Colombian Spanish () is a grouping of the varieties of Spanish spoken in Colombia. The term is of more geographical than linguistic relevance, since the dialects spoken in the various regions of Colombia are quite diverse. The speech of the northern coastal area tends to exhibit phonological innovations typical of Caribbean Spanish, while highland varieties have been historically more conservative. The Caro and Cuervo Institute in Bogotá is the main institution in Colombia to promote the scholarly study of the language and literature of both Colombia and the rest of Spanish America. The educated speech of Bogotá, a generally conservative variety of Spanish, has high popular prestige among Spanish-speakers throughout the Americas.
The Colombian Academy of Language () is the oldest Spanish language academy after Spain's Royal Spanish Academy; it was founded in 1871.
Although it is subject to debate by academics, some critics argue that , written in the New Kingdom of Granada during the 1600s by , is the first modern novel of the Spanish America.
Phonology
The phoneme is realized as a glottal "in all regions [of Colombia]" (as in southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, the Spanish-speaking islands of the Caribbean, the Canary Islands, and southern Spain—as well as occasionally in Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Northwest Argentina). A notable exception is the Pastuso Spanish of Nariño Department, where the phoneme is realized as velar . As in most other American dialects, most of Colombian Spanish has (the merger of into ). The exception is the traditional speech of Santander and around Pasto (inland Nariño), where can still be heard. Until the 20th century, most Andean Colombian dialects maintained , including Bogotá (now, only some older speakers retain the traditional distinction). In the southern parts of Antioquia and Norte de Santander Departments, represents instead, which still contrasts with the represented by . This type of distinction also occurs in the Andean regions of Ecuador. As in most of the Americas, the Canary Islands and most of Andalusia, Colombia has (the lack of distinction between and ), making / or / homophones. Though is general in Colombia and is usually lamino-alveolar , an apico-alveolar, Northern-Spain-style , , made with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, is current in many Andean regions, especially in Antioquia Department (Medellín). That trait (unique in the Americas) is to be associated with a large number of northern Spanish settlers in Andean Colombia. The voiced consonants , , and are pronounced as stop consonants after and sometimes before any consonant, rather than the fricative or approximant that is characteristic of most other dialects: , , , , (dialectally or , rather than the , , , , (dial. etc.) of most other dialects. A notable exception is Nariño Department and most Costeño speech (Atlantic coastal dialects), which feature the soft, fricative realizations that are common in other dialects. In contrast, intervocalic , , and are consistently realized as approximants and may be elided. For example, may be pronounced without the , as . In some parts of Cundinamarca and Boyacá, the voiceless stops , , and can be aspirated. Some speakers from Boyacá may debuccalize and or pronounce them as aspirated fricatives.
Vowels
As most other Spanish dialects, standard Colombian Spanish has five vowels: two high vowels (), two mid vowels () and one open vowel (). Colombian Spanish, like most other Spanish varieties, tends to resolve vowels in hiatus as diphthongs. There is regional differentiation as, in formal speech, Caribbean speakers are more likely to diphthongize than those from inland areas. However, there is no difference in informal speech.