28.4643, Review: Spanish; Sociolinguistics: Hidalgo (2016)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-4643. Mon Nov 06 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.4643, Review: Spanish; Sociolinguistics: Hidalgo (2016)

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Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2017 13:22:16
From: Natalie Operstein [natacha at ucla.edu]
Subject: Diversification of Mexican Spanish

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/27/27-5162.html

AUTHOR: Margarita  Hidalgo
TITLE: Diversification of Mexican Spanish
SUBTITLE: A Tridimensional Study in New World Sociolinguistics
SERIES TITLE: Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL]
PUBLISHER: De Gruyter Mouton
YEAR: 2016

REVIEWER: Natalie Operstein,  

REVIEWS EDITOR: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

''Diversification of Mexican Spanish'' by Margarita Hidalgo examines the
interplay of external and internal factors in the origin and diversification
of Mexican Colonial Spanish. The study is based on close reading of
representative documents from different stages of the Mexican colonial period,
1520-1821, and comprises an introduction and eleven chapters. 

The introductory chapter introduces the book by defining its object of study,
Mexican Colonial Spanish (MCS), as ''the Spanish variety written (and spoken)
in Mexico during the colonial period'' (p. 26); and diversification as ''both
the act and the result of diversifying the roles, functions, domains, and even
traits of a transplanted language'' (p. 1). It introduces the colonial
documents to be examined in subsequent chapters, and the target linguistic
features to be traced in them (p. 26). The former principally consist of two
sets of documents, those from the Mexican Central Highlands (Company Company
1994) and those from the Gulf of Mexico (Melis et al. 2008). The targeted
linguistic features comprise seseo (merger of medieval Spanish sibilants into
a single /s/), leísmo (use of the third-person object pronoun 'le', as opposed
to the etymological 'lo', for direct masculine singular animate objects),
voseo (use of 'vos' as a singular second-person pronoun), use of the imperfect
subjunctive forms in -se versus those in -ra, and the presence of Taino and
Nahuatl borrowings. In addition to these key features, the book also aims to
examine ''residual variants'' (p. 26) deriving from MCS. These are forms
originating in the informal register that have been redistributed in and
currently pertain to colloquial New World Spanish. Two categories of residual
variants are distinguished: those used by most speakers in colloquial
registers (e.g. the use of 'lana' ''wool'' with the meaning ''money'') and
those confined to rural or socio-economically marginal areas (e.g. the use of
'vide' ''I saw'' and 'truje' ''I brought'' for the normative Spanish 'vi' and
'traje'). The introductory chapter also surveys the major cornerstones in the
standardization of Spanish, summarizes several key publications of the
pioneering Colombian dialectologist Rufino José Cuervo, and offers a
chapter-by-chapter outline of the book's contents. 

Several chapters provide the social and historical information to serve as
background for the analysis and interpretation of the linguistic data. These
are intercalated among the chapters that analyze the colonial documents. 

Chapter 1 continues to set the scene by surveying the major external events
and linguistic changes leading to the formation of Castilian and Andalusian
Spanish, the theories of origin of New World Spanish, the notion of
koineization as it applies to New World Spanish, and demographic information
about Spanish immigration to the New World. Chapter 2 looks at the social,
economic, racial, ethnic and linguistic composition of the early
Spanish-speaking colonial society, devoting particular attention to the role
of the records kept by the Inquisition in reconstructing this reality. Chapter
5 outlines the social, economic and cultural aspects of life in
sixteenth-century Mexico, with the focus on the loci of language contact and
the activities contributing to the diffusion of Spanish among non-Spanish
speaking groups. Among the aspects examined are the organization of labor in
the various industries, demographic data on the ethnic composition of urban
centers, organization of education and the curriculum taught, the linguistic
impact of printing, and the literary genres cultivated in the New World.
Chapter 7 focuses on the indigenous side of the Spanish-indigenous language
contact, examining such issues as the growing rates of bilingualism in
Spanish, the social and political contexts of Hispanization, the linguistic
effects of Christianization, the role of missionaries in the maintenance of
indigenous languages, and the role of ''Hispanicized Indians'' as
intermediaries between the Spanish-speaking and indigenous societies.  

The remaining chapters, except the last two, are devoted to the analysis of
the colonial documents. These are divided into several periods: the letters of
Hernán Cortés dating from 1519 and 1520 (analyzed in Chapter 3), documents
written in the first half of the sixteenth century and corresponding to the
first generation of MCS speakers (in Chapter 4), documents written in the
second half of the sixteenth century and corresponding to the first generation
of locally-born MCS speakers (in Chapter 6), documents from the seventeenth
century (in Chapter 8), and those from the eighteenth century (in Chapter 9). 

Chapter 3 analyzes the first and second letters of Hernán Cortés, ''[t]he
first speaker and writer of Mexican Spanish'' (p. 110). The letters, addressed
to the Emperor Charles V and Queen Doña Juana, are dated 1519 and 1520,
respectively, and relate the events leading to the conquest of Mexico. Their
linguistic analysis is divided into features of orthography, phonology,
lexicon and morphosyntax. Key features include preference for leísmo and the
imperfect subjunctive in -se, use of the second-person pronouns 'vos'
(singular) and 'vosotros' (plural), and the presence of Taino borrowings (e.g.
'cacique', 'canoa', 'ají'). Other features include mid / high vowel variation
(e.g. 'mesmo' ~ 'mismo'), initial /f/ ~ /h/ variation (e.g. 'fablar' ~
'hablar'), a rich repertoire of preposition-definite article and
preposition-demonstrative contractions (e.g. 'destos' for 'de estos'),
assimilation of object pronouns to infinitives (e.g. 'velle' for 'verle'),
feminine gender of selected presently masculine nouns (e.g. 'la calor' for 'el
calor'), use of 'como' as a relativizer, double negation, use of past
participles in adverbial clauses, use of prepositional gerund, variation
between the full ('para') and contracted ('pa') forms of the preposition
'para', older or variant forms of some common verbs (e.g. 'traxe' ~ 'truxe'
for modern 'traje', 'vido' for modern 'vio'), use of 'haber' ''have'' as a
possessive verb, variable placement of object and reflexive pronouns (e.g. 'se
partió' / 'acordóse' for modern 'se partió' / 'se acordó'), and use of
presently obsolete lexical items (e.g. 'aína' ''rapidly''). 

Chapter 4 analyzes representative documents from the Central Highlands and the
Gulf regions written in the period 1520-1555 by colonists born in Spain and
assumed to constitute the first generation of MCS speakers. Throughout this
period, the author assumes the existence of diglossic division of labor
between the formal (high) variety of Spanish based on the peninsular norm
('toledano-castellano') and the informal (low) variety based on the emergent
koine. The formative period of the koine is assumed to extend ''from the early
1520's to the mid 1550's and may be extended through the end of the 16th
century'' (p. 141). The documents present features that are similar to the
ones seen earlier in the letters of Hernán Cortés. Writers of this period
generally maintain the sibilant system of 'toledano-castellano', tend toward
leísmo, prefer the imperfect subjunctive in -se, and use 'vos' and 'vuestra
merced' as second-person singular pronouns. Apart from the established loans
from Taino and Nahuatl, writers of this generation also introduce local
toponyms (e.g. çacatula) and ethnonyms (e.g. çapotecas); in addition, the
author credits the tenseness of /s/ in Mexican Spanish to the introduction of
Nahuatl loans (pp. 173-175). Other salient features include maintenance of
fricative voicing and the /ʎ/ ~ /y/ opposition, mid / high vowel and initial
/f/ ~ /h/ alternation, assimilation of object pronouns to infinitives,
variation in the preterite of 'traer' ''bring'' ('traxe' ~ 'truxe') and the
gender of 'mar' ''sea'' ('la mar' ~ 'el mar'), use of prepositional gerund,
alternation in the placement of object and reflexive pronouns in relation to
infinitives and conjugated verbs with stylistic variants prefiguring modern
usage (e.g. 'le servir' alongside 'traerle', 'pusieronlos' alongside 'los
tenia'), preference for 'platicar' ''to chat'' over its synonym 'charlar', and
variation in the use of the preposition 'para', with some writers using only
the full form, others only the apocopated form, and still others alternating
the two forms in their writing. 

Chapter 6 examines representative documents from the second half of the
sixteenth century, produced by the first generation of locally-born Spanish
speakers. Omitting individual inter-speaker differences, the common thread
that runs through the observations is greater overall variability than in the
documents of the preceding period, attributed to greater impact of
inter-dialect contact on speakers of this generation. With respect to the key
features, there is variation in the spelling of the sibilants, with more
documented instances of seseo; preference for leísmo; and preference for the
imperfect subjunctive in -se, though it is more pronounced in the Gulf
documents than in those from the Central Highlands (pp. 247-248). The pronouns
of address are the singular 'vos' and 'vuestra / vuesa merced' and the plural
'vosotros' and 'vuestras / vuesas mercedes', with faint indications of voseo
in the occasional matching of 'vos' with the oblique forms and/or verb
paradigm of 'tú'. Other features include mid / high vowel variation, sporadic
deletion of postvocalic /d/s (e.g. 'salu' for 'salud'), hypercorrect /h/s
(e.g. 'horden' for 'orden'), interchange of liquids (e.g. 'habra' for
'habla'), and variable assimilation of post-infinitive clitics (e.g. 'ponella'
/ 'enbiarles').  

Seventeenth-century documents are examined in Chapter 8. A major trend
observed in this century is a rise in the instances of seseo, which is more
substantial toward the end of the century in both regions, comprising over 52%
of all sibilant spellings in the Central Highlands in the period 1681-1697
(Table 8.6, p. 290). Another major trend is restructuring of the pronouns of
address, characterized by the elimination of 'vos' and filling of its
functional space with 'tú' and 'vuestra merced' (Table 8.9, p. 301). As in the
preceding periods, there is preference for leísmo and the imperfect
subjunctive in -se. The minor differences between the Central Highlands and
the Gulf regions are noted, and in part explained, throughout the chapter
(e.g., p. 288). 

Chapter 9 examines documents from the eighteenth century. Major trends during
this century include prevalence of the etymological object pronoun 'lo' over
'le', of the imperfect subjunctive in -ra over the one in -se, and of the
second person pronouns 'tú' and 'vuestra merced', as well as a sharp increase
in the diminutives with the suffix -ito/-ita, which are used not only with
nouns but also with other parts of speech including adverbs (e.g. 'ahorita',
from 'ahora' ''now'') and gerunds ('llegandito', from 'llegando'
''arriving''). The use of the sibilant graphemes reveals tension between the
generalized seseo in the pronunciation and the adherence to normative
orthography, with about one-third of the spellings betraying seseo (Table
9.10, p. 321). The chapter also draws attention to the emergence of 'español
indígena' (indigenous Spanish) through a brief examination of language-contact
effects in several texts written by Nahuatl-Spanish bilinguals. Throughout,
the linguistic analysis is presented against the background of major
contemporaneous societal changes, including immigration trends, demographic
shifts, urban growth and transition to independence. The last factor is held
responsible for the society-level attitudes that favored the selection of
features distinguishing and distancing MCS from contemporary peninsular
Spanish; these features ''were supported by the resistance to ways-of-speaking
like Spaniards'' (p. 342). 

The last two chapters wrap up the book by reiterating the major findings and
threads of argumentation. Chapter 10 begins by summarizing the major dynamic
trends affecting the key linguistic features targeted by the study -- the
merger of sibilants resulting in seseo, the decline of leísmo, simplification
of the second-person pronoun system, and the decline in the use of the
imperfect subjunctive in -se -- through the lens of the hypothesis that
''[t]he attrition of contending variants in the milieu of diversification
reflects the decline of those that acquired a social meaning identified with
peninsular-oriented attitudes'' (p. 343). It then briefly surveys the survival
of residual variants in colloquial registers and isolated or marginal areas;
disregarding the distinction between the two types of residual variants, these
include certain lexical choices (e.g. 'harto' ''many, very''), the 'para' ~
'pa' variation, the addition of -s in the second-person preterite indicative
(e.g. 'pedistes' for 'pediste'), double possessives (e.g. 'su madre della'),
aspiration of initial /f/, and velarization of /b/ before the diphthong [we]
(e.g. 'aguelo' for 'abuelo'), among others. These features are assumed to have
been transmitted into modern Mexican Spanish as part of the koine that
coexisted with normative Spanish from the beginning of the colony, assuming
the function of the low variety in this diglossic relationship (p. 370).
Finally, Chapter 11 closes the book by emphasizing the need to view history,
society and language -- the three dimensions reflected in the book's subtitle
-- as interconnected phenomena to be integrated into a coherent explicative
model of language change. 

EVALUATION

The book provides a valuable linguistic analysis of texts covering the entire
colonial period in Mexico, together with a systematic comparison between the
documents from the Central Highlands and the Gulf regions. In many instances,
the analysis of the observed phenomena is not only qualitative but is also
supported by quantitative data, particularly as regards the key targeted
features of seseo, leísmo, voseo and imperfect subjunctives. The discussed
linguistic developments are embedded in a rich social, historical and cultural
context that aids in the comprehension of the observed trends and in the
analysis of their causal connections. The book opens interesting vistas for
research on the origins and functioning of diglossia in Mexican Spanish, and
also contributes to the body of case studies on the potential of societal
attitudes to propel differentiation between varieties of a single language.
Given its broad sweep, it promises to be a valuable reference resource on both
linguistic and sociohistorical aspects of the formation of Mexican Spanish,
and Latin American Spanish more generally.  

REFERENCES

Company Company, Concepción. 1994. Documentos lingüísticos de la Nueva España:
Altiplano Central. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.  

Melis, Chantal, Agustín Rivero Franyutti & Beatriz Arias Álvarez. 2008.
Documentos lingüísticos de la Nueva España: Golfo de México. Mexico City:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Natalie Operstein is the author of ''Consonant Structure and Prevocalization''
(2010) and ''Zaniza Zapotec'' (2015) and co-editor of ''Valence Changes in
Zapotec: Synchrony, Diachrony, Typology'' (2015) and ''Language Contact and
Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond'' (2017). Her research interests center on
language change, phonology and language contact.





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