. . . Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, Ozuna, Rauw Alejandro, Young Miko. Eduardo Medina writes that the increasing popularity of reggaeton, and the dominance of artists who perform in Puerto Rican Spanish like Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro, Ozuna, and Young Miko (shown above), has motivated fans of all backgrounds to learn the language, Puerto Rican-style. Medina interviewed more than three dozen people for this article, including students, tutors and professors. [See The New York Times for the full article with all links and aural material.]

Sable Smith had always felt self-conscious about her poor Spanish, especially as someone of Puerto Rican heritage who struggled to keep up with the island’s distinctive version of the language. But one evening aboard a Miami party boat, she sought to enjoy a night out with her Latina friends, even if they sung along to Spanish songs whose meanings were unknown to her. She had long loved reggaeton, the thumping, forceful genre infused with the complex rhythms of Caribbean music that was now playing on the boat.

However, when the D.J. transitioned to “Ibiza” by the Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Ozuna, Ms. Smith said she began to feel “completely left out.” As Ozuna’s voice blared over a sensual drum beat with plucky guitars, she saw her friends smiling and chanting, in communion with a language lost to her. “That was the moment I realized that I needed to do more studying,” Ms. Smith said. So she set out to learn Puerto Rican Spanish, often characterized by singsong intonations, the slick swapping of some r’s to l’s and fast bursts of truncated words.

The exploding popularity of reggaeton, and the chart-topping dominance of artists who perform in Puerto Rican Spanish like Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro and Young Miko, has motivated fans of all backgrounds to learn the language.

Bad Bunny, who just wrapped up his U.S. tour promoting his latest album, “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana,” was the most-streamed artist for three consecutive years. In 2020, he became the first Spanish-language artist to top Spotify’s streaming chart and the first to have an all-Spanish-language album reach No. 1 on Billboard.

The growing adoration for Puerto Rican Spanish is even more remarkable because it has historically been disdained in other parts of Latin America as peculiar.

Now, the language is enjoying a renaissance, with Spanish speakers and others alike celebrating a Puerto Rican culture that has dominated the top global tracks in recent years, from the Arcángel and Bad Bunny collaboration “La Jumpa” to the synth pop, reggaeton sounds from Puerto Rican producer Tainy. That has compelled some fans to ditch the forms of Latin American Spanish typically taught in U.S. classrooms, like the Mexican or Colombian varieties often heard on Spanish-language broadcasters like Univision and Telemundo.

“When I heard Bad Bunny, I didn’t even know what he was saying,” said Katrina Rowe, 35, of Fort Washington, Md., who is taking Puerto Rican Spanish classes online. “But it sounded right, and now I can kind of sense a better vibe in his music.”

The booming interest in Puerto Rican Spanish, though, has caused some anxiety about cultural appropriation and generalizing a language that varies around the island.

Not every Puerto Rican speaks the way Bad Bunny does in his songs, which more closely resembles the language of the working class and young people, said José Luis Vega, the director of the Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language. Puerto Rican Spanish also shares similarities with the way the language is spoken in the Dominican Republic and Cuba. Still, many students said their reasons for learning Puerto Rican Spanish are rooted in their love for the island and its music. Instructors have noticed.

Sheldon Bixby, the chief executive of Lingualift, a language-learning program, said that about 10 percent of his Spanish students have mentioned that Bad Bunny and reggaeton were their main inspiration for learning Spanish.

DuoLingo, the popular language-learning app that is used by more than 14 million people daily, is exploring ways to incorporate Puerto Rican Spanish into some features, according to Dr. Cindy Blanco, a deputy editor of learning content at the company.

“In the Puerto Rican diaspora and on the island, there is this immense sense of validation and pride,” said Vanessa Díaz, an associate professor of Latino studies at Loyola Marymount University who teaches a course on Bad Bunny’s cultural significance and Puerto Rican politics. There is also gratification, she said, in Puerto Rican Spanish “being used by the biggest artists in the world — and that language is our heart.”

One of its most distinctive aspects is the pronunciation of an “r” as an “l” in most words. Verbs ending in -ar, -er and -ir have an “l” sound at the end, turning “jugar,” which means to play, into “jugal,” and “cantar,” which means to sing, into “cantal.” And nouns like “puerta,” door, become “puelta.” Then there is the use of “s,” which is aspirated or deleted at the end of syllables and replaced with an apostrophe to emphasize how Puerto Ricans pronounce certain words, said Dr. Melvin Gonzalez-Rivera, a linguistics professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. [. . .]

“Me enamoré,” Cohen said, practicing the Spanish translation of “I fell in love.” He began seeking out Puerto Rican Spanish lessons. “There’s no other dialect that I can see myself truly feeling like I would want to ingrain myself,” he said.

For now, the resources for learning Puerto Rican Spanish are scarce and mostly limited to YouTube and TikTok. Among the most sought-after teachers are Rocky Rodriguez, a Spanish tutor who runs the YouTube channel and company Speak Spanish Faster, and Rickie Walls II, a Spanish instructor who created the YouTube channel Bilingue Blogs.

Mr. Walls, who is from Chicago and was inspired to study Puerto Rican Spanish years ago because of his love for reggaetoneros like Don Omar and Daddy Yankee, said he has seen a surge in interest in recent years, mostly because people “want to understand the music.” [. . .]

Puerto Ricans also prefer to do without d’s in between vowels, as demonstrated by Rauw Alejandro on “Desenfocao.” “Desenfocao,” which means “unfocused,” would be pronounced as “desenfocado” in most countries. [. . .]

The accent has global roots: Indigenous Taíno words have been integrated; some grammatical rules likely go back to settlers from Andalusia, the southern coastal region of Spain, and the Canary Islands; and some pronunciations from African languages have persisted. [. . .]

For the full article with all links and audio, see https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/14/arts/music/bad-bunny-reggaeton-puerto-rico-spanish.html