I was recalling last night of when I bought a Coke at a produce stand that was predominantly Spanish-speaking. A Spanish-speaking gentleman ahead of me was also ordering a Coke, and when asked if he wanted the cap removed (old-type bottle), he said, (somewhat phonetically typed) “Si, pa 'vor”, which I understood, but it broguht to mind a question:
What sort of contraction is this? In high-school Spanish class, we were taught basically textbook Spanish, with hardly a clue as to slang, and certainly nothing as to this. So, I wonder if this is considered “good” usage, i.e., is it akin to saying “that’s” for “that is”, or “ain’t” in any number of phrases?
Spanish has very few formally recognized contractions (e.g. de + el = del, a + el = al) and certainly nothing like the number in English or French. Something like *pa’ 'vor * would certainly be substandard.
However, in everyday speech it is common to drop parts of certain words, especialy in certain dialects. It is, for example, very common to hear para shortened to pa’. There’s a leather shop here in Panama which is called Echao Palante , which actually should be Echado Para Adelante (“Going Forward”). Panamanian is one of the dialects most apt to drop letters, especially the “d” in words ending in “-ado.”
This sort of thing is common in casual speech in any Spanish dialect. I’m not familiar with the specific phrase in question, but most speakers do this when speaking, just as American English speakers say “didja” instead of “did you”. It’s probably not considered substandard so much as just informal. I doubt it would be taken as a mark of lack of education unless you did it while making a speech or something.