Sociolingüística

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This book applies recent theoretical insights to trace the development of Castilian and Latin American Spanish from the Middle Ages onwards, through processes of repeated dialect mixing both within the Iberian Peninsula and in the New World. The author contends that it was this frequent mixing which caused Castilian to evolve more rapidly than othervarieties of Hispano-Romance, and which rendered Spanish particularly subject to levelling of its linguistic irregularities and to simplification of its structures. These two processes continued as the language extended into and across the Americas. These processes are viewed in the context not only of the Hispano-Romance continuum (which includes Galician, Portuguese and Catalan), but also of the NewWorld varieties of Spanish. The book emphasizes the subtlety and seamlessness of language variation, both geographical and social, and the impossibility of defining strict boundaries between varieties. Its conclusions will be relevant both to Hispanists and to historical sociolinguists more generally.
Ralph Penny is Professor of Romance Philology at Queen Mary and

Westfield College, University ofLondon, where until recently he was Head of the School of Modern Languages. He is the author of four previous books, including A History of the Spanish Language (1991) and Gramática histórica del español (1993). In addition, he has edited or co-edited four further books, and has published articles in many learned journals.

Variation and change in Spanish Ralph Penny

         The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom    The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africahttp://www.cambridge.org © Ralph Penny 2004 First published in printed format 2000 ISBN 0-511-03485-7 eBook (Adobe Reader) ISBN 0-521-78045-4 hardback

Contents

Preface —ix Abbreviations and symbols —xi 1 Introduction: language variation —

1.1

1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6

Synchronic variation— 1.1.1 Geographical or diatopical variation— 1.1.2 Social variation— Diachronic or historical variation—Variables and variants— Co-variation— Register— Variation in the past—

2 Dialect, language, variety : definitions and relationships — 2.1 Dialects— 2.2 Languages— 2.2.1 Do languages have temporal limits?— 2.2.2 Are languages delimitable?— 2.3 Relationship between dialects and languages— 2.4 Varieties and idiolects— 2.5 Relationship between varieties— 2.5.1 The tree model ofrelationships between varieties— 2.5.2 Geographical discontinuity— 2.5.3 Diasystems— 2.5.4 Diglossia— 2.5.5 The neolinguistic model— 2.5.6 Other models— 3 Mechanisms of change — Dialect contact— 3.1.1 Accommodation—

3.1

vi

Contents

3.2 3.3 3.4

3.5
4

3.1.2 Interdialect— 3.1.3 Levelling: early modern Spanish— 3.1.3.1 The Old Spanish sibilants— 3.1.3.2 Old Spanish/h/— 3.1.3.3 The merger of Old Spanish /b/ and /β/— 3.1.4 Simplification: the result of the territorial expansion of Castilian— 3.1.4.1 The merger of the perfect auxiliaries— 3.1.4.2 The Old Spanish strong preterites— 3.1.4.3 The -er and -ir verb classes— 3.1.5 Hyperdialectalism— 3.1.6 Reallocation of variants— Waves— 3.2.1 Isoglosses— Social networks and speed of change—Direction of change through society— 3.4.1 Downward change— 3.4.2 Upward change— Lexical diffusion—
Variation in Spain —

4.1 Geographical variation— 4.1.1 Mozarabic— 4.1.2 The northern Peninsular dialect continuum— 4.1.2.1 Miranda do Douro— 4.1.2.2 Cantabria— 4.1.2.3 Old Castile— 4.1.2.4 The Pyrenees— 4.1.2.5 Metaphony and mass-noun reference—
4.1.2.5.1 Metaphony—...