/ly/ vs. /y/

[Beverly Flanigan]

The paper was written in English (since we're a Linguistics dept, not a
Mod.Lgs. one).  It is not "officially" a thesis (we have a research paper
alternative, just as rigorous but generally shorter and not bound by
University committee and timeline rules), so it's not in OU's electronic
database; but I'll contact Mariella and she can send you a copy if she wishes.

Incidentally, I noticed in going through her paper again that two competing
prestige norms are present in Peru, or at least in the Arequipa
region:  One of her sources found that urban women (and men) look to the
Lima standard (which is /y/ or 'yeismo'), but rural (Andean) women adopt
the /ly/ as used in Cuzco, which they perceive as a more likely place to
migrate to for jobs than Lima would be.  Ironically, the middle and upper
class women of Cuzco (but not men) are changing to /y/ because they want to
move to (or identify with) Lima.  Competing norms based on socioeconomic
realities are not unusual, of course.


At 06:57 AM 7/18/01 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 07/17/2001 3:43:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU writes:
>
> > As it happens, a graduate student of mine last year (from Peru) did her
> >  M.A. thesis on the change from /ly/ to /y/ in her home area of
> Arequipa, in
> >  the south of Peru.  Her sources support the Quechuan influence as
> >  reinforcing the Castilian /ly/ in that area, but she adds sociolinguistic
> >  data to the historical.
>
>Is her thesis available electronically (in either English or Spanish)?  I'd
>be curious to see it, although as a dilettante I'm not about to go to much
>effort to find it.
>
>Muchas gracias for the information and for taking the time to distribute it.
>
>I am pleased to find that my guess (it was no more than a guess) that Andean
>/ly/ goes back to Castilian is correct.
>
>I have a further guess: the new-found "prestige" of the urban /y/ is due to
>radio and especially television, which in Peru, I am sure, emanates from Lima
>and therefore reflects the Lima dialect.
>
>              - Jim Landau  (whose six years of classroom Spanish left him
>less than fluent but quite interested in the language)


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm