Covering all seven countries on the isthmus, this volume presents the first collection of original linguistic studies on Central American Spanish varieties, which have long been neglected in Hispanic Linguistics. The analyses in this collection span across disciplines such as sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, bilingualism, historical linguistics, and pragmatics. This volume bridges the gap between international and Central American scholars, as it highlights the work that has already been done by Central American scholars but is relatively unknown to scholars outside of the region. It also introduces readers to more recent work that sheds new light on Central American Spanish varieties, from both urban and rural settings as well as in bilingual communities where Spanish is in contact with indigenous languages.
Brandon Baird, Ph.D. (2014), University of Texas, Austin, is associate professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies and Linguistics at Middlebury College (Vermont, USA). His research focuses on bilingual phonetics and phonology, Guatemalan Spanish, and Mayan languages.
Osmer Balam, Ph.D. (2016), University of Florida, is a visiting assistant professor of Spanish at The College of Wooster (Ohio, USA). His research focuses on Belizean Spanish, Spanish in the U.S., code-switching, and bilingual morphosyntax.
M. Carmen Parafita Couto, Ph.D. (2005), University of Kansas, is María Zambrano senior researcher at the University of Vigo (Spain) and university lecturer (Latin American Studies, Linguistics) at Leiden University (The Netherlands). Her research focuses on the impact of multilingualism and language contact on language structure, with emphasis on multilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone world.
Acknowledgements List of Figures, Maps, and Tables Notes on Contributors
1 On the Linguistic Analysis of Central American Spanish in Monolingual and Bi/Multilingual Contexts Brandon Baird, Osmer Balam, and M. Carmen Parafita Couto
3 Phonological Contrast Maintenance and Language Contact
An Examination of the Spanish Rhotic System in a Bilingual Guatemalan Speech Community
Sean McKinnon
4 Variation of Absolute-Final /s/ in Tegucigalpa Spanish Julio Ventura and Brandon Baird
5 Social Evaluations of Onset /s/ Lenition in Salvadoran Spanish Franny D. Brogan, Lia Slotten, and Juan Manuel Menjívar
6 An Initial ToBI Analysis of Costa Rican Spanish Intonation Eva Patricia Velásquez Upegui
7 Two Contact Induced Grammatical Changes in Spanish in Contact with Tz’utujil in Guatemala Ana Isabel García Tesoro
8 Big Data and Small Dialects: Transitive andar in Central American Spanish Shannon P. Rodríguez and Chad Howe
9 Variable Number Marking in Mosquito Coast Spanish Madeline Critchfield
10 The Historical Evolution of Usted in Costa Rican Spanish Munia Cabal-Jiménez
11 Rates and Constraints of Present Perfect and Preterit in Costa Rican Spanish: A Variationist Approach Javier Rivas and Érick García Pineda
12 Address Pronouns in Panamanian Spanish
A Historical Overview
Miguel Ángel Quesada Pacheco
13 Corner-Store Service Encounters in Nicaraguan Spanish in a Rural Setting Jeff Michno, Evan Colby Myers and Will Przedpelski
14 Central American Spanish: Then, Now, and Onward John M. Lipski
Index
This volume is of interest to students, sociolinguists, language contact and multilingualism scholars, as well as anyone interested in linguistic and sociohistorical aspects of Central American Spanish varieties.