This study analyzes linguistic ideologies and attitudes of Spanish high school teachers in Western Massachusetts towards Puerto Rican Spanish (PRS). An open-answer survey was conducted to examine the reactions of teachers towards utterances produced with well-documented Puerto Rican Spanish features. In the state of Massachusetts, Puerto Ricans…

The objective of the current study is to investigate the development of awareness of dialectal differences in Spanish by second language learners in a formal language learning classroom setting in the United States. Sensitivity toward different regional varieties of a language forms part of socio-linguistic--and ultimately,…

This article explores gaming manifestations of the US-centric Mexican threat narrative in the context of the so-called drug war, by analyzing Manichean representations of characters, settings, and language (English and Spanish). It argues that videogames construct the concept of the Mexican subject in direct opposition to the US subject--in a…

Intensifiers have been the focus of a number of studies over the past decade, with considerable interest in their meaning and variability. Several scholars have discussed the use of such forms, particularly in English (Ito and Tagliamonte 2003, Tagliamonte 2008) and Spanish (Brown and Cortés-Torres 2013; Kanwit et al. 2017), exploring their…

Brazilian Portuguese allows only /s, N, l, r/ syllable finally, and of these, only /s/ is realized faithfully (as well as /r/ for some speakers). In order to avoid unacceptable codas, dialects of Brazilian Portuguese employ such strategies as epenthesis, nasal absorption, debucalization, and gliding. The current analysis argues that codas in…

The acquisition of sociolinguistic variation by second language learners has gained increased attention. Some research highlights the value of naturalistic exposure through study abroad while other studies point out that classroom input can facilitate the acquisition of particular features of variation. Nevertheless, said attention to the…

This paper examines the tuteo in Rocha, Uruguay, a unique situation in a country that is mostly "voseante." The study draws on speakers' attitudes toward "tú" and "vos" in Rocha, taken from informal interviews and from a linguistic attitude survey. The survey was conducted with 58 informants, most of whom were…

Dialectal differences are frequently cited by members of a majority group as their main means of identifying members of a minority ethnic group. However, existing stereotypes of minority language varieties and their speakers often suggest that social prejudices influence attitudes towards minority groups and their linguistic varieties. The present…

This article analyzes twelve English translations of the Biscayan squire's speech ("Don Quijote de la Mancha", Chapter Eight) published between 1612 and 2000. The solutions found fall into three categories, namely (a) using standard English and risking misrepresenting the style of the original and omitting relevant cultural connotations, (b) using…

The present investigation examines possible social and linguistic factors that influence forms of address used in Chilean Spanish with various interlocutors. A characteristic of the Spanish of Chile is the use of a variety of forms of address for the second person singular, "tu", "vos", and "usted", with corresponding…

The uses of the eleven Spanish clitic pronouns are discussed for various regional dialects and formal and colloquial speech in Spain and Latin America. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

A discussion of this phenomenon in various dialects of Spanish. (RM)

Before creating a linguistic map of Mexican dialects, it is necessary to determine the dialect regions of the country. An extensive questionnaire must be written and distributed to collect data from a representative sample of the population for an accurate picture of the language. (CK) (Text in Spanish.)

Employs a form-content theory to analyze usage of clitics in Spanish. A questionnaire (in Appendix) compares responses by English-dominant subjects to those of Spanish-dominant subjects. Results are compared with spontaneous production of clitics in the context of free conversations with 67 informants from the Caribbean area. (Author/LMO)

The range of feeling among scholars, activists and teachers on the subject of the desirability of the dialect of the Spanish Southwest is discussed. Bilingual education teachers must have special preparation in the dialect to deal with students speaking this form of Spanish. (CHK)