Paraguayan Spanish

Paraguayan Spanish refers to the Spanish spoken in Paraguay. The language exhibits strong influences from Guarani, an indigenous language which is spoken by the majority of the population. Many of the pronunciation features of Paraguayan Spanish are variable, in particular the pronunciation of the letters r and s.

In contrast to most Spanish speakers, Paraguayans maintain a distinction between ll and y. The ll is a palatal lateral and the y is either an affricate or a palatal glide. Unlike in other Spanish dialects, the loss of the palatal lateral, a process known as delaterization, never occurred in Paraguayan Spanish.

Syllable-final r it is often pronounced as an approximant. In the consonant cluster tr, the r is assibilated. In some parts of Paraguay, the rr is not pronounced as an alveolar trill but rather as an approximant.

Syllable-final s is often aspirated. This also occurs in many other varieties of Spanish such as Cuban, Panamanian and Argentinian. The feature is not uniform in all speakers.

Paraguayan Spanish has been strongly influenced by Guarani. Features of the dialect include the use of the palatal lateral and the assibilation of the consonant cluster tr. Syllable-final r is often pronounced as an approximant and syllable-final s is often aspirated.