolved into usted (vuestra merced > usarced > usted, in fact, "usted" is still abbreviated as either Vd or Ud). Note that the term vosotros is a combined form of vos otros (meaning literally "you others"), while the term nosotros comes from nos otros ("us others"); otros was added to avoid confusion.

Usage

Vos as a replacement for other forms of tú

The voseo pronoun is commonly used in Central America's Nicaragua. Nicaragua uses this Spanish form more frequently than the other countries of Central America. The signage reads: Nicaragua communicates with you, with vos replacing the tú pronoun.

The independent disjunctive pronoun ti is also replaced by vos. That is, vos is both nominative and the form to use after prepositions. Therefore para ti "for you" becomes para vos, etc.

The preposition-pronoun compound contigo "with you" becomes con vos.
The direct and indirect object form te remains the same, unlike in the case of vosotros, where it becomes os.

Nominative	Objective			Reflexive
subject	direct object	indirect object	prepositional object	con + form	plain
vos	te	te	vos	con vos	te
usted	lo / la	le	usted	con usted	usted
tú	te	te	ti	contigo	te
vosotros	os	os	vosotros	con vosotros	os

The possessive pronouns of vos also coincide with tú <tu(s), tuyo(s), tuya(s)> rather than with vosotros <vuestro(s), vuestra(s)>.

Conjugation with vos

"¿No querís más guerra?" (meaning "[You] do not want any more war?") Voseo used in Chilean media. In this country, the conjugation varies from the ones in Argentina and Central America. Voseo in Chile is informal, hence it is used to attract young people

All modern voseo declensions derive from Old Spanish second person plural -ades, -edes, -ides, and -odes (as in sodes, 'you are'). The 14th and 15th centuries saw an evolution of these declensions, with -ades originally giving -ais, -edes giving -es or -is, -ides giving -is, and -odes giving -ois. Soon analogous forms -as and -eis appeared. Hence the variety of forms the contemporary American voseo adopts, some varieties featuring a generalized monophthong (most of them), some a generalized diphthong (e.g. Venezuela), and some combining monophthongs and diphthongs, depending on the declension (e.g. Chile). In the most general, monophthongized, conjugation paradigm, a difference between voseo forms and respective tuteo forms is visible exclusively in the Present Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive, and, most of the time, in the Preterite. Below is a comparison table of the conjugation of several verbs for tú and for vos, and next to them the one for vosotros, the informal second person plural currently used only in Spain. The accented forms (vos and vosotros) and the infinitives are stressed on the last syllable; the tú forms are stressed on the penultimate one. Note the absence of diphtongization in the roots of poder and venir.

Verb	Meaning	Tú	Usted	Vos (General)	Vos (Venezuela/Panama(Azuero)	Vos/Tú (Chile)	Vos (Ladino)	Vosotros	Ustedes
hablar	"to speak"	hablas	habla	hablás	habláis	hablái	favlásh	habláis	hablan
comer	"to eat"	comes	come	comés	coméis	comís	komésh	coméis	comen
poder	"to be able"	puedes	puede	podés	podéis	podís	podésh	podéis	pueden
vivir	"to live"	vives	vive	vivís	vivís	vivís	bivísh	vivís	viven
ser	"to be"	eres	es	sos	sois	soi/erís	sosh	sois	son
haber	"to have"	has	ha	has	habéis	habís/hai		habéis	han
venir	"to come"	vienes	viene	venís	venís	venís	benísh	venís	vienen

General conjugation is the one that is most widely accepted and used in various countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, parts of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia, as well as Central American countries.

Some Uruguayan speakers combine the pronoun tú with the vos conjugation (for example, tú sabés). Conversely, speakers in some other places where both tú and vos are used combine vos with the tú conjugation (for example, vos sabes).

The verb forms employed with vos are also different in Chilean Spanish:
Chileans with voseo delete the final -s from the final diphthong -áis (and -ois): (vos/tú soi/erís; vos/tú estái).
In the case of the ending -ís (such as in comís, podís, vivís, erís, venís), the final -s is not totally dropped. Rather, in most cases, especially before a consonant, an aspiration similar to the h sound in English is still audible.

Both Chilean Spanish and Venezuelan Maracucho Spanish are notable in that they preserve the diphthongized plural verb forms in all tenses, as still used with vosotros in Spain. The same happens in the Azuero peninsula of Panama.

In Ladino, the -áis, -éis, -ís, & -ois endings are pronounced /aʃ/, /eʃ/, /iʃ/, & /oʃ/.

In Chile, it is much more usual to use tú + vos verb conjugation (tú sabís). The use of pronominal vos (vos sabís) is reserved for very informal situations and may even be considered vulgar in some cases.

Present Indicative

1. General conjugation: The final -R of the infinitive is replaced by an -S, and an acute accent is added to the final vowel, the one preceding the final -S, to keep the stress.

2. As for the Chilean voseo, the -AR ending of the infinitive is replaced by -ÁI, whereas both -ER and -IR are replaced by -ÍS, which sounds more like -ÍH.

Infinitive	General voseo	Chilean voseo
oír	oís	oís
venir	venís	venís
decir	decís	decís
dormir	dormís	dormís
sentir	sentís	sentís
salir	salís	salís
concluir	concluís	concluís
poder	podés	podís
querer	querés	querís
mover	movés	movís
pensar	pensás	pensái
contar	contás	contái
jugar	jugás	jugái
errar	errás	errái

Unlike tú, which has many irregular forms, the only verb that is conjugated irregularly in the voseo forms in the indicative present is ser (vos sos).
The Chilean forms are tú/vos soi/erís, tú/vos vai, and tú/vos hai....

Affirmative imperative

Vos also differs in its affirmative imperative conjugation from both tú and vosotros. Specifically, the vos imperative is formed by dropping the final -r from the infinitive, but keeping the stress on the last syllable. The only verb that is irregular in this regard is ir; its vos imperative is not used, with andá (the vos imperative of andar) being generally used instead.

Verb	Meaning	Tú	Vos	Vosotros
ser	"to be"	sé	sé	sed
ir	"to go"	ve	andá	id
hablar	"to speak"	habla	hablá	hablad
callar	"to become silent"	calla	callá	callad
soltar	"to release/let go"	suelta	soltá	soltad
comer	"to eat"	come	comé	comed
mover	"to move"	mueve	mové	moved
venir	"to come"	ven	vení	venid
poner	"to put"	pon	poné	poned
salir	"to leave"	sal	salí	salid
tener	"to have"	ten	tené	tened
decir	"to say"	di	decí	decid
pedir	"to ask/order"	pide	pedí	pedid

Again, the conjugation tú has far more irregularities, whereas vos has only one irregular verb in the affirmative imperative.

In Chile, the general vos conjugation is not used in the affirmative imperative.

Subjunctive

Everywhere voseo is used, it is applied in the subjunctive, with the exception of Río de la Plata region, where the tú-conjugation is more common. For example, in Central America it is no mintás and in Chile is no mintái; however in Río de la Plata it is no mientas, just like in Spain or México. Real Academia Española models its voseo conjugation tables with Río de la Plata usage and therefore omits the subjunctive voseo. In this region, the vos-form in the subjunctive has not completely disappeared. It is still used to show emphasis or emotion.

Central America Bolivia	Río de la Plata region	Chile	Venezuela (Zulia State) & Panama (Azuero)	Meaning
No quiero que mintás.	No quiero que mientas.	No quiero que mintái.	No quiero que mintáis.	I do not want you to lie.
No temás.	No temas.	No temái	No temáis.	Do not fear.
Que durmás bien	Que duermas bien.	Que durmái bien	Que durmáis bien.	Sleep well.
No te preocupés.	No te preocupés.	No te preocupís.	No te preocupéis.	Do not worry.

Geographical distribution

Countries that feature voseo:

  primary spoken and written form

  primary when spoken, but not in written form

  use is regional or localized, or it coexists with tuteo

  Spanish-speaking, voseo non-existent

Countries where voseo is predominant

Voseo used on a billboard in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The sign reads, "Do you want to change? Come to Claro."

Voseo on El Salvador Billboard "Order your cold one here!"

In South America

1. Argentina* (pronominal and verbal voseo, the pronoun tú is practically not used)
2. Paraguay* (pronominal and verbal voseo, the pronoun tú is practically not used)
3. Uruguay* (both pronoun+verb and pronoun "tú" + verb conjugated in the "vos" form.)

In Central America

1. Costa Rica
2. Nicaragua

* In Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, voseo is widespread used in most of the written language. In the rest of the countries, tú is common in formal language (media, correspondence, when addressing foreigners, etc.)

Countries where its extensive, but not predominant

In South America

• Bolivia : in Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija the voseo is used universally, while in the West of the country tú is predominant but there still a strong use of the voseo.
• Chile : verbal voseo is spreading north- and southwards from the center, whereas the pronominal voseo is reserved only for very intimate situations or to offend someone. In addition, voseo in Chile is only used in informal situations; in every other situation, the normal tú conjugation is used (or usted).

In Central America

• El Salvador
• Honduras
• Guatemala

Countries where both forms are used

In the following countries, voseo is used in certain areas:

• Colombia, in the departments
  • in the west (Pacific Coast)
    • Chocó
    • Valle del Cauca
    • Cauca
    • Nariño
  • in the center, primarily Paisa Region (Departments of Antioquia, Risaralda, Quindío, and Caldas).
  • in the (North) East
    • Norte de Santander - Ocaña Region
    • La Guajira
    • Cesar
• Ecuador in the Sierra, the center, and Esmeraldas
• Panama in the west along the border to Costa Rica and in the Azuero Peninsula.
• Venezuela in the northwest (primarily in Zulia State)

Countries where vos is practically out of use

In the following countries, the use of vos has disappeared completely or survives only very marginally in daily speech

• Spain*
• Dominican Republic
• Puerto Rico
• Mexico**
• Peru***
• Cuba****

* The pronoun can be he heard used in constituent parts of Castile, León and in Eastern Galicia; otherwise it is used only rhetorically or in old or liturgical writings.
**Only used in some small parts of Chiapas and Tabasco, being completely unused in the rest of the country;
***Occurs in the Northern and Southern extremities of the country and is virtually unused in the rest of the country;
****The use of the pronoun is vanishing and is now only heard of on the Eastern side of the country.

Attitudes

The pronoun vos is used with family and friends (T-form), like tú in other varieties of Spanish, and contrasts with the respectful usted (V-form) which is used with strangers; appropriate usage varies by dialect. In Central America, vos can be used among those considered equals, while usted maintains its respectful usage. In Ladino, the pronoun usted is completely absent, so the use of vos with strangers and elders is the standard.

Voseo was long considered a reprehensible practice by prescriptivist grammarians (with the idea that only Castilian Spanish was good Spanish), but it is now regarded simply as a local variant.

See also

• Similar trends of personal pronouns in Portuguese
• Spanish dialects and varieties
• Spanish verbs
• T–V distinction

Sources

• Voseo Spanish Site dedicated to teaching Argentine Voseo usage
• (Spanish) Voseo at the Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas. Real Academia Española (2005).
• (Spanish) El voseo at Spanish Wikibooks.
• (Spanish) Norma Beatriz Carricaburo (2003). El voseo en la historia y en la lengua de hoy - Las fórmulas de tratamiento en el español actual.
• (Spanish) Hotta Hideo (2000). La estandarización y el regionalismo en el voseo del español argentino.
• (Spanish) Ángel Rosenblat (2000). El castellano en Venezuela.
• (Spanish) Luis Alberto Roca (2007). Breve historia del habla cruceña y su mestizaje.
• (Spanish) Anton Toursinov (2005). Formas pronominales de tratamiento en el español actual de Guatemala.
• (French) Le Voseo

Further reading

• Acevedo-Halvick, Ana. "Cortesía verbal (introducción)" Voces 1 (2006): 21-72.
• Almasov, Alexey. "'Vos' and 'Vosotros' as Formal Address in Modern Spanish." Hispania: A Journal Devoted to the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese 57.2 (1974): 304-310.
• Alvar, Manuel. Manual de Dialectologia Hispanica: El Español de America. Barcelona : Editorial Ariel, 1996.
• Arrizabalaga, Carlos. "Noticias de la desaparicion del voseo en la costa norte del Peru." Linguistica Española Actual 23.2 (2001): 257-274.
• Baumel-Schreffler, Sandra. "The Voseo: Second Person Singular Pronouns in Guatemalan Speech." The Language Quarterly 33.1-2 (1995): 33-44.
• Benavides, Carlos. "La distribucion del voseo en Hispanoamerica." Hispania: A Journal Devoted to the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese 86.3 (2003): 612-623.
• Blanco Botta, Ivonne. "El voseo en Cuba: Estudio sociolinguistico de una zona de la isla." Beitrage zur Romanischen Philologie 21.2 (1982): 291-304.
• Chart, Ira E. "The voseo and tuteo in America." Modern Language Forum 28.(1944): 17-24.
• Fontanella de Weinberg, Maria Beatriz. "La constitucion del paradigma pronominal de voseo." Thesaurus: Boletin del Instituto Caro y Cuervo 32.(1977): 227-241.
• King, Jeremy. "Societal Change and Language History in Cervantes' Entremeses: The Status of the Golden Age Vos." Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America 29.1 (2009): 167-195.
• Lapesa, Rafael. "Las formas verbales de segunda persona y los origenes del 'voseo'." Actas del Tercer Congreso Internacional de Hispanistas. 519-531. Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico por la Asociacion Internacional de Hispanistas, 1970.
• Lapesa, Rafael. Historia de la lengua española. Madrid : Gredos, 1981.
• Leon-Luporsi, Ana Emilia. Dinamica sociolinguistica e historica de 'vos' en el español peninsular. Diss. The University of Texas at Austin, 1994.
• Lipski, John. Latin American Spanish. New York : Longman, 1994.
• Ortiz, Martha D. "Voseo" in El Salvador. Diss. San Jose State University, 2000
• Pierris, Marta de. "El preludio del voseo en el español medieval." Romance Philology 31.(1977): 235-243.
• Pinkerton, Anne. "Observations on the Tú/Vos Option in Guatemalan Ladino Spanish." Hispania: A Journal Devoted to the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese 69.3 (1986): 690-698.
• Primorac, Karen Johnson. "Tu, vos, and vuestra merced: Social and Stylistic Variation in Medieval Spanish." Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences 57.11 (1997): 4720-4721.
• Quilis, Antonio, and Matilde Graell Stanziola. "El voseo en Panama." Revista de Filologia Española 69.1-2 (1989): 173-178.
• Rey, Alberto. "Social Correlates of the Voseo of Managua, Nicaragua: Workplace, Street, and Party Domains." Hispanic Journal 18.1 (1997): 109-126.
• Rey, Alberto. "Social Correlates of the Voseo of Managua, Nicaragua: Workplace, Street, and Party Domains." Hispanic Journal 17.1 (1996): 113-127.
• Rey, Alberto. "Social Correlates of the Voseo of Managua: Family and Neighborhood Domains." Hispanic Journal 16.1 (1995): 39-53.
• Stevenson, Jeffrey Lee. "The Sociolinguistic Variables of Chilean Voseo." Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences 68.5 (2007): 1914-1915.
• Toursinov, Antón. "Stylistic variability of pronoun addresses in modern Spanish of Guatemala." Language and Literature 17(3). Tyumen State University (2002): 68-78
• Villegas, Francisco. "The Voseo in Costa Rican Spanish." Hispania: A Journal Devoted to the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese 46.3 (1963): 612-615.
• Weeks, Patricia C.. El voseo en Chile: Factores historico-morfologicos que explican su aparicion y mantenimiento. Diss. State University of New York at Albany, 2005.