Amazonian Spanish

“Research on varieties of Spanish and Portuguese and the dynamics of their ecological settings receives a significant impetus with this collection of studies. It is the first English-language volume that addresses the range and complexity of Spanish in the Amazon. It starts with a useful and informative overview of the Amazonian language families involved in the contact situations with Spanish (and Portuguese, to a lesser extent), highlighting some interesting features of these post-colonial language varieties. Issues of language acquisition in contact situations are also addressed as these interact with social factors in the process of contact-induced language change. The various stages of language documentation, revitalization, and language community involvement are also explored. These approaches are complemented by five studies that focus on intonation, consonant production, object clitic use, and language choice in Amazonian Spanish varieties in Peru and Ecuador. In all, this volume covers a wide spectrum of approaches and topics. I highly recommend it for students and contact linguists alike.”

“On the whole, this book comprises a set of high-quality papers on basic concepts of contact linguistics and different varieties of Spanish spoken in the Amazon region. All chapters are conceptualised as »stand-alone« papers which are nevertheless thematically interrelated. While some seem to be aimed at readers with little prior knowledge in the field, others are more demanding, as they primarily target the research community. However, that does not diminish the value of this anthology, but rather adds to its potential usefulness in different contexts.”

“This volume sets an important milestone in the study of the linguistic diversity in the Amazon and the effects of language contact in typologically diverse settings.[..] I applaud the editor for assembling such a pioneering collection of chapters with excellent data that contributes to our understanding of the outcomes of contact in typologically diverse settings.”