Dialectology

Question 1

Highlands v. Lowlands

Answer 1

1. Jokingly, the difference between the two areas has been referred to as one of dietary habits–the highlands subsist on a diet of vowels while the lowlands regularly eat their consonants. All jokes aside, the basic dichotomy of conservation (highlands) and innovation (lowlands) has played an important role in most descriptions of American Spanish.
2. In a very general manner, the speech of the lowlands has closer ties to Andalusian Spanish (e.g. /s/ aspiration, relaxed pronunciation of /x/, yeismo) while the speech of the highlands has closer ties to north-central Spanish (e.g. strong consonants, pockets of distinction instead of yeismo).
3. Previous explanations: (1) climate differences (both for speech and settlement patterns), (2) contact with indigenous peoples in the highlands
4. (Penny) The real reason has to do with the amount of contact with government of Spain. Many of the administrative centers of the Americas were located inland, and paradoxically they had more contact with northern Spanish than did those on the coast. Centers of prestige in the highlands.

Question 2

Distribution of voseo

Answer 2

According to Rona, there are three categories:

1. Dominant voseo: Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala
2. Competition between tuteo and voseo: Ecuador, Colombia, Chile
3. Dominant tuteo: Mexico, Caribe, Panama, Venezuela, Peru (all but the Caribbean have small pockets of voseo, e.g. Chiapas, interior of Panama).
4. In all of these areas tuteo is taught in schools, which can lead to it appearing affected in areas of dominant voseo. In some places there are also areas of ustedeo (Colombia) and in Chile, for example, voseo seems to be decreasing.
5. Historical reason: contact with Spain

Question 3

Linguistic borrowing

Answer 3

1. Any element that originates in one language and passes to another (usually with changes). It is interesting to note that the term “borrowing” represents an incorrect notion, i.e. that the “lending” language somehow possesses a quantifiable amount of the element and that the “borrowing” language has the obligation to give the element back (although more colloquial uses of “borrow” seem to fit better with the general idea).
2. In Spanish, borrowings are found mostly at the lexical level (e.g. troca, el living), but can also exist at the syntactic level (e.g. in Puerto Rico, gerunds as adjective). Those borrowings come from many sources.
3. Indigenous languages: Nahuatl (chocolate, tomate, aguacate), Arahuaco (hamaca, huracan,