Argentina and Chile

Joanna Rapley, Lucy Rossiter, Alice Howell, Elvira Comas, Hannah Gamon, Christina

Hewitt, Paul Eddison

Latin American Spanish• Los hablantes de español en

América conforman el 95% de los hablantes de español en el mundo, frente al 5% que se encuentra en España, incluidas las islas Canarias.

• El español es la única lengua oficial de todos los países de América Latina; las lenguas indígenas son reconocidas y protegidas por las constituciones como parte del patrimonio cultural de cada país.

Español de América• Diversas teorías y opiniones acerca de su consideración lingüística y sociolingüística, y en

relación a la lengua hablada en la península. Podemos decir que sólo hay dos rasgos hispanoamericanos propios principales: seseo y el uso del pronombre “ustedes”.

• Terminología amplia: en inglés se denomina Latin American Spanish; en español hablamos de “Español de América”, “Español en América”, “Español Latinoamericano”, “Español hispanoamericano”, “Español Atlántico” (América, Andalucía y Canarias).

• El Español de América es un dialecto del español, con diferentes criterios para agrupar las variedades:

1: Diferencia dialectal entre las tierras altas y de interior y las tierras bajas o costeras. Esta diferencia es histórica: los castellanos se asentaron en las tierras de interior y los andaluces y canarios en las costas y tierras bajas. En el interior hay rasgos castellanizantes (consonantismo tenso) y en la costa más cercanos al andaluz, (consonantismo débil e importancia vocálica)

2: Diferencias sociales según los estratos. 3. División por países, descripciones más estudiadas en la actualidad. Esta

metodología tiene algunos inconvenientes, pues en muchas ocasiones las fronteras dialectales y las geográficas no coinciden, y aparecen las denominadas áreas dialectales.

• Las principales áreas dialectales en América, según Henríquez Ureña, son cinco: 1: Español de México: México, Nuevo México y los países de Centro América

Lengua indígena : náhuatl2. Español Andino: sur de Colombia, sierra ecuatoriana y peruana, parte de

Bolivia, norte de Chile y noroeste de Argentina . Lengua indígena: quechua3. Español Chileno: centro y sur de Chile. Lengua indígena: mapuche o araucano4. Español Caribeño: Antillas y costa atlántica de México, Centroamérica,

Venezuela y Colombia. Lengua indígena: taíno5. Español del Río de la Plata: Argentina, Paraguay y Uruguay. Lengua indígena:

guaraní

• Teorías de los orígenes del español de América: la teoría indigenista de Lenz, la teoría poligenética de Henríquez Ureña y Amado Alonso y la teoría andalucista de Wagner y Boyd Bowman.

• La Teoría Andalucista es la que goza de mayor prestigio: en América hay una fuerte presencia de andaluces que llegan desde el inicio de la conquista, e influyen en la configuración lingüística. Esta teoría la apoyan, entre otros, Menéndez Pidal.

Zonas dialectales del español en América y división de las lenguas indígenas

An Historical Overview of Argentina

Introduction

• In terms of surface area- Argentina is the largest Spanish-speaking country

• It is estimated that that 37 million people currently live in Argentina

• ‘porteño’ – (prototype for Argentine Spanish in the rest of the Spanish speaking world) overshadows the many regional and social dialects

• Main differences between regional dialects are phonological rather than lexical

The settlement of Argentina• The settlement of Argentina was carried out from three different points –

each of which entailed different patterns of language contact and consequently, linguistic development.

• Buenos Aires was founded in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza • The huge estuary formed by the convergence of the Paraná and Uruguay

rivers was named ‘Rio de la Plata’• When hostile Indians from the Pampas forced evacuation of Buenos Aires

a few years later, the residents were resettled in Asunción• Buenos Aires was re-established in 1580 by colonists from Spain and

neighbouring colonies. • The cities of Tucumán, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Salta, Corrientes, and Jujuy

were also established in a similar way. • Northern Argentina - settled by Spanish small farmers and tradesmen,

which meant that there was a decidedly rustic Spanish dialect from the beginning

Importance of Buenos Aires 1617- became the capital of the colonial province of Río de la Plata Formation of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata in 1776- compromising

present day Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia Buenos Aires was the point of departure for the settlers who founded

Montevideo in 1726- explains the similarity in the speech in the two cities Few indigenous populations around Buenos Aires and the Pampas -

eventually faded away- leaving the Pampas to be settled by European colonists.

Large number of African slaves were also brought through the port of Buenos Aires

In the north east, the Guaraní presence was always strong, and as in Paraguay the Spanish language developed in close contact with Guarani.

Western Argentina Extreme Western Argentina was settled from Chile - provinces of

Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis originally forming the Chilean province of Cuyo.

The principal cities of the region were founded in late 16th century - remained under the administration of Chile until the creation of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata- this zone then fell under the administrative jurisdiction of Tucumán, hence it absorbed some linguistic traits.

Today- the speech still bears close resemblance to the dialects of central Chile, although Buenos Aires prestige standard is strong

The indigenous population-once significant, representing several ethnic groups. However- racial mixing with the Spaniards - although the ethnic identity has pretty much disappeared, local lexical items and place names do reflect their former presence.

North western Argentina Settled by expeditions based in Peru, travelling through

Bolivia. The region once contained a significant Quetchua-speaking

population- and some remnants still exist today Quetchua strongly influenced the development of regional

dialects, and provided some words to general Argentine Spanish

Santiago- which originally enjoyed long but direct trade routes with Lima- was later overshadowed by Cordoba and Tucumán- fell into an isolation which may account for its status as a linguistic enclave with unique dialectal features.

Extra- Hispanic linguistic Influences

• The Indians who continually attacked the Spanish coastal residents were referred to as Pampas- but the groups living near Buenos Aires were Querandí

• Left few linguistic traits except for a few place names- however- the word ‘gaucho’ could belong to the Pampas

• Southern Argentina – several nomadic groups known as Patagonians- remnants of these groups still survive , living in a marginal existence outside of the cultural and linguistic sphere of Spanish speaking Argentina

• North Eastern Argentina- was the home of Guaraní speaking groups, as well as other smaller populations

• Guarani is still spoken here and has contributed numerous lexical items- as well as phonetic and grammatical features

• Extreme north western Argentina had fallen under Inca domination, and Quechua was spreading as a lingua franca- displacing local languages – the Indians of this zone were more submitted to Spanish forced labour, resulting in an enduring linguistic contact which has profoundly shaped the local Spanish dialect.

• The original languages left only place names, but the increasing use of Quechua in the Argentine north west has permanently affected regional speech.

• African slaves were brought to Argentina from the earliest colonial times to work in agriculture

• But racial mixing took place and so no permanent African linguistic or cultural influences remained.

• In Buenos Aires- Africans lived and worked together and formed cabildos and cofradías based on individual ethnic groups- therefore there are few linguistic words which are believed to have come from African decent, eg ‘mucama’- femal domestic servant

• From mid-19th century until WW2- Argentina received several million European immigrants -There were many Spaniards, particularly from the Canary Islands, and many English, French, Russian, Syrian and Lebanese

• During the period 1860-1910- it is estimated that over 3 million European immigrants came to Argentina

• In Patagonia, Welsh immigration resulted in self-contained communities where welsh is spoken even today

• However, Italian immigration, which begun in late 1800’s had the most linguistic impact on Argentine Spanish

• contact language known as ‘cocoliche’ which disappeared as the children of immigrants acquired Spanish as a first language.

• For much of the early 20th century- more than half the population of many Buenos Aires neighbourhoods were of Italian origin

• Evidently there are many Itlalian linguistic influences– included a majority of the lunfardo lexicon, the characteristic slang of Buenos Aires.

Phonology

•Word Final /n/ is alveolar•Intervocalic /d/ does not fall as readily as in other countries•Affricate /č/ hardly ever loses its occlusive elements•Syllable final /s/ is weakened or elided

•Reduction of /s/:Male speakers•Loss of /s/:Middle class

•Syllable-final liquids rarely undergo neutralization or other modification

El negro shicoba

Yo soy un neglito, niñas,que ando siemple pol acá,

vendo plumelos, schicobas,y naide quiele complá.

Selá polque soy tan negloque pasa de rigulá

y tolas las niñas juyenque palecen asustás.

César Hipólito Bacle

“Hola Che, ¿como andas? Yo me llamo María Lorena y vivo en Marbella. Me gusta ir a la playa y comer paella y tomar unos mates con yerba. ¿ Y vos? ¿ Que haces?”

Buenos Aires/Southern Littoral

• Multiple /rr/ pronounced as alveolar trill

• The phenome /λ/ does not exist• /y/ receives a groove fricative =

žeismo or rehilamiento

Northeast/Guaraní-influenced zones

• Phenome /λ/ still kept by most speakers in Misiones and Corrientes

• /y/ is frequently an affricate• Final /r/ frequently drops in Misiones and Corrientes• Multiple /rr/ sometimes receives a groove fricative

pronunciation• Glottal stops between words and as hiatus breakers

are found

Northwestern/Quechua-influenced zones

• Assibilation of phrase final /r/• Santiago del Estero = /y/ pronounced as [y]

and /λ/ is [ž]• Stressed-timed rhythm of many central-

northern dialects• /y/ rarely receives a groove fricative

pronunciation

Morphology

• Voseo - use of vos instead of tú. • Verb endings for vos generally – ás, ís, és.• Imperative endings – cantá, comé, subí.• Subjunctive – cantés, comás, subás (younger generation using tú form more).• Lo as third person singular direct object pronoun.• Imperfect Subjunctive – llevara over llevese.• Future tense – ir a + infinitive over simple future.•Vosotros and os replaced by ustedes and se.

Syntax

• Doubling of definite personal direct object pronoun – Lo conozco a Juan.

• Preterite tense sometimes used instead of imperfect even when expressing continuity.

• In some regions, yo replaces a mí – yo me parece bien.• Use of se even when third person isn’t involved – ¿se

vamos? (Less educated speakers)• Subject pronoun sometimes followed by infinitive or

gerund – yo llegando. (Rural areas)• Brazilian Portuguese influence – diminutive –iño on end

of nouns and tener as auxiliary verb. (Misiones region)

Lexicon3 main categories:• Spanish influences – Che and Pibe/Piba as terms of address.

Derive from Spanish spoken in Canary Islands.• Italian influences – Colloquial terms such as chao to mean

goodbye. Words to do with food, family and daily life such as esbornia (drunk), morfar (to eat) and fiaca (lazyness).

• Lunfardo – The vernacular speech of the working classes of Buenos Aires. Possibly from Italian influences, but signs of Spanish, Portuguese, French slang, English. Words leaked into the main vernacular through tango lyrics. Mina (woman/girlfriend), cana (prison/police), menega (money).

• Other influences – sailors (atracar = to move/bring closer) el Andalúz (empeñoso – hard-working), Indigenous people from Latin American (mate – the drink that many people from Argentina drink).

Chile

Chilean Spanish• Despite their geographical proximity, Chilean Spanish is not the

same as that of Argentina.

• Typified by that spoken in Santiago-Valparaiso

• Varies very little throughout the region.

• Often regarded as having a ‘special status’.

• Variation found more at the vernacular level than among educated professionals.

Historical Background• 1540 - began to be conquered by Pedro de Valdivia

• 1541 - Santiago was founded

• Shortly after 1550, Hurtado de Mendoza began the conquest of Southern Chile but natural disasters and Indian attacks hindered the progress of the Spaniards.

• Northern Chile was part of the Inca Empire, but weak Inca presence. • Native resistance against Valdivia from

the Araucanians, particularly from the Mapuches who managed to resist Spanish domination by adopting European military tactics.

• Sporadic fighting continued until way into the 19th century, even after independence from Spain had been formally been proclaimed in 1818.

• 19th century - silver deposits were discovered, and this, along with copper and nitrate mining, which was controlled by foreign interests (predominantly Birtish), came to dominate the nation’s export based economy.

• As a result, in the extreme north a number of Anglicisms penetrated the local lexicon.

• 19th century – also time of territorial expansion, following War of the Pacific (1879 – 1883) Chile acquired its northern provinces from Peru and Bolivia.

• 1970 Salvador Allende gained presidency of Chile but was deposed in 1973

• Pinochet – devastating 16 year military dictatorship (1973-1990) but little or no effect on the language

• Democracy – now Chile is one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations.

The influence of indigenous

languages on Chilean Spanish• Lenz - ‘el español de Chile (i.e. la pronunciación

vulgar) es principalmente español con sonidos araucanos,’ although this was later revised.

• Lenz also assured that he had found close to 10 phonetic traits of Mapuche in the Spanish spoken in Chile.

• Lenz’s theory rejected by Oroz, who attributed these phonetic traits not simply to the Spanish spoken in Chile, but as common to Latin American Spanish.

Examples of loanwords of Quechua and Mapuche origin found in Chilean

Spanish

Quechua

guaso: rústico, campesino de Chile (rustic,

country/rural Chilean people)

chacra: granja (farm)

garúa: llovizna (drizzle)

palta: aguacate (avocado)

Oroz believed it is in the vocabulary of Chilean Spanish that the influence of the indigenous language of Mapuche and Quechua is most evident, in what is known as ‘lexicographical loanwords’.

Mapuche

chépica:grama (lawn)

guata:panza, barriga (belly/paunch)

machi:curandera (witch doctor)

In conclusion…• Although the extent to which the Aracuano/Mapuche indigenous

language has influenced the Spanish of Chile has not yet been determined, that they have contributed to the Chilean lexicon is indisputable, especially at the level of the rural vernacular.

• Furthermore, although the influence of indigenous languages on Chilean Spanish is steadily decreasing, there are still communities in Southern Chile which speak the Mapuche language, and in the extreme northeast, there is also a small but stable Aymara speaking community.

Linguistic Differences

Ureña = Chile is one separate dialect zone.

Rona = Split into three zones: Northern Chile (+ NW Argentina, S Bolivia), Central Chile, Southern Chile. (Rona bases his dialect zones on yeismo/lleismo, žeismo and voseo (and type). Northern and Southern Chile have the same features, but are regarded as separate zones due to geography) Oroz = Split into four zones: North, Centre, South, Chiloé.

Phonetics/Phonology1. Word-final /n/ is alveolar. Velarization, i.e. English ‘ng’, in

extreme Northern Chile.2. Yeismo3. Neutralizing the syllable-final liquids /r/, /l/ = confined to

lower classes.4. Dropping of word-final /r/ particularly in infinitives.

Phrase-final /r/ sometimes voiceless sibilant = esp. Lower classes

5. Chilean /č/ (with fricative articulation)6. /rr/ groove fricative in most of Chile, but stronger in

Andes.7. /tr/ quasi affricate alveolar pronunciation. Less common

in extreme south. 8. /x/ as /ç/ before front vowels, at times approaching /çj/ =

working class.

9. Unstressed word-final vowels are commonly devoiced and faintly articulated.

10. Syllable and word-final /s/ reduced to aspiration /h/ or lost, even in prevocalic position or before a stressed vowel (eg. los otros).

(Lower classes = loss of /s/. Higher classes = aspiration /h/)

Interaction of phonological/morphological features: • Ureña = Chile is one separate dialect zone. • Rona = Split into three zones: Northern Chile (+ NW

Argentine, S Bolivia), Central Chile, Southern Chile. (Rona bases his dialect zones on yeismo/lleismo, žeismo, presence of voseo (and type), and region where it is used)

MorphologyVoseo:

All dialect zones within Chile = Type B Voseo Example: Compr-aís, com-ís, dormís

• Oroz 1966: ‘Vos’ was found in general use everywhere, except in the extreme North and Chiloé.

• Chile is best described as a country in which ‘vos’ and ‘tú’ exists but where ‘tu’ predominates. Numerous hybrid combinations exist due to its association with the lower classes eg. tu tenís, vos tienes.

• Use of ‘vos’ and voseo verb forms is becoming more common due to the younger upper-middle class generations and is attributed to the gradual erosion of class barriers in Chile.

• Use of ‘vos’ as 2nd person singular pronoun instead of ‘tu’, with accompanying changes in the morphology.

(According to Urena, this is a mainly class based characteristic, so he didn’t he didn’t include it in his classification. Rona has shown that it can be a geographical feature as well)

According to Rona, there are four voseo types:

Type 1st Conj 2nd Conj 3rd Conj

A -áis -éis -ís

B -áis -ís -ís

C -ás -és -ís

D -as -es -es (tú forms)

Lexis: Most unique features of lexicon derive from indigenous roots.

Other features:Sufijos –ton y –teca (eg. Bailetón, rockatón, diabetón, basquetón/pinacoteca, filmoteca, cinemateca, boleroteca, cumbioteca)

Sufijos –iz y –ar (eg. Argentinizar, militizar, regionalizar, idiotizar, musicalizar, sindicalizar)

Aglutinación – pertenece a la lengua hablada (eg. Cara de pelo > carepelo, Piérdete una > pierdetiuna, María Luz > Mariluz, más o menos, no más >maomenoma)

Reducción – pertenece a la lengua coloquial (eg. Por fa[vor], posmo[derismo], muni[cipalidad], ordi[nario])

Problems:Rona doesn’t account for variation within each zone.

Anomalies: Chilean Spanish is remarkably homogenous, yet is split into three zones. Mexico to the Antilles is grouped together in a single zone –suspicious.

Dialect Zone yeísmo žeísmo voseo Type

1. Mexico, Antilles, Venezuela, Caribbean coast of Colombia

+ -- --

2. Central America,inc. SE Mexico and W Panama

+ + + C

3. Pacific coast of Colombia, interior Venezuela

+ -- + C

4. Colombian Andes -- + + C

5. Coastal Ecuador + + + C

6. Highland Ecuador -- + + B

7. Coastal Peru + -- --

8. Highland Peru -- -- --

9. S Peru + -- + B

10. N Chile, NW Argentina, S Bolivia

-- -- + B

11. Bolivia (remainder) -- -- + C

12.Paraguay, NE Argentina -- + + C

13. Central Chile + -- + B

14. S Chile -- -- + B

15. S Central Argentina, S Uruguay

+ + + C

16. N Uruguay + + --

Rona’s 16 dialect zones:

Oroz:

• “En la actualidad [en Latino America] la tendencia a la unidad es mayor que a la disgregación (debido al hecho de que haya una norma lingüística)…Esto no quiere decir que no existan hablas regionales en Hispanoamérica, en las cuales se evidencie una fisonomía idiomática propia”

Bibliography

Lipsky, John M., Latin American SpanishAlvar, Manuel, Manual de dialectología hispánica Lewis, Daniel K., The History of ArgentinaOroz, Rodolfo, La Lengua Castellana en ChileGodoy, Leopoldo, El español de Chile-la creatividad

lingüística de los chilenosResnick, Melvyn C., Phonological variants and dialect

identification in Latin American Spanishwww.spanishsinfronteras.com.ar/lunfardo.html