The diachronic factor in American Spanish in contact

Abstract

In a bilingual community three areas of linguistic concern assume heightened importance: language acquisition, sociolinguistic variation, & language change. Spanish has been in contact with the Amerindian languages of North America since the early sixteenth century, & as a result, significant diachronic change has occurred. Three contact situations are examined: Spanish/Zapoteca, Spanish/Nahuatl, & Spanish/Quechua, & examples are given. In Zapoteca, Spanish /s/ ~ [s], as in mesa ~ mesa ('table'). A synchronic study of lang contact must consider what has occurred in the past, in order to gain a complete linguistic perspective of diachronic change. S. Tabouri