Browsing by Author "Cornelius, Cynthia Tufts Carty"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    El español de Rosenberg, Texas: una descripcion morfologica y lexica
    (1977) Cornelius, Cynthia Tufts Carty; Urrutibeheity, Hector N.
    The purpose of the investigation and research for this thesis project has been a desire to describe a dialect of Spanish which is spoken in Rosenberg, Texas. Although we have attempted to analyze this dialect on the basis of every linguistic level -- morphological, syntactical, lexical, and phonological we have concentrated our efforts primarily on the distinctive morphological and lexical features which characterize the Spanish spoken in Rosenberg. Up to now, research on Mexican Americans and their language as well as that of other Spanish dialects has been relatively scant. The field of dialectology presents a relatively new area for study and much remains to be investigated. After having consulted the few works done in this area, we were able to develop a systematic plan to guide us in the gathering of the necessary linguistic information. Navarro Tomás was one of the first to indicate a scientific plan for investigation. Our method was based in part on his questionnaires and those of other dialectologists. Along with the questionnaire we recorded spontaneous conversation to provide us with a corpus. The thesis work was divided into three basic stages; 1. selection of methods; 2. compiling the corpus and later transcription; and 3. analysis of the corpus. Periodic immigration from Mexico to Texas explain many of the linguistic features with mark Rosenberg's dialect. The Spanish spoken in the southwestem region of the United States is linguistically considered to be a part of Mexican Spanish and so shares many of its peculiarities. We also see the influence of Náhuatl, language of the Aztecs, especially in the vocabulary of both Mexico and the Southwest. One of the most distinctive features of Rosenberg's dialect is the frequent use of archaic words, words such as truie. sernos, ansina. The tendency to conserve these old forms of Spanish is due to several factors. Basically, the Spanish which was originally brought from Spain to the New World was the popular language used by soldiers and explorers as early as the fifteenth century and continuing through the eighteenth century. Perhaps the most important factor in the development of this Spanish dialect has been the influence of English. While other linguistic divergencies find their counterparts in other Spanish areas, most anglicisms are due to the constant and intense interaction between the language groups English and Spanish, and more importantly, through the mediation of bilingual Mexican Americana. English interference occurs on every linguistic level, and most especially in the lexicon. Filler words such as I mean, well. so creep into everyday conversation just as frequently as do their Spanish equivalente. Other anglicisms are adapted to the English phonological System, e.g., los tragues, el troque. This thesis represents only a beginning in the investigation of Texas dialectology. It is hoped that our work will help to create interest in the field of Spanish American dialectology.