Spanish Dialectology

This paper provides information on the regional variation of Spanish-language names for certain school- and office-supply objects, including: chalk; chalkboard; chalkboard eraser; crayon; (magic) marker; ballpoint pen; fountain pen; pencil eraser; pencil sharpener; rubber band; stapler; staple remover; thumbtack; hole punch; ink pad; notebooks; and briefcases. The terms that have been found to be used in each of the 20 Spanish-speaking countries will be presented.

This paper provides information on the regional variation of car terminology in Spanish by indicating the terms used in each Spanish-speaking country for the following items: car, bumper, clutch, gasoline, hood, horn, hubcap, inner tube, jack, license plate or auto tag, rim, roof rack, steering wheel, tire, trunk, speed bump, stop sign, and dump truck.

En las lenguas del mundo pronombres suelen ser sincrónicamente un sistema cerrado y estable. Diacrónicamente, sin embargo, los sistemas pronominales pueden cambiar rádicalmente, como sucede en el caso de español. Aunque este texto va a tratar brevemente del desarrollo histórico de las fórmulas de tratamiento en español, nos concentraremos en los usos modernos. Éstos son, a su vez, bastante complejos precisamente por la existencia del voseo y la aparición del ustedeo, que no son regladas por las instituciones ligadas a la lengua, y cuyas formas varían incluso dentro de un país. Procuraremos aclarar la confusión en el uso contemporáneo de los pronombres personales españoles y ya que este tema es bastante complicado intentaremos ser tan sistemáticos como podamos. Siendo las fórmulas de tratamiento lo que presenta las mayores divergencias entre los dialectos de español (los diferentes ʺespañolesʺ del mundo), consideramos muy importante el estudio de esos usos.

La variación dialectal de la fraseología ha sido poco investigada si se compara con la rica tradición de estudios fonéticos y lexicológicos que permitió desde hace décadas contar con mapas y atlas dialectológicos para todas las lenguas de Europa. Todo ello a pesar de la etimología de idiomático, idiomatismo (<del gr. 'ιδιός "particular" "específico"), que nos remite precisamente a lo que es propio del terruño. En cambio, es frecuente que los hablantes acompañen el uso de locuciones y proverbios con marcadores pragmáticos de tipo como dicen en mi pueblo; como decimos en mi tierra, como diría mi abuela, incluso para expresiones estándar. Ello parece presuponer la existencia  en la consciencia lingüística- de una relación entre la fraseología y las variedades no estándar (diatópicas o diafásicas), ya sea como estrategia retórica, ya sea por una hipercorrección intuitiva. La fraseología y la paremiología del español permiten observar ciertos indicios a este respecto.

This dissertation analyzes the variable (s) in the speech of Ciudad Real in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, from the viewpoint of variationist sociolinguistics. The data obtained in this research is contrasted with data on syllable-final s weakening in other Spanish dialects, and Ciudad Real is found to be among the dialects in the incipient stages of the change. The results of this study have shown that phonetic context, sex/gender, educational level and age are good predictors of the variability of the segment in question. It was also shown that distributional factors play a significantly smaller role than had previously been considered. Both real and apparent time data show the variable syllable-final s is stable on a general level, although two changes in progress (one from above and one from below) have also been detected. The variability of syllable-initial s was also analyzed, and it was found that, as regards this variable, Ciudad Real belongs among the vast majority of Spanish dialects with marginal levels of weakening in this context.

En esta contribución se trata el estatus del español de Guinea Ecuatorial en el conjunto de las variedades de la lengua española. Partiendo de investigaciones y publicaciones previas, en los primeros apartados se resumen posibles razones que pueden explicar el amplio desconocimiento y las valoraciones negativas del español de Guinea Ecuatorial en el mundo hispanohablante. Se exponen motivos sociohistóricos, políticos, geográficos y lingüísticos, y se repasan (y refutan) diferentes prejuicios y calificaciones desfavorables acerca del español ecuatoguineano, que han contribuido a su posición marginal en la dialectología española. A continuación, se subraya la importancia del español de Guinea Ecuatorial para la investigación sobre las variedades hispanas, se resumen sus rasgos lingüísticos definitorios, que permiten considerarlo como dialecto propio, y se señala su relevancia para los estudios afrohispánicos. El artículo cierra con unas líneas de conclusión en las que se destacan algunos avances recientes en el proceso hacia el reconocimiento del español de Guinea Ecuatorial.
Palabras clave: Dialectología española, español de Guinea Ecuatorial, estudios afrohispánicos, política lingüística, prejuicios lingüísticos

This article treats the status of the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea in comparison with other varieties of the Spanish language. Based on previous research and publications, the first paragraphs discuss possible reasons that may explain the widespread ignorance about and the negative attitude towards the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea in the Spanish-speaking world. Some socio-historical, political, geographical and linguistic reasons will be evaluated, and different prejudices and unfavorable valuations on the Equatoguinean Spanish, which have contributed to its marginal position in the Spanish dialectology, will be reviewed (and refuted). Further, we will emphasize the importance of the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea for the investigation about the varieties of Spanish, summarize its linguistic features, which allow us to consider it as an own dialect, and point out its relevance to the Afro-Hispanic studies. The article finishes with some conclusions that highlight the recent advances in the process towards the recognition of the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea.
Keywords: Spanish Dialectology, Spanish of Equatorial Guinea, Afro-Hispanic Studies, Language Policy, Linguistic Prejudices

Resumen Como es sabido, las metáforas taurinas españolas expresan una multitud de significados figurativos en el lenguaje cotidiano, y los hablantes ni siquiera suelen darse cuenta de que son expresiones tomadas del dominio conceptual de la corrida. Este fenómeno se cita a menudo como un prototipo de la relación entre una lengua y una cultura. Sin embargo, la cultura evoluciona más rápido que la lengua, tanto en el plano histórico como en el geográfico. El dominio fuente (en este caso, la tauromaquia "real") ha desaparecido hace mucho tiempo en algunas ex colonias, mientras que sigue existiendo en España y otros países latinoamericanos, por lo tanto, el conocimiento básico estructurado, supuestamente proyectado en otros dominios conceptuales, no es compartido por toda la comunidad lingüística. Si la pérdida de la motivación cultural afecta al uso, ello podría conllevar una frecuencia menor (o incluso nula) de esas metáforas en los países sin tauromaquia, y, en cambio su conservación debería conllevar una mayor frecuencia en los países donde la corrida sigue practicándose. Esta hipótesis es sometida a verificación mediante el estudio cuantitativo de un gran corpus digital panhispánico representativo de diversas zonas geolingüísticas. Palabras clave: tauromaquia, corrida, fraseología española, variación diatópica; variación fraseológica. Abstract: It is a well-known fact that Spanish bullfighting metaphors express a great number of figurative meanings in everyday language, and that speakers do not even realize that they are using metaphors taken from the "corrida" conceptual domain. This phenomenon is often quoted as a prototype of the intertwined relationship between a language and a culture. However, culture moves faster than language, both in terms of history and geography. The source domain (in this case, "real" bullfighting) has disappeared long ago in certain former colonies, while it still exists in Spain and other Latin-American countries. Therefore, the basic structured knowledge, supposedly mapped on other conceptual domains, is not shared by the whole linguistic community. If the loss of cultural motivation affects the frequency use, this could lead to a lesser frequency of these metaphors (or even none) in the countries without bullfighting, while its conservation should lead to a greater frequency in countries where bullfighting is still practiced. This hypothesis is verified through the quantitative study of a large pan-Hispanic digital corpus representative of various geolinguistic areas.

This paper presents information on the regional Spanish-language names of games, pastimes, and playground devices, as well as school and other terminology related to children. 0 INTRODUCTION There are many games, pastimes, playground devices and school-related phenomena that have different names in different regions of the Spanish-speaking world. For example, people in Bogotá, Colombia call the game of 'hopscotch' golosa whereas in Mexico City the same game is called avión. In cases where regional variation in terminology has been noted, this paper seeks to provide information on which terms are used where. This article, and the series of articles by the author on Spanish lexical dialectology that have previously appeared in also seek to promote the view that all varieties of Spanish are merely varieties, no more and no less, and to dispel the notion, held by many, that the Spanish of Castilla is the primary and privileged form of the language and that all others are substandard, divergent variants. By presenting a series of pastels or chromatic scales of Spanish regionalisms, the author wishes to both explore and celebrate Hispanic diversity. The emphasis of this article is not on children-related phenomena that exist only in certain regions, but on ones that are common in many Spanish-speaking countries. The word "item" will be used to refer to the particular phenomenon that is addressed in each of the paper's sixteen sections.

This work supposes a new look at the “yeísmo” phenomenon, which usually has been treated from a regional perspective. In this case, a revision on the whole Spanish domain is been done based on the analysis of linguistic atlas data. Such a method allows us to focus on results from real speakers (real tokens) though it has the problem that there are important areas left with no linguistic atlas published. Nevertheless, it is possible to examine most of the Peninsular (and Insular) Spanish and most parts of American Spanish. The results prove that the phenomenon is not homogeneous in none of the regions considered; in fact, it exhibits a high degree of variation. Our findings make evident that there is an unfinished change process which can conclude in hipoarticulated sounds (relaxed solutions) in some regions or in hiperarticulated (strengthened solutions) in others.

This paper provides information on the regional variation of Spanish-language names for certain animals (alligators, armadillos, capybaras, opossums, skunks, and tadpoles), birds (hummingbirds, buzzards, and vultures), and insects (dragonflies, fireflies, locusts, grasshoppers, ladybugs, and mosquitos). The terms that have been found to be used in each of the 20 Spanish-speaking countries will be presented and readers will expand their  knowledge of regional Spanish terminology.

El uso de las construcciones de adverbio locativo con pronombre posesivo en el español peninsular: un primer acercamiento diatópico Abstract: This diatopic study examines the characteristics of the locative adverb constructions that select possessive pronouns as complements in Peninsular Spanish oral corpora. Firstly, the range of locative adverbs that take part in this construction are scrutinised, as well as their frequency of use with respect to that of their counterparts, in which a prepositional phrase appears as a complement to the locative adverb. Secondly, the geographic spread within Spain and the diatopic differences between the various autonomous communities are discussed. Thirdly, this paper also explores the variation in use between the possessive affixes-o and-a and the motivations traditionally given for this variation: to wit, the analogy with the final vowel of the locative adverb and the agreement with the referent of the possessive pronoun. Finally, it is proposed that diatopy, not previously considered in the literature, might be an influencing factor in said variation, given that there appears to be a strong link between the region and the use of one or another desinence of the possessive. This is, for instance, the case for Andalusia, where the vast majority of the locative adverb cases with posses-sives exhibit the suffix-a.

Resumen En este artículo se analiza la percepción de los hablantes caraqueños sobre la distribución del espacio geolectal venezolano. Los resultados muestran la clasificación dialectal del país a partir de las percepciones y creencias subjetivas de los informantes y posteriormente, estos resultados se contrastan con los datos ofrecidos por los lingüistas. Este tipo de estudios permite analizar cómo los hablantes comunes reconocen y valoran su propia variedad dialectal y la de los demás. Asimismo, este tipo de trabajos dialectológicos perceptivos permiten describir y explicar la dinámica del contacto y cambio lingüístico. Palabras clave dialectología, dialectología perceptiva, percepción, Venezuela DIVISIÓN DIALECTAL DEL ESPAÑOL VENEZOLANO: ESTUDIO DIALECTOLÓGICO PERCEPTIVO Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze the perception of the distribution of Venezuelan geolectal space by speakers from Caracas. Results show the dialectical classification of the country from speakers' subjective perceptions and beliefs. The results are then contrasted with data offered by linguists. These types of studies allow the analysis of how common speakers recognize and value their own dialectical variation and that of others. Likewise, this type of perceptual dialectological study also allows the description and explanation of the dynamics of contact and linguistic change.

This study analyzes lexical accommodation in Judeo-Spanish (JS) to model Peninsular and Latin American (PLA) Spanish varieties. Data were obtained through sociolinguistic interviews, including an oral translation task, conducted in Istanbul, the Prince Islands, and New York City. Although accommodation appears higher in those lexical items that involve phonological adaptation, such as changing a JS palatal to a PLA velar ([mu.'3er] --> [mu.'xer]), accommodation by lemma replacement is also a widely- used strategy (JS merkar - > PLA comprar). Most of these lemmas appear in all three communities, and a statistical analysis demonstrated that accommodation is higher among speakers 60 years of age and younger. Also, New York City presents the highest percentages of accommodation, probably due to constant contact with other Hispanic and PLA Spanish-speaking populations in the United Stales. Additional sources and motivations for accommodation include having relatives in Spanish-speaking areas, language attitudes, and professional marketability in a globalized economy.

This paper provides information on the regional variation of Spanish-language names for items relating to: names of letters (b, v, w); some verbs that vary regionally, such as the Spanish equivalents of “hurry up,” “turn right/left,” “turn around” (a person), “pull” (a rope), “push” (a button), “throw (something) out”; morphology issues such as diminutives, the gender of certain words, and forms of address; and miscellaneous items, such as the Spanish words for “today,” “good morning,” “brown” (the color), “string,” “twine,” “band-aid,” and “styrofoam.” The terms that have been found to be used in each of the 20 Spanish-speaking countries are presented, and readers will expand their knowledge of regional Spanish terminology.

This paper provides information on the regional variation of Spanish-language names for items relating to urban existence, such as sidewalk and shantytown, and to bureaucracy, such as slang terms for influences (i.e., pull or clout). The terms that are used in each of the 20 Spanish-speaking countries are presented, and readers will expand their knowledge of regional Spanish terminology.

This paper presents information on regional Spanish-language terminology that relates to the home. 0 INTRODUCTION The paper indicates the terms used to refer to certain objects, components, places and phrases __ referred to collectively as "items" __ that have two characteristics in common: The items all have some relation to the home, and the term a Spanish speaker uses to refer to them is primarily a function of where the speaker is from. The title of each section is the item's common name(s) or designation(s) in United States English: 1) apartment, 2) baby bottle, 3) (baby's) pacifier, 4) bag, 5) bathtub, 6) blanket, 7) bleach, 8) bucket or pail, 9) closet, 10) clothespin, 11) comb, 12) fan, 13) faucet, 14) flowerpot, 15) garbage can, 16) "hello" (answering the telephone), 17) light bulb, 18) living room, 19) match, 20) mop, 21) refrigerator, 22) safety pin, 23) (bathroom) sink, 24) (kitchen) sink, 25) speaker (of a stereo), 26) stove, 27) stove burner, 28) swimming pool, 29) tape recorder, 30) toilet, 31) to flush the toilet, and 32) (toilet) plunger.

This article analyses the function and distribution of the so-called “overt subject expletive” ello/ele/ell in certain non-standard Ibero-Romance varieties. Novel empirical facts are presented to illustrate the phenomenon’s heterogeneous characterization, the present-day variation of which is argued to be explained by the different degrees of change undergone by the expletive element in each Ibero-Romance variety. The pragmatic import of today’s Iberian expletive resembles the semantic value of the oldest and most commonly attested examples of the phenomenon in the historical corpora used. This observation serves as the point of departure for the diachronic reconstruction of the element’s development from its proposed origin in epistemic contexts to the present day, where the alleged Iberian expletive exhibits both expletive and pragmatic characteristics even within the same variety.

En este artículo se analiza la función y distribución del llamado “sujeto expletivo visible” ello/ele/ell en ciertas variedades ibero-románicas no estándares. Se presentan nuevos datos empíricos con el fin de demostrar la caracterización heterogénea del fenómeno, cuya variación actual, según se argumenta, se ve explicada por los distintos grados de cambio sufridos por el elemento expletivo en cada variedad ibero-románica. La contribución pragmática del expletivo ibérico actual semeja el valor semántico de las pruebas empíricas más antiguas y más frecuentes del elemento en los corpus históricos consultados, observación que sirve de punto de partida para reconstruir la trayectoria diacrónica del elemento desde su propuesto origen en contextos impersonales y epistémicos hasta la actualidad, en que el presunto expletivo ibérico demuestra características tanto expletivas como pragmáticas incluso dentro de la misma variedad.

Resumen

Este estudio analiza 200 usos léxicos que varían diatópicamente, comparando los de cuatro países de habla hispana: España, Perú, Ecuador y México. Es un trabajo casuístico, descriptivo y didáctico. Contiene información orientativa en la medida en que señala los términos que las personas de estos cuatro países suelen emplear para expresar ciertos conceptos. Toma como punto de partida los usos peninsulares e incluye ejemplos que los ilustran. También se indican los términos o frases equivalentes en inglés estadounidense.


Abstract

This study analyzes 200 lexical usages that vary regionally by comparing the usages of four Spanish-speaking countries: Spain, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. The paper is enumerative, descriptive and educational in nature. It contains information to guide readers insofar as it indicates the terms that people in these four countries tend to use to express certain concepts. Peninsular Spanish usage is taken as the point of departure and examples illustrating it are included. The United States English equivalents are also indicated.

En este articulo se analiza la percepcion de los hablantes caraquenos sobre la distribucion del  espacio geolectal  venezolano. Los resultados muestran la clasificacion dialectal del pais a partir de las  percepciones y creencias subjetivas de los informantes y posteriormente, estos resultados se contrastan  con los datos ofrecidos por los linguistas. Este tipo de estudio s permite analizar como los hablantes  comunes reconocen y valoran su propia variedad dialectal y la de los demas. Asimismo, este tipo de  trabajos dialectologicos perceptivos permiten describir y explicar la dinamica del contacto y cambio  linguistico.

Cuatrocientos veinticinco millones de personas hablan español en el mundo cubriendo un total de veintiún países, cada uno con su propia evolución histórica y cultural. No es sorprendente entonces que una palabra en este idioma varíe mucho en significado y en contexto que, a diferencia del inglés, hablado también en distintos continentes, no mantiene un carácter más o menos homogéneo. El español varía hasta tal punto que un hablante nativo no entienda el significado en un marco cultural diferente. Esto no es  tan grave, ya que aún es posible deducir el sentido del contexto. Pero cuando se trata de traducir, la dificultad es mucho mayor ya que se debe encontrar el significado más exacto. Este ejercicio que presento expone el fenómeno de la variación de un significado en el mundo hispanohablante.

In this paper discusses whether the spelling of words of foreign origin, such as whisk(e)y, carnet, and ballet, should be "preserved" or "Hispanized" as güisqui, carné, and balé, respectively. What should the criteria be for whether loanwords get Hispanized or preserved? Are spelling and vocabulary variations such as baloncesto, básquetbol, basquetbol, basketball, básquet, etc. to be tolerated (or even celebrated), or should a single standard be promoted and/or imposed? Many controversial issues that lie at the intersection of "foreign" influences, regional variation, and cultural-societal differences will be addressed and readers' vocabulary will be enriched.

Although millions of speakers of Spanish employ voseo, the twentieth century did not see a single article published in Hispania that suggested incorporating instruction on voseo into the language classroom. In contrast, the twenty-first century has already seen three articles published in Hispania that have suggested teaching voseo. At the same time, trends in study abroad and immigration are increasing links between the United States and three voseante nations. This essay investigates the field’s evolving treatment of voseo, with a special focus on Hispania’s first 100 years, and argues for the need to incorporate voseo into the twenty-first-century classroom.