Out of the 55 countries on the African continent, there are 24 with English as a national language, 21 with French, 8 with Portuguese, but only 1 with Spanish. This title of Africa’s only Spanish speaking country goes to Equatorial Guinea.
Across the planet there are many countries with Spanish as their official language, and with that inevitably comes variations of the language. Just like with English, Spanish takes its form in many different accents, slang words and regional dialects. So, what is Spanish like on the African continent?
Local Influence
Just as is the case with many countries that have a colonial history, the introduced European language usually ends up mixing with one or more of the local endemic languages to form its slang words. You can see this with patois and creole dialects in English and French speaking former colonies and Equatorial Guinea is no different.
Nearly everyone in Equatorial Guinea speaks Spanish as a second language, with their first language being one of the local languages. The most common local languages are Fang, Bube, Batanga, Benga, and Kombe. The majority of these languages belong to the Bantu language group of Sub-saharan Africa, however even though they have some similarities, they are usually not mutually intelligible (some Bantu languages are, but the geography of Equatorial Guinea being separated by an island makes this different). These languages have had an effect on Equatoguinean (cool word right?)
Slang words in Equatoguinean Spanish
Some of the key words you might hear when venturing here will be:
- Antéose – I don’t know.
This comes from the word “no se”.
- La tor i – news/gossip
This is pronounced as if the r was a “rr”. Another quirk of Equatoguinean Spanish where the ‘r’ and ‘rr’ sounds are often switched or just don’t matter at all.
- El tapi – Taxi
This one is fairly straight forwards as they have just changed one letter.
- La tosa – girl
- Ustin? – What?
This is another version of the Spanish “qué”.
Other quirks?
Another interesting feature is that sometimes the formal version of you “usted” is used with informal “tú” verb conjugations. The reason for this coming about is that, during colonial times, locals would address their leaders with the formal pronoun, however when they were spoken to the Spanish would use the informal “tú” version of the conjugation to speak to them so they used the same conjugation back with the more polite pronoun. If this sentence hurt your brain, don’t worry you’re not alone.
Other official languages
Technically in Equatorial Guinea, aside from Spanish, both French and Portuguese also have official status, however almost no one speaks them. Both French and Portuguese have been added later as official languages as a way to strengthen ties with their neighbours, all of which speak one or the other.
If I speak Spanish will I be able to understand Spanish here?
Yes absolutely. The dialect here is definitely more similar to Spanish on the Iberian peninsular than Spanish in Central or South America. Once you get used to the accent you will definitely be able to converse with local people in Spanish.
Better yet, learn some of the local languages for some amazed reactions!
If Africa has been on your mind for a holiday, why not come with us to this unique corner of the globe. We know many of you learn Spanish in school when you’re young so come on down and test how you can converse with the Equatoguineans! For more information on our Equatorial Guinea tours check out our website or send us an email to [email protected] .
