scholarly journals The Limits of Convergence in Language Contact

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Silva-Corvalán

AbstractThis article discusses the contact situation between English and Spanish in the United States, a situation characterized by both maintenance of the minority language and shift to English. Of relevance to understanding the linguistic phenomena that develop in this situation of societal bilingualism is the fact that the minority language is constantly being revitalized by interaction with large groups of immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries.The article identifies some of the linguistic changes that affect the minority language at different points in the proficiency continuum or different stages of attrition, and argues that in this particular contact situation convergence toward English is constrained by the structure of the minority language undergoing change.

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Erker ◽  
Joanna Bruso

AbstractThere is mounting evidence that the filled pauses that pervade spontaneous speech constitute a rich site of linguistic inquiry. The present study uses a comparative variationist method to explore possible effects of language contact on pause behavior, examining 3810 filled pauses produced by 24 Spanish-speaking residents of Boston, Massachusetts. Interspeaker differences in pause behavior correlate with intensity of contact. Participants who have lived in the United States for a larger fraction of their lives, who use English more frequently, and who do so more proficiently fill pauses differently when speaking Spanish than do those who have spent less time in the contact setting and whose English skills and usage are more restricted. Results show that a greater degree of contact corresponds to increased use of centralized vowels in phonologically filled pauses (i.e., more frequent use of [a(m)] and [ə(m)] at the expense of [e(m)]). This pattern is interpreted as evidence of contact-induced change.


2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes ◽  
Kimberly L. Geeslin

Although ser and estar have been studied extensively (Luján 1981; Clements 1988; Leonetti 1994; Fernández Leborans 1999; Geeslin 2005), less is known about how the use of these copulas varies from one Spanish-speaking region to another. To date, sociolinguistic research has been conducted on Spanish in the United States (Kirschner and Stephens 1988; Silva-Corvalán 1994), in Mexico (Gutiérrez 1992), and in Venezuela (de Jonge 1993), showing that some features (i.e. adjective class, frame of reference and susceptibility to change) can affect copula choice in Spanish. The current study extends this body of research to the Spanish spoken in Galicia, where both Spanish and Galician co-exist. Our statistical analysis of a group of 56 intergenerational participants examines both social and linguistic variables as indicators of trends in language variation in relation to copula choice. Our findings support previous studies and contribute new knowledge of copula use in Galicia and of language change in a contact situation.


1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Silva-Corvalán

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on a change affecting Spanish in contact with English in the United States: namely, simplification and loss of Subjunctive (Sub) mood morphology. Conversational data from 17 Mexican-American bilinguals living in the eastern section of Los Angeles are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The speakers represent three different immigrant groups, according to length of family stay in the United States. The variation between Indicative (Ind) and Sub usage attested in the Spanish-speaking world results from the continuing modifications which have affected the distribution of Ind and Sub forms through the diachronic development of Spanish: previously obligatory contexts for the use of Sub are now categorically Ind or allow both Sub and Ind to different degrees across social and geographic parameters. In the Spanish of Los Angeles, the internal tendencies toward a reduction of the obligatory use of the Sub are strengthened, as may be expected in a situation of language contact in which obligatory contexts for the use of a form are more resistant to change than those that allow a selection between two or more forms with closely related meanings.


1990 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 31-32

Pneumococcal pneumonia probably affects about one in every thousand adults each year. Like other serious pneumococcal infection, it is more common and severe in the elderly, in those without a functional spleen (including patients with sickle-cell disease,1) and in patients with a variety of chronic diseases. In the United States a 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine was introduced in 1983, replacing a 14-valent vaccine; it is now recommended there for large groups of people.2 This newer 23-valent vaccine (Pneumovax-II - MSD) was licensed in Britain last May. Its use should be considered for those at special risk of pneumococcal disease.3–5


Author(s):  
Craig Allen

The first completely researched history of U.S. Spanish-language television traces the rise of two foremost, if widely unrecognized, modern American enterprises—the Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo. It is a standard scholarly history constructed from archives, original interviews, reportage, and other public materials. Occasioned by the public’s wakening to a “Latinization” of the U.S., the book demonstrates that the emergence of Spanish-language television as a force in mass communication is essential to understanding the increasing role of Latinos and Latino affairs in modern American society. It argues that a combination of foreign and domestic entrepreneurs and innovators who overcame large odds resolves a significant and timely question: In an English-speaking country, how could a Spanish-speaking institution have emerged? Through exploration of significant and colorful pioneers, continuing conflicts and setbacks, landmark strides, and ongoing controversies—and with revelations that include regulatory indecision, behind-the-scenes tug-of-war, and the internationalization of U.S. mass media—the rise of a Spanish-language institution in the English-speaking U.S. is explained. Nine chapters that begin with Spanish-language television’s inception in 1961 and end 2012 chronologically narrate the endeavor’s first 50 years. Events, passages, and themes are thoroughly referenced.


2021 ◽  
pp. 154041532110370
Author(s):  
Alyssia M. Miller De Rutté ◽  
Amanda Barrie

Background: Acculturation to the United States has been previously studied in Spanish-speaking populations, but little is known about the potential relationship between acculturation and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Objective: The purpose of this systematic review was to explore the relationship between acculturation and T2DM in Spanish-speaking populations in the United States. Methods: Selected studies collected from a review of literature were analyzed by population, ethnicity, acculturation scale, and significance. Results: Thirty-two eligible articles showed conflicting data between the effects of acculturation on T2DM. Conclusion: Overall, studies yielded inconclusive results on the significance of the relationship between acculturation and diabetes in Spanish-speaking populations, which merit further investigation.


Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano

In 1902, U.S. Senator Albert Beveridge led four senators from the senate committee on the territories into New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma territory. While New Mexico had operated in Spanish in its courts, schools, and politics for decades, Beveridge’s team exposed the rest of the nation to this Spanish language reality in their campaign to portray the territory as unfit for statehood. During the Senate subcommittee hearings, dozens of New Mexicans relayed their connection to both their United States citizenship and their use of the Spanish language. From census takers to court interpreters to principals, Spanish-speaking New Mexicans defended their use of Spanish. While the use of the Spanish language did not definitively delay statehood, the increased national scrutiny in the media of the language did result in a shift in territorial policies related to language that increasingly favored English in order to better conform to the country's expectations.


2019 ◽  
pp. 277-280

The essays in this volume trace the development of Spanish-language anarchist print culture in relation to the United States. As a whole, these chapters provide a historical and ethno-linguistic, rather than national, perspective on how Spanish-language anarchist print culture responded to social struggles, economic oppression, and political repressions. Despite such obstacles, anarchist periodicals, writers, editors, correspondents, couriers, distributors, and readers established networks for the maintenance and furtherance of transoceanic and transnational flows of information and culture, and they established a level of solidarity among Spanish-speaking peoples promoting social revolution. It might seem reasonable to doubt the overall significance of this network in the United States or its ability to gain widespread public acceptance, but it was, in fact, the perseverance of the anarchist Ideal manifest in print culture (now including digital print) that exhibits the continuity of the struggle for social justice in the modern age, as well as its resistance to assimilation into dominant politics and cultures. The influence of Hispanic thinkers, writers, readers, and operatives in this narrative is undeniable and should be recognized as an integral component of U.S. society, culture, and history....


2019 ◽  
pp. 86-102
Author(s):  
Susana Sueiro Seoane

This chapter analyzes Cultura Obrera (Labor Culture), published in New York City from 1911 to 1927. Pedro Esteve, the primary editor, gave expression to his ideas in this newspaper and while it represented Spanish firemen and marine workers, it reported on many other workers’ struggles in different parts of the world, for example, supporting and collecting funds for the Mexican revolutionary brothers Flores Magón. This newspaper, as all the anarchist press, was part of a transnational network and had a circulation not only in many parts of the United States but also in Latin American countries, including Argentina and Cuba, as well as on the other side of the Atlantic, in Spain and various European countries.


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