Diversification of Mexican Spanish

Margarita Hidalgo

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781501504440
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

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.

Chapter 1

The origins of Spanish: Spain and the New World

1.1The origins

This chapter presents the most relevant external and internal factors that contributed to the formation of Castilian, Andalusian and New World Spanish. As a result of the repopulation movement advanced by Castilians during the very long period known as the Reconquest or Reconquista (711-1492), the new regional variety emerging in southern Spain came to be known as Andalusian, an offshoot of Castilian. In the history of the Spanish language, Castilian, Andalusian and New World Spanish are studied simultaneously because one cannot be entirely separated from the other two. The chronological order strongly suggests that the focus should be on Castilian first, Andalusian next, and New World Spanish last, but not least. The vast majority of studies do acknowledge the rise of Castilian in the first place, and as a result of the Reconquista (Reconquest) of southern Spain, the origins of Andalusian are interspersed with those of Castilian. Likewise, the emergence of New World Spanish is inextricably associated with both the history and development of Andalusian, although until recently Andalusian was not a well-known variety. The connection between Andalusian and New World Spanish has not been rejected; on the contrary, over one century of research has validated the preliminary proposals and theories advanced on the origins and development of the latter. The most important external factor impinging on the formation of New World Spanish was the transplantation of a prestigious European language, which was buttressed by the system of social stratification implemented in different New World colonies, the most prosperous found in the Mesoamerican and Andean regions. The system of social stratification had a dual socio-linguistic effect: on the one hand, it promoted the cultivation of an semi-formal standard, and on the other, the use of a vernacular variety unfolded in all the regions, towns, and cities where Spanish-speaking groups had relative and / or absolute power and control over the new colonial society. In this chapter, relevant features of Castilian, Andalusian and New World Spanish are compared and contrasted in order to highlight the patterns of evolution and systematic change, whenever possible.

The first speakers and writers of New World Spanish were born in different Spanish regions and belonged to different social and educational strata. Most of them were adult males who had had the trans-regional and transatlantic experience in their youth. There is more than sufficient evidence pointing to the diversity of peninsular regions from where Spanish immigrants originated but quantities are approximate in all available samples. The analysis of the samples confirms that the proportion of Andalusians was higher than any of the other immigrants from peninsular regions, even if at present none of the regional New World Spanish dialects is identical to any peninsular dialect in particular; moreover, the Spanish from some New World regions shares salient features with both Andalusian and Canarian Spanish. Assuming that Andalusians typically conformed one-third or more of any sample in any given area of the New World, the questions that follow refer to the contribution of Andalusians as compared to the rest of the immigrants, who also had had trans-Castilian experience and contact by the time they arrived in the New World. Does this imply that Andalusian stand out as the sole and most significant contributor to the formation of New World Spanish? In the New World environment, speakers of other Spanish varieties were active participants in building the underpinnings of a new colonial society, but Andalusian must be taken into consideration as a significant component.

While the original features of New World Spanish were similar across the continent at least during the 16th century, regional variation has been reported as a result of contact with indigenous languages, provenance of Spanish immigrants, location of new Spanish speaking communities, and socio-economic development, among other factors. It is thus useful to discuss the differences between peninsular dialects and the features that were passed on to the various New World Spanish colonies. After the partial colonization of the Caribbean islands, Mexico became an extremely active center of mining, agriculture, education, and religious experiments, a focused colony, an ideal place to test the hypothesis on the diversification of a language spoken by a minority of Spanish speakers. Mexico had a large indigenous population, several prestigious native languages, and a minority of Africa-born slaves or African descendants born in the New World. Due to the economic activities around the mining sites, the Mexican central areas attracted both ordinary immigrants and high-ranking officials from Spain, who underscored the relevance of all things being Castilian.

In spite of the regional variations and environmental differences ensuing in the newer areas, it is accepted that the origins of Spanish in the New World are similar, because the basic linguistic layer throughout the sub-continent is the same. The divergences between the regional varieties are spelled out more clearly after the various movements of independence from Spain occurring in the 19th century. Even during the three-century colonial period, regional differences began to be noticed. As a case in point, the Caribbean region and Mexico were considered as a unit inasmuch as the dates of colonization occurred in the early decades of the 16th century. Three main theories about the origins of New World Spanish were advanced in the 20th century: (1) the first one is known as monogenetic for it proposed that New World Spanish was a direct descendant of Andalusian Spanish; (2) the polygenetic theory underscored the diverse origins of New World Spanish; (3) and the theory of koineization stands out as the synthesis of the former two. A linguistic and sociolinguistic model showing that features of New World Spanish derive from the mixing of Spanish dialects and the addition of lexical items from Taino1 and Nahuatl is advanced in order to explain how the earliest variety of Mexican Spanish was formed.

1.2The rise of Castilian

The record of Christian resistance and the rise of Castilian hegemony are epitomized in Spain’s linguistic history for the unity of Visigothic Spain was disrupted by the Muslim invasion, an event that placed the whole south and center under the control of the non-Christian culture (Entwistle 1936/1951: 106). In the 10th century, Castile expanded as far as the Duero River (912) and the Guadarrama mountain range (ca. 950), a less extensive territory than what is now known as Castilla la Vieja (Old Castile). In the late 11th century, after the conquest of the kingdom of Toledo from the Moors it was necessary to distinguish the newly acquired region south of the Guadarrama as Castilla la Nueva (New Castile) from that of the north (Old Castile). The fullest extent of Castile was achieved at the end of the 12th century, when the Reconquista reached the Sierra Morena. Beyond this point, the term Castilian did not apply but the territory to the south was and still is Andalusia (Penny 1991: 25-26). (See Map 1.1 for location of traditional regions, cities, rivers, and mountains).

Following closely the development of the Reconquista, the most distinguishing traits of Castilian emerged in the north. Andalusian nonetheless evolved with differing variations, which in combination make the resulting regional dialect a contrastive unit within the Iberian Peninsula. The discovery of the New World coincided with the publication of Elio Antonio de Nebrija’s Gramática de la lengua castellana (1492/1984), the first grammar of a European language. A few decades later, Juan de Valdés was also attempting to set the Spanish language standards in his Diálogo de la lengua (1535). Both scholars described the Spanish language and the criteria of correction prevailing at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, respectively. The precedent to normalization of Spanish medieval usages can be found in the intense work of Alfonso X the Learned (1221-1284), who was determined to set the rules of castellano drecho (correct Castilian) since the mid-13th century. Correct Castilian followed the Burgos model with some concessions to the speech of Toledo and Leon. In the end the speech of Toledo was the basis to the linguistic leveling of the kingdom, and the graphemes used were solidly established. Until the 14th century, the transcription of Spanish sounds adhered to norms fixed by Alfonso’s Chancery and writings. By then, Castilian prose had become the vehicle of cultural transmission (Lapesa 1985: 240-242, 245-246). Directing his works from Toledo, the king made history as a humanist and historian. The Reconquista proceeded slowly until the Christian groups succeeded in repopulating the southern region, which had been heavily influenced by the Muslims.

In its earlier stages Castilian was a diasystem, that is, a mixture of dialects with no unified or homogenous structure. It shared traits with other dialects and had certain features not found elsewhere (Lloyd 1987: 273). Manuscripts written in early Old Spanish did not follow standard models until the scribes working for the king Alfonso rectified such situation. Under his reign, the royal Chancery patronized the simulation of the Castilian variety spoken in Toledo. Towards the end of the 13th century, the practices of Toledo began to influence the literary language but no longer represented the dialect of Burgos (Entwistle 1936/1951: 139, 169). Based on the Castilian dialect of Toledo the literary norm favored the older Romance standard at least as spelling is concerned. As a result of the scholarly endeavors of the king, regional traits disappeared in the 13th century. In contrast with other Hispano-Romance varieties, Castilian was the vehicle of a considerable production of scientific, historiographical, legal and literary work. By the end of Alfonso’s reign, it was no longer possible to identify a specific regional flavor in the writings of Castilians. The new supra-regional literary standard was based upon the speech of the Toledo upper classes, a variety originated in the Burgos area and extended to Toledo at the time of the Reconquista of New Castile. A standardized Castilian was increasingly used in the documents issued by the Chancery and stood as model of correctness whenever they were read, copied or imitated. This does not mean that the speech of Toledo was readily emulated by the upper classes of other Spanish cities. On the contrary, other Spanish cities developed their own norms, which in the end, contrasted with those of Toledo. This is the case of Seville, which was the largest and economically most prosperous city of the kingdom (Penny 1991: 15-16).

Alfonso the Learned believed that Castilian was the proper instrument to disseminate the culture that he was gathering and unifying; consequently, he deliberately broke with the tradition that supported Latin in erudite and scientific works. In supplanting Latin with Spanish, one finds the main reason for the large number of definitions. Because Spanish lacked the vocabulary to translate most of the works used, it was necessary to build words, to bring in learned words, or to explain uncommon words to the reader. In doing so, he resolved to name the objects while clarifying their meanings through etymologies, explanations, and descriptions. His method was flexible, since he preferred to follow concrete rather than abstract patterns. Alfonso promoted the idea that nouns were not so much concepts as they were something real, because his words were a reflection of everything in existence. Through his work, the preliminary dictionary of a Romance language can be reconstructed (van Scoy 1940). A random sample of 47 definitions retrieved from the Siete Partidas aid the reader in understanding the conception of the Spanish world as seen by the king. His definitions comprise a micro-context of lexicographic nature that can be placed within its referent, a macro-context, where each level corresponds to amplification and progressive extension. The structures utilize a set of symbols where clarity is better expressed by the separation of the parts (Roudil 1970: 162-163).

The Spanish spoken in the Iberian Peninsula showed since ancestral times a clear tendency to geo-chronological stages of koineization. Such process began in Burgos (9th to 11th centuries), one of the oldest northern cities, where immigrants from Asturias, Galicia, Santander, the Basque region and Navarre, as well as Mozarabs (mozárabes) from the south settled in the border county of Castile. These immigrants spoke different but mutually intelligible dialects, though the Basques also moved into Castile in large numbers, where they had to learn the Romance variety of the other speakers. Koneization continued in Toledo (11th and 12th centuries), and where a rapid increase in southward expansion and demographic mixing of the Christian Hispano-Romance speakers took place. In Toledo and its surrounding areas mozárabes, mudéjares, Jews, and Christians lived alongside with new arrivals from Castile, Leon, Asturias, Galicia, Navarra, Aragon, and Catalonia, not to mention the Christian ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgements
• Prologue
• Introduction: Sociolinguistic diversification
• Chapter 1 The origins of Spanish: Spain and the New World
• Chapter 2 The first speakers of Mexican Spanish
• Chapter 3 The Spanish language and its variations in New Spain
• Chapter 4 Koineization and the first generation of Spanish speakers
• Chapter 5 How Spanish diversified
• Chapter 6 Continuity and change: The second generation
• Chapter 7 Religion, bilingualism and acculturation
• Chapter 8 Diversification and stability: 17th century
• Chapter 9 The end of the colonial period: 18th century
• Chapter 10 Diversification, attrition and residual variants
• 11 Conclusions
• Appendix
• References
• Index
• Endnotes