Valentino writing tips: language
I’m not an expert by any means, but I thought I might provide some insight into how I, personally, handle the nasty moth's dialogue.
Like all languages, Spanish is highly regional. We don’t really know Val’s actual background as a Sinner, so your guess is as good as mine. Given his VA is Puerto Rican, however, I write Valentino as someone who speaks Caribbean Spanish (like me!). The three Spanish-speaking countries/territories in the Caribbean are: Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. I'm not familiar with Cuban Spanish, so we'll focus on the first two for now.
Some of these are more specific to one place than the other, but I’m mushing them together for simplicity’s sake (don't come at me).
Fun quirks of Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish:
A habit of shortening words, like “ven pa’ca” (“come here”) instead of “ven para acá.” We frequently eat the letters “r,” “s” or “d” toward or at the end of some words.
Pronouncing “r” as “l” in some words.
Pronouncing “t” as a soft sound between a “th” and a “d.” Although this voice has a Spanish (from Spain) cadence, you can hear the modified “t” sound in “Valentino” here.
Fun Dominican and Puerto Rican words and phrases:
“Coño” as a casual curse, typically used as an expression of frustration (like “fuck!”). My username is basically a really intense version of coño, and is a very Dominican phrase.
“Diablo,” which means “devil,” is also commonly used as an exclamation.
“Hijo de la gran puta,” a classic that roughly parallels "son of a bitch," but literally translates to “son of a great whore.”
“Papi” or “papi chulo” (“cute daddy”) as a term of affection. “Papito” is the diminutive version of this phrase.
On that note, you can add “ito” to the end of just about anything to make it a diminutive (cutesy/smaller version). “Chulo” means cute, for example. “Chulito” is the even more affectionate/smaller version of that.
“Dique,” which is used to express doubt. Vox might say, “I am not obsessed with Alastor!” Valentino might mutter “diiiique” in response. This is a Dominican thing.
“Wepa,” which is something usually shouted in excitement. This is a Puerto Rican thing.
“Vaina,” which kind of means “thing,” often with a negative connotation. So, Valentino might look at one of Velvette’s designs, find it hideous, and say, “que vaina más fea, oof” (“what an ugly thing, oof”).
“Fó,” which is sort of “ew” or “gross,” usually re: bad smells. You shout it.
“Mano,” short for “hermano” (“brother”). Used between friends.
“Dímelo” (“tell me”) as a greeting. Something that would be said when answering the phone, for example.
“Cojer” as a means of saying “to take,” like taking something from a table. This word has a very different context in other regions. In Mexico, for example, the verb “cojer” is vulgar and means “to fuck.”
“Ahorita,” which in my experience means “later.” In other regions, it can mean “right now” or “later” depending on context.
Commonly used phrases in Mexican Spanish.
You’ll want to avoid these if you’d like his dialogue to be consistently Caribbean-inspired:
Calling acquaintances “primo” or “jefe”
I mention this Spanish dialect specifically because it's the most common one in the world. And hey, Val could be canonically Mexican or Mexican in your headcanon! That's cool, too. I'm just providing insight for consistency's sake.
“Ay dios mío!” is a generally overused phrase, in my opinion, and not actually said IRL as frequently as TV makes it seem. Just my experience, though.
“Ay” or “uy” are good filler sounds. You hear Val shout it when Niffty snaps at him.
Valentino canonically squeaks like a moth when passionate!
His voice takes on an echo/growl when he’s particularly angry.
Mixing English and Spanish is tricky. Spanglish is not uncommon in PR, DR, and the US, but usually only when speaking with someone else who is fluent in both languages. Valentino seems plenty fluent in English; he uses lots of contractions, complex sentence structure, and slang. He doesn’t need to inject Spanish phrases in favor of English ones when conversing with another English speaker. He does do it sometimes for emphasis (“the devil’s princesa” or “this chiquita”).
As cliché as it is, defaulting to a Spanish phrase in moments of alarm, anger, frustration, or affection is also not uncommon if you grew up in a Spanish-speaking home. If someone surprises me, I shout “coño” by default, for example.
Valentino uses pet names when referring to others, like "amorcito" (“little love”) and "Angie" over voicemail.
Generally speaking, Val likes to stretch his vowels to be theatrical ("he mooooved!"). He sometimes eats the ends of English words, like “fuckin’” instead of “fucking.” He also sometimes rolls his “r” for English words, like in “ungrrrateful whore!”
Val's accent isn’t consistently strong, which could be a stylistic choice, or he could just be prone to a kind of unique code switching, for lack of a better term. My friends say I speak English with a Spanish accent when conversing with my family, for example (it’s not intentional).
