Spanish /ll/ --> /ly/ --> /y/

[Elizabeth]

Bill,

It depends on the Castilian features. It is true, however that "ll" > /ly/
is a Castilian feature and this feature is one found in the Highlands of
Latin America. When Spaniards migrated to the "New World", the tendency was
to locate to areas similar to those similar to where they lived in their
homeland. Castilian Spanish is spoken in the North and Central areas of
Spain, which are mountainous areas. The people of the southern part of
Spain, Andalucia, tended to migrate to the islands and lowlands of the "New
World". However, you have to also keeop in mind that all Spaniards left
Spain through Andalucia and some spent months and even years there before
being able to get to the "New World", therefore perhaps picking up some of
the Andalusian features prior to their departure. There are few features of
Castilian Spanish in Latin America, but those that exist tend to be in the
Highlands, whereas Andalusian features tend to be more prevalent in all of
Latin America and mainly in the islands and lowlands. You might want to
check Ralph Penny's new book "Variation and Change in Spanish. It is quite
complete on the different features and their evolution throughout the
centuries. I hope this helps you.

---- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Smith" <wh5mith at MINDSPRING.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 9:27 PM
Subject: Re: Spanish /ll/ --> /ly/ --> /y/


> I just got around to following this thread.  When I was a graduate student
> at the Univ. of Georgia, about 25 years ago, I attended a presentation on
> American dialects of Spanish.  I have no idea who the speaker was (Spanish
> is not my field), but he argued that Latin American dialect boundaries are
> based on altitude:  higher altitudes tend to be more Castilian, while
lower
> ones are more Andalusian.  This idea hasn't been mentioned; is anyone out
> there familiar with it?