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Language Variation and Contact-Induced Change: Spanish across space and time
Edited by Jeremy King and Sandro Sessarego
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 340] 2018
► pp. 63–81

Chapter 3
Hard come, easy go

Linguistic interfaces in Istanbulite Judeo-Spanish and Afro-Ecuadorian Spanish

This study analyzes patterns in syntax-pragmatics (subject pronoun use) and syntax-morphology (nominal and verbal phi-agreement) interfaces in two unrelated varieties of Spanish, namely Afro-Ecuadorian Spanish (AES) and Istanbulite Judeo-Spanish (IJS). In spite of their geographical distance, the traditional variety of older AES speakers and the contemporary variety of younger IJS informants share similar patterns in the aforementioned features. We account for this parallel by proposing a model of cross-generational contact-induced language transmission that is grounded in current theoretical assumptions on the architecture of the faculty of language, its modularity and the vulnerability of modular interfaces. This model suggests that patterns in both traditional AES and contemporary IJS are actually nativized traces of advanced second-language acquisition (SLA) strategies or early first-language attrition (FLA).

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sociolinguistic similarities between AES and IJS
  • 3.Data collection
  • 4.Shared grammatical features
  • 5.Data analysis
  • 6.The proposal for AES and IJS features
  • 7. Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 13 March 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.340.04rom
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