Diversification of Mexican Spanish: A Tridimensional Study in New World Sociolinguistics

Margarita Hidalgo

Open Access Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2016

Diversification of Mexican Spanish

A Tridimensional Study in New World Sociolinguistics

Margarita Hidalgo

Volume 111 in the series Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501504532

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book offers a diversification model of transplanted languages that facilitates the exploration of external factors and internal changes. The general context is the New World and the variety that unfolded in the Central Highlands and the Gulf of Mexico, herein identified as Mexican Colonial Spanish (MCS). Linguistic corpora provide the evidence of (re)transmission, diffusion, metalinguistic awareness, and select focused variants. The tridimensional approach highlights language data from authentic colonial documents which are connected to socio-historical reliefs at particular periods or junctions, which explain language variation and the dynamic outcome leading to change.

From the Second Letter of Hernán Cortés (Seville 1522) to the decades preceding Mexican Independence (1800-1821) this book examines the variants transplanted from the peninsular tree into Mesoamerican lands: leveling of sibilants of late medieval Spanish, direct object (masc. sing.] pronouns LO and LE, pronouns of address (vos, tu, vuestra merced plus plurals), imperfect subjunctive endings in -SE and -RA), and Amerindian loans. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of variants derived from the peninsular tree show a gradual process of attrition and recovery due to their saliency in the new soil, where they were identified with ways of speaking and behaving like Spanish speakers from the metropolis. The variants analyzed in MCS may appear in other regions of the Spanish-speaking New World, where change may have proceeded at varying or similar rates. Additional variants are classified as optimal residual (e.g. dizque) and popular residual (e.g. vide). Both types are derived from the medieval peninsular tree, but the former are vital across regions and social strata while the latter may be restricted to isolated and / or marginal speech communities.

After one hundred years of study in linguistics, this book contributes to the advancement of newer conceptualization of diachrony, which is concerned with the development and evolution through history. The additional sociolinguistic dimension offers views of social significant and its thrilling links to social movements that provoked a radical change of identity. The amplitude of the diversification model is convenient to test it in varied contexts where transplantation occurred.

Author / Editor information

Margarita Hidalgo, San Diego State University, USA.

Reviews

"La monografia contribuirà certamente a sollecitare altre ricerche nella medesima direzione. Non soltanto servirà a mettere a fuoco le reciproche imbricazioni tra lingua e società nel Messico, ma sarà in grado di riverberare i propri riflessi anche nella storia sociolinguistica della Spagna."
Remo Bracchi in: Salesianum 80 (2018), Heft 1, S. 188

Supplementary Materials

ERRATA

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Table of contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgements Open Access Download PDF	xii
Prologue Open Access Download PDF	xiii
Introduction: Sociolinguistic diversification Open Access Download PDF	1
1. The origins of Spanish: Spain and the New World Open Access Download PDF	35
2. The first speakers of Mexican Spanish Open Access Download PDF	70
3. The Spanish language and its variations in New Spain Open Access Download PDF	110
4. Koineization and the first generation of Spanish speakers Open Access Download PDF	140
5. How Spanish diversified Open Access Download PDF	184
6. Continuity and change: The second generation Open Access Download PDF	211
7. Religion, bilingualism and acculturation Open Access Download PDF	249
8. Diversification and stability: 17th century Open Access Download PDF	278
9. The end of the colonial period: 18th century Open Access Download PDF	308
10. Diversification, attrition and residual variants Open Access Download PDF	343
11. Conclusions Open Access Download PDF	376
Appendix Open Access Download PDF	394
References Open Access Download PDF	401
Index Open Access Download PDF	415

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Students and Researchers of Spanish Linguistics, Historical Sociolinguistics, Anthropology, and Latin American History
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 423
Keywords: Historical Sociolinguistics; Diversification; Variation; Latin America

eBook

Published: October 24, 2016
ISBN: 9781501504532

Hardcover

Published: October 24, 2016
ISBN: 9781501512629

Paperback

Published: June 11, 2018
ISBN: 9781501516955