Spanish and Ladino in Contact in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-410
Author(s):  
Bryan Kirschen

Abstract This study explores contact between Ladino-speaking Sephardim and Spanish-speaking Latinos in New York City and Los Angeles, home to two of the largest factions of each population in the United States. While the retention of postalveolar sibilants [ʒ, dʒ, ʃ] in Ladino, corresponding to velar [x] in Spanish, helps distinguish these varieties, research has demonstrated cases where Sephardim implement the latter phone in lieu of one of the former. That such contact-induced change is a result of interaction between Sephardim and Latinos is further examined in this research. Twenty-five speakers of Ladino participated in two oral-production tasks: within-group and between-group testing. In the former, informants were paired with another speaker of Ladino; in the latter, they were paired with a speaker of Spanish. Data reveal that informants replace postalveolar sibilants with velar [x] at a rate of 18.2% within group and 76.5% between group, when direct equivalencies exist. Statistical analysis demonstrates that production of velar [x], the dependent variable, is conditioned by several independent variables, both social (age, gender, city of residence, interlocutor) and linguistic (type of lexical correspondence and origin of lexicon). Subsequent discussion considers the role of accommodation in determining the ways in which speakers select and implement variation in their speech.

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Howard Shih ◽  
Melany De La Cruz-Viesca

At the national level, the Asian American population has grown more than any other major race group. According to the 2010 Census, the Los Angeles metro area had 2,199,186 Asians, making it the home to the largest Asian population in the United States. Following close behind was the New York City metro area with 2,008,906 Asians. Over a quarter of the 14.7 million Asian Americans reside in either of the two greater metropolitan regions, where they comprise around a tenth of the total population in each metropolis. We begin with a brief historical overview of immigration legislation that has both invited and excluded Asian Americans, as a means of understanding how Asian Americans have been perceived over time. We will also compare some key characteristics of Asian American populations in Los Angeles County, New York City, the Balance of LA Combined Statistical Area (CSA) (excluding Los Angeles County), and the Balance of NYC CSA (excluding New York City), and the Balance of the United States. The paper will cover: (1) demographic trends and patterns (2) economic status (3) political engagement and incorporation, and (4) residential settlement patterns. We close with a discussion of how these demographic changes have contributed to Asian Americans rapid social, economic, and political upward mobility in the last decade, at a time when the global restructuring of the economy has blurred nation-state boundaries that once existed and migration from Asia to the United States has become more complex, particularly over the past two decades.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 2781-2805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samira Ali ◽  
Ozge Sensoy Bahar ◽  
Priya Gopalan ◽  
Karolina Lukasiewicz ◽  
Gary Parker ◽  
...  

It has been argued that individuals living in poverty are shamed, and thus, experience it in various social and institutional spaces. However, little is known about this dynamic in the United States. This study examined the relationship between poverty and shame among individuals living in poverty. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with 60 participants in New York, NY. The results reveal that participants experience shame, anger, and frustration in their roles as (a) caregivers when being unable to provide material items and trying to keep up with others in society and (b) social welfare recipients when at the welfare office and accessing welfare benefits. Despite experiencing such debilitating emotions, participants formulated and used strategies to manage these feelings and situations. These findings point to the role of social and institutional practices in shaping emotions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Cuomo ◽  
Vidya Purushothaman ◽  
Jiawei Li ◽  
Mingxiang Cai ◽  
Timothy Mackey

Abstract Introduction: Local rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths may not accurately convey the variability in community-level concern about COVID-19 during the early outbreak period in the United States. Social media interaction may elucidate communication about COVID-19 in this critical period, during which communities may have formulated initial conceptions pertaining to the perceived gravity of the disease and potential behavioral strategies for prevention.Methods: Scripts were written to obtain tweets related to COVID-19 from Twitter. Using manually-annotated tweets about symptom-related concerns from a prior study, a machine learning classifier was applied to obtain a subset of tweets about concerns relating to COVID-19. The longitudinal relationship between these social media posts and active COVID-19 cases was assessed using linear and exponential regression. Changes in the geospatial clustering of tweets was assessed for the top five most populous cities in the United States.Results: Social media posts relating to COVID-19 concerns appeared more predictive of active COVID-19 cases as temporal distance increased. The distribution of tweets in New York City and Phoenix appeared concentrated in city centers, whereas tweets from other cities were more residential. Tweets from New York City became more highly concentrated, but the opposite trend was observed in tweets from Los Angeles.Conclusion: Clustering of social media posts about COVID-19 revealed discrepancies across major US cities. General concern about the COVID-19 pandemic may moderate the relationship between behavioral/environmental factors and COVID-19 transmission. The degree and modality of this moderating effect may differ across US areas.


mBio ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Tauqeer Alam ◽  
Timothy D. Read ◽  
Robert A. Petit ◽  
Susan Boyle-Vavra ◽  
Loren G. Miller ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) USA300 is a successful S. aureus clone in the United States and a common cause of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). We performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of 146 USA300 MRSA isolates from SSTIs and colonization cultures obtained from an investigation conducted from 2008 to 2010 in Chicago and Los Angeles households that included an index case with an S. aureus SSTI. Identifying unique single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and analyzing whole-genome phylogeny, we characterized isolates to understand transmission dynamics, genetic relatedness, and microevolution of USA300 MRSA within the households. We also compared the 146 USA300 MRSA isolates from our study with the previously published genome sequences of the USA300 MRSA isolates from San Diego (n = 35) and New York City (n = 277). We found little genetic variation within the USA300 MRSA household isolates from Los Angeles (mean number of SNPs ± standard deviation, 17.6 ± 35; π nucleotide diversity, 3.1 × 10−5) or from Chicago (mean number of SNPs ± standard deviation, 12 ± 19; π nucleotide diversity, 3.1 × 10−5). The isolates within a household clustered into closely related monophyletic groups, suggesting the introduction into and transmission within each household of a single common USA300 ancestral strain. From a Bayesian evolutionary reconstruction, we inferred that USA300 persisted within households for 2.33 to 8.35 years prior to sampling. We also noted that fluoroquinolone-resistant USA300 clones emerged around 1995 and were more widespread in Los Angeles and New York City than in Chicago. Our findings strongly suggest that unique USA300 MRSA isolates are transmitted within households that contain an individual with an SSTI. Decolonization of household members may be a critical component of prevention programs to control USA300 MRSA spread in the United States. IMPORTANCE USA300, a virulent and easily transmissible strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is the predominant community-associated MRSA clone in the United States. It most commonly causes skin infections but also causes necrotizing pneumonia and endocarditis. Strategies to limit the spread of MRSA in the community can only be effective if we understand the most common sources of transmission and the microevolutionary processes that provide a fitness advantage to MRSA. We performed a whole-genome sequence comparison of 146 USA300 MRSA isolates from Chicago and Los Angeles. We show that households represent a frequent site of transmission and a long-term reservoir of USA300 strains; individuals within households transmit the same USA300 strain among themselves. Our study also reveals that a large proportion of the USA300 isolates sequenced are resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics. The significance of this study is that if households serve as long-term reservoirs of USA300, household MRSA eradication programs may result in a uniquely effective control method.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Samuel H. Yamashita

In the 1970s, Japanese cooks began to appear in the kitchens of nouvelle cuisine chefs in France for further training, with scores more arriving in the next decades. Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Joël Robuchon, and other leading French chefs started visiting Japan to teach, cook, and sample Japanese cuisine, and ten of them eventually opened restaurants there. In the 1980s and 1990s, these chefs' frequent visits to Japan and the steady flow of Japanese stagiaires to French restaurants in Europe and the United States encouraged a series of changes that I am calling the “Japanese turn,” which found chefs at fine-dining establishments in Los Angeles, New York City, and later the San Francisco Bay Area using an ever-widening array of Japanese ingredients, employing Japanese culinary techniques, and adding Japanese dishes to their menus. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the wide acceptance of not only Japanese ingredients and techniques but also concepts like umami (savory tastiness) and shun (seasonality) suggest that Japanese cuisine is now well known to many American chefs.


1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-223
Author(s):  
Lillian Taiz

Forty-eight hours after they landed in New York City in 1880, a small contingent of the Salvation Army held their first public meeting at the infamous Harry Hill's Variety Theater. The enterprising Hill, alerted to the group's arrival from Britain by newspaper reports, contacted their leader, Commissioner George Scott Railton, and offered to pay the group to “do a turn” for “an hour or two on … Sunday evening.” In nineteenth-century New York City, Harry Hill's was one of the best known concert saloons, and reformers considered him “among the disreputable classes” of that city. His saloon, they said, was “nothing more than one of the many gates to hell.”


Diagnosis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-383
Author(s):  
Steven Liu ◽  
Cara Sweeney ◽  
Nalinee Srisarajivakul-Klein ◽  
Amanda Klinger ◽  
Irina Dimitrova ◽  
...  

AbstractThe initial phase of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the United States saw rapidly-rising patient volumes along with shortages in personnel, equipment, and intensive care unit (ICU) beds across many New York City hospitals. As our hospital wards quickly filled with unstable, hypoxemic patients, our hospitalist group was forced to fundamentally rethink the way we triaged and managed cases of hypoxemic respiratory failure. Here, we describe the oxygenation protocol we developed and implemented in response to changing norms for acuity on inpatient wards. By reflecting on lessons learned, we re-evaluate the applicability of these oxygenation strategies in the evolving pandemic. We hope to impart to other providers the insights we gained with the challenges of management reasoning in COVID-19.


1984 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avraham Shama ◽  
Joseph Wisenblit

This paper describes the relation between values and behavior of a new life style, that of voluntary simplicity which is characterized by low consumption, self-sufficiency, and ecological responsibility. Also, specific hypotheses regarding the motivation for voluntary simplicity and adoption in two areas of the United States were tested. Analysis shows (a) values of voluntary simplicity and behaviors are consistent, (b) the motivation for voluntary simplicity includes personal preference and economic hardship, and (c) adoption of voluntary simplicity is different in the Denver and New York City metropolitan areas.


2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 979-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. McTier ◽  
Yiuman Tse ◽  
John K. Wald

AbstractWe examine the impact of influenza on stock markets. For the United States, a higher incidence of flu is associated with decreased trading, decreased volatility, decreased returns, and higher bid-ask spreads. Consistent with the flu affecting institutional investors and market makers, the decrease in trading activity and volatility is primarily driven by the incidence of influenza in the greater New York City area. However, the effect of the flu on bid-ask spreads and returns is related to the incidence of flu nationally. International data confirm our findings of a decrease in trading activity and returns when flu incidence is high.


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