Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: CHAT: I need help with the concept "New World Spanish"

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Sunday, September 1, 2002, 3:51
John Cowan wrote:


>I need help convincing an intelligent skeptic that there is a reasonably >identifiable concept of "New World Spanish" as distinct from "Peninsular >Spanish". His arguments are as follows: > ># It does not seem to me that ["New World Spanish"] identifies a single ># variety of Spanish any more precisely than "Spanish" by itself does, even ># within the varieties of Spanish dialects in Spain itself. Indeed even ># taking some of the salient phonetic features of "New World Spanish", one ># finds them in Andalucia anyway. Features of both vocabulary and grammar ># differ from country to country in the Americas, and they differ from each ># other as much as they differ from Spain. So what is being identified? No ># one thing is being identified [...]. I am open to be convinced
otherwise.
> >I think the error is in the phrase "they differ from each other as >much as they differ from Spain." Can anyone speak to this with arguments, >*especially* if backed up with references? The arguments need to be >in English, but there references can be in any language whatever. >Either spoken or written varieties or both may be relevant. > >OTOH, if I am quite wrong and there is no such meaningful concept, >do let me know at once. Thanks. >
I'm not sure you have a case, but the real Spanish speakers will have to weigh in. To my view, NWS is characterized by: 1. yeismo (merger of Castillian /ll/ and /y/ > /y/ 2. seseo (merger of /T/ and /s/-- though I'm not totally sure; seems to me I've heard Latinos distinguishing a more dental (US-like) /s/ < /T/ vs. apico-alv. /s/ as in standard Spanish) 3. greater tendency to aspirate final and pre-cons. /s/ (though rarely to lose it, as is said to be happening in Andalucia, with changes in the quality of the preceding vowel). But this may be a casual/fast-speech rule throughout the Hisp. world. As your friend would probably point out, these three factors also characterize Andalusian speech and probably other non-Castillian areas. The only real grammatical departure I can think of is the Argentine voseo-- but that again is found in Spain and occasionally elsewhere in the New World. Aside from this, and Argentine /Z/ or /S/ for /y/-- widespread but not total--, it seems to me that NWS is quite uniform in pronunciation and grammar (to be expected, in view of the relatively recent settlement vis-a-vis the Peninsula), though intonation, speed and some vocabulary vary regionally. Caribbean Span. is hardest for me to understand; aside from Cuban and PR, I've been exposed to Mexican, Peruvian, Bolivian, Chilean and Argentine with no problems. We're not talking street-slang, of course. Professors in college included a Cuban, a Castillian, plus two native Spaniards (one a Galician by birth, I think) who spoke "standard" but non-Castillian Spanish. There are even said to be small conservative pockets in Latin America that preserve /ll/ and /T/-- often described as upper-class, Madrid-oriented.

Reply

John Cowan <jcowan@...>