The Spanish of Contemporary New Mexico
Start Date
8-11-2017 1:30 PM
End Date
8-11-2017 5:30 PM
Abstract
The Spanish of New Mexico is known to have unique linguistic features. With respect to the lexicon, New Mexican Spanish contains numerous arcaisms, Nahuatlisms, Mexicanisms, Anglicisms, as well as novel words that only developed here (Bills and Vigil, 2008). For example, joso ‘bear’, muchitos and plebe (both meaning ‘children’), and ratón volador ‘bat’ are uniquely New Mexican. In recent years, New Mexican Spanish has experienced intense contact with Mexican Spanish. A question that arises is whether New Mexican Spanish is being replaced by Mexican Spanish. The present study attempts to answer this question by analyzing words produced by four New Mexican participants who come from Las Vegas and Santa Fe. Three participants currently reside in their place of origin and one resides in Albuquerque. The participants were given a list of 40 words in English and were asked to translate those words into Spanish. The responses were categorized as either New Mexican or Mexican. The categorization process relied on Cobos’ (1983) Dictionary of New Mexican Spanish and Bills and Vigil’s (2008) Linguistic Atlas of the Spanish of New Mexico and Southern Colorado, sources that have identified the unique characteristics of New Mexican Spanish. In addition, the Dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico (published by El Colegio de Mexico) was used to determine which lexical items are considered Mexican Spanish. Furthermore, each Mexican Spanish word was analyzed to determine whether it was replacing a New Mexican word. For example, all four participants produced the word mucho instead of the traditional New Mexican term muncho. Overall, the study provides preliminary evidence of the New Mexican lexicon losing ground and being supplanted by the Mexican lexicon. These results suggest that the time is ripe for efforts that aim to preserve and cherish the local variety of Spanish spoken in New Mexico.
The Spanish of Contemporary New Mexico
The Spanish of New Mexico is known to have unique linguistic features. With respect to the lexicon, New Mexican Spanish contains numerous arcaisms, Nahuatlisms, Mexicanisms, Anglicisms, as well as novel words that only developed here (Bills and Vigil, 2008). For example, joso ‘bear’, muchitos and plebe (both meaning ‘children’), and ratón volador ‘bat’ are uniquely New Mexican. In recent years, New Mexican Spanish has experienced intense contact with Mexican Spanish. A question that arises is whether New Mexican Spanish is being replaced by Mexican Spanish. The present study attempts to answer this question by analyzing words produced by four New Mexican participants who come from Las Vegas and Santa Fe. Three participants currently reside in their place of origin and one resides in Albuquerque. The participants were given a list of 40 words in English and were asked to translate those words into Spanish. The responses were categorized as either New Mexican or Mexican. The categorization process relied on Cobos’ (1983) Dictionary of New Mexican Spanish and Bills and Vigil’s (2008) Linguistic Atlas of the Spanish of New Mexico and Southern Colorado, sources that have identified the unique characteristics of New Mexican Spanish. In addition, the Dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico (published by El Colegio de Mexico) was used to determine which lexical items are considered Mexican Spanish. Furthermore, each Mexican Spanish word was analyzed to determine whether it was replacing a New Mexican word. For example, all four participants produced the word mucho instead of the traditional New Mexican term muncho. Overall, the study provides preliminary evidence of the New Mexican lexicon losing ground and being supplanted by the Mexican lexicon. These results suggest that the time is ripe for efforts that aim to preserve and cherish the local variety of Spanish spoken in New Mexico.
