Linguistics

Reminder: ■Proposals due next Friday (Oct. 4th) in section!

Latinxs and Spanish in the U.S.

Week 5 - Wednesday

Linguistics 1000

Numbers ■ 4oo million Spanish speakers in the world – Language with the second most native speakers—after Chinese

and before English!

■ 34.8 million speakers in the U.S. 1. Mexico (112.3 M) 2. Colombia (47.5 M) 3. Spain (46.7 M) 4. Argentina (42.4 M) 5. USA (34.8 M) 6. Peru (31.1 M)

But… ■ This number does not include those who live in the U.S.

without documentation.

■ It also does not include non-Latinxs who speak Spanish (e.g., Central American immigrants of Asian origin, etc.)

■ The Pew Hispanic Research Center estimates another 13.8 million Spanish speakers living in the U.S.

Numbers ■ 4oo million Spanish speakers in the world – Language with the second most native speakers—after Chinese

and before English!

■ 48.6 millon speakers in the U.S. 1. Mexico (112.3 M) 2. USA (48.6 M) 3. Colombia (47.5 M) 4. Spain(46.7 M) 5. Argentina (42.4 M) 6. Peru (31.1 M)

Where are they from? ■ Rhetoric: Illegal immigrants!!

Where are they from? ■ Yes, there is obviously immigration

from Latin America – In reality, they are the minority!

■ Other cases: – Puerto Ricans (9.2% of U.S.

Latinos) are not immigrants because PR is a commonwealth. – Today, there are more Puerto

Ricans in the U.S. (especially in NY) than on the island of Puerto Rico!

Where are they from? ■ Yes, there is obviously immigration

from Latin America – In reality, they are the minority!

■ Other cases: – Mexican-origin individuals in the

Southwest (the most numerous Latino group: 63%), who lived in Mexico until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

■ 55% of Mexico became part of the U.S.

Mexican-origin population (2010)

Mexican-origin population

■ The Treaty didn’t mention language explicitly – it just said that the former-Mexican citizens would have their rights guaranteed.

■ But… – The courts (essential to buying/selling land, farms, etc.): English – The schools: English ■ With this, we begin to see language loss/shift. ■ The new generations born in the now-U.S. start to lose their

ability to speak Spanish in different pragmatic contexts – it becomes a ‘home language’.

So what? Is this a history class or a linguistics class?!

So what? Is this a history class or a linguistics class?!

■ There is a lot of variation amongst Latinxs and Spanish speakers in the U.S.

■ Sociohistorical context helps us to understand this variation, and where it comes from. – Old varieties (e.g., in CO, NM) – in families that have lived here

for 400+ years. – Dialectal variation amongst immigrants (e.g., Puerto Ricans,

Mexicans, Cubans, etc.). – Contact between these varieties – Language change across generations. – Language contact with English

‘Chiquitafication’ (Zentella 1996)

■ We ignore all that! (especially in political discourse) ■ Homogenization of Latinx cultures and languages into

a tidy and digestible package for the rest of the nation:

1. The Hispanic community refuses to learn English

2. They don’t even speak proper Spanish

3. 2nd-generation speakers are ‘semi-lingual’ or ‘a-lingual’.

Diglossia

■Diglossia: A sociolinguistic situation in which two or more languages have different social value, one of them being of higher prestige than the other(s).

Diglossia

English (variant A)

Spanish (variant B)

Diglossia (southwestern US)

Mexican-based Spanish (variant A)

Salvadoran Spanish (variant B)

Accommodation

■ Outside of the home, speakers of Salvadoran origin often change the way they speak, and accommodate to the Mexican-based norm around them. – Stop aspirating /s/ – Stop velarizing /n/ – Start using tú instead of vos for ‘you’ – Etc.

Accommodation

■ Outside of the home, speakers of Salvadoran origin change the way they speak, and accommodate to the Mexican-based norm around them. – This is expected within the Spanish-speaking

community… – ...in the same way that assimilating to *SAE

is expected in U.S. society more broadly.

The kids ■ Children of these speakers acquire only Mexican-

based speech norms.

Raymond (2012)

■ Outside of some lexical items (e.g., pupusas), they don’t acquire any Salvadoran features. ■ Moreover, they often

disparage Salvadoran Spanish!

Shows two things

1. The pressure to conform to the Mexican-based norm.

2. Shows that they’re getting input in Spanish outside the home. …cuz if they were only being exposed in the home, they’d acquire the Salvadoran dialect of their parents.

Standard Language Ideology…squared!

■ If you’re a speaker of a non-Mexican-based Spanish dialect in the Southwest… – You’ve got the more general “speak *SAE”

ideology operating in the U.S. – You’ve also got a “speak Standard (i.e.,

Mexican) Spanish” ideology as well!

Parallel with BVE speakers: Shifting between styles/repertoires

■ Salvadoran-origin speakers using Salvadoran Spanish in some contexts; Mexican-based Spanish other contexts.

■ Code-switching between languages – More on this on Monday!

Another parallel with BVE speakers: How Latino are you? ■ We see the same in-group/out-group ideas we

saw on Monday with some BVE communities: ■ If you don’t speak Spanish, how Latino can you

really be? Can you truly call yourself Mexican? ■ Are you white-washed? ■ Are you trying too hard? ■ Where do your loyalties lie?

Noel Quiñones: ‘8 Confessions of My Tongue’