SEC Spanish at SECOL 89 (2022)
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Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
4-1-2022
Start Date
1-4-2022 8:45 AM
End Date
1-4-2022 10:15 AM
Abstract
There is language contact only if you put comprehensive dictionaries, grammars, recordings etc. on a shelf so that they touch one another. If people are involved, then varieties not languages are in contact. Variation among and within varieties and even individuals is not trivial; it exists at every linguistic level from the interactional/pragmatic down to the phonetic. Within SEC territory, therefore, there will be important ramifications of the fact that there exist regional, social, and developmental characteristics of English and Spanish that actually come in contact with one another and that there will be inevitable byproducts of this contact in the emerging varieties of both languages. Opportunities for research exist even outside even such detailed variety contact considerations. In studies of three generations of Northeastern Mexican Spanish speakers in contact with the Northern Cities Shift phonology of Southern Michigan, although influences of both systems were shown in the vowel systems, the 3rd generation evidenced new pairs of tense-lack forms, yielding bait-bit at a high mid position, bat-bet at low mid, with parallel pairings in the back space and a low-central /a/ anchor, revealing a desire to achieve vowel symmetry, a typological universal. The consideration of real language contact and the use of theoretical perspectives that go beyond contrastive statements will yield fruitful results in the investigations of the emerging and emerged varieties of Spanish and English in Southeastern US. These results will be important to not only description and theory but also to the improvement of pedagogical and applied linguistic concerns, including those surrounding community attitudinal factors towards language varieties. The SEC Spanish Consortium hopes to exploit the opportunity to work on understudied populations and linguistic levels, and with the application of new methods and means of interpretation and application.
Relational Format
Conference Proceeding
Recommended Citation
Preston, Dennis, "2. There is no such thing as language contact" (2022). SEC Spanish Consortium Conference. 2.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/secspanish_conference/2022/schedule/2
Accessibility Status
Audio or Video Captioning, Searchable text
2. There is no such thing as language contact
There is language contact only if you put comprehensive dictionaries, grammars, recordings etc. on a shelf so that they touch one another. If people are involved, then varieties not languages are in contact. Variation among and within varieties and even individuals is not trivial; it exists at every linguistic level from the interactional/pragmatic down to the phonetic. Within SEC territory, therefore, there will be important ramifications of the fact that there exist regional, social, and developmental characteristics of English and Spanish that actually come in contact with one another and that there will be inevitable byproducts of this contact in the emerging varieties of both languages. Opportunities for research exist even outside even such detailed variety contact considerations. In studies of three generations of Northeastern Mexican Spanish speakers in contact with the Northern Cities Shift phonology of Southern Michigan, although influences of both systems were shown in the vowel systems, the 3rd generation evidenced new pairs of tense-lack forms, yielding bait-bit at a high mid position, bat-bet at low mid, with parallel pairings in the back space and a low-central /a/ anchor, revealing a desire to achieve vowel symmetry, a typological universal. The consideration of real language contact and the use of theoretical perspectives that go beyond contrastive statements will yield fruitful results in the investigations of the emerging and emerged varieties of Spanish and English in Southeastern US. These results will be important to not only description and theory but also to the improvement of pedagogical and applied linguistic concerns, including those surrounding community attitudinal factors towards language varieties. The SEC Spanish Consortium hopes to exploit the opportunity to work on understudied populations and linguistic levels, and with the application of new methods and means of interpretation and application.