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

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.

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