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Article In: Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages: Online-First Articles

Tracing the origins of Loíza Spanish and the Afro-Hispanic varieties of the Americas

Decreolization or Vernacular Universals?

ORCiD logo with link | The University of Texas at Austin, United States
ORCiD logo with link | The University of Texas at Austin, United States
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Abstract
Loíza Spanish (LS) is an Afro-Hispanic vernacular spoken in Loíza, Puerto Rico, by the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the region during the colonial era. This variety provides a compelling case study for examining language evolution and its implications for Creole studies. This paper investigates the historical and linguistic development of LS, challenging the prevailing view that its contemporary features represent vestiges of an earlier Creole stage (Granda, G. de. 1968. La tipología criolla de dos hablas del área lingüística hispánica. Thesaurus 231. 193–205.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar et seq.).
By synthesizing sociohistorical and linguistic evidence, this study argues that the grammatical characteristics of LS are more accurately explained as instances of vernacular universals (Chambers, J. K. 2001. Vernacular universals. In Josep Maria Fontana, Louise McNally, Maria Teresa Turell & Enric Vallduví (eds.), Proceedings of ICLaVE: The First International Conference on Language Variation in Europe, 52–60. Barcelona: Universitat Pompeu Fabra.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2003. Sociolinguistic Theory: Linguistic Variation and Its Social Significance, 2nd edn. Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) — linguistic features that recur across different languages in informal, non-standard speech due to shared cognitive, social, and physiological constraints — rather than as evidence of a prior creolization phase ( 2021. Interfaces and Domains of Contact-Driven Restructuring. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This interpretation aligns with findings on other Afro-Hispanic contact varieties (. 2008. A Creole origin for Barlovento Spanish? A linguistic and sociohistorical inquiry. Language in Society 371. 351–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; 2013a. Chota Valley Spanish. Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2014. The Afro-Bolivian Spanish Determiner Phrase: A Microparametric Account. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2015. Afro-Peruvian Spanish: Spanish Slavery and the Legacy of Spanish Creoles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2019. Language Contact and the Making of an Afro-Hispanic Vernacular: Variation and Change in the Colombian Chocó. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, In press. Another piece of the puzzle: Afro-Veracruz Spanish and the Spanish creole debate. In Salikoko S. Mufwene & Enoch O. Aboh (eds.), Uniformitarianism in Genetic Creolistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ), where sociohistorical conditions, including those in Puerto Rico, appear to have been unfavorable for the emergence of a Creole language.
The paper underscores the key role of social factors in shaping specific linguistic traits of LS while exploring how certain constructions may have arisen as a result of universal cognitive constraints on language acquisition and processing. By integrating linguistic, cognitive, and sociohistorical perspectives, this work contributes to a broader understanding of Afro-Hispanic dialects and their place within the continuum of contact linguistics.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Defining a Creole
    • 2.2Processability Theory and the Interlanguage Hypothesis
    • 2.3Vernacular Universals
  • 3.Examining the Creole-Like Features of Loíza Spanish
    • 3.1Non-emphatic, non-contrastive overt subjects and non-inverted questions
    • 3.2Agreement reductions across the verbal and nominal domains
    • 3.3Early peak alignment
  • 4.Colonial and postcolonial Puerto Rico
    • 4.1Phase one (1510–1791): Early African presence
    • 4.2Phase two (1791–1873): The sugar boom
    • 4.3Phase three (1873–present): Post-abolition and beyond
  • 5.Spotlight on Loíza
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
References (185)
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