In the current context of a globalized economy, bilingualism is increasingly portrayed as a resource for corporations and for workers competing for jobs in today’s slim market. In this paper we analyze the economic value of languages other than English in the US, Spanish in particular. Working… read more
This article studies Ramón Joaquín Domínguez’s (1811–1848) Diccionario Nacional ó gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española (1846–1847), the first encyclopedic work written in Spain. Firstly, a historical account of the context in which this lexicographic work emerged is provided.… read more
The collapse of the Spanish Empire in the first half of the nineteenth century prompted a need to reorganize the former colonial space in independent countries by creating territorial, political and identity boundaries in Spanish-speaking America. The imposition of a national language – the… read more
This introductory article to the special issue on the historical sociolinguistics of spelling sketches an overview of the current interest in the field for the sociopolitical nature of the written language. Spelling is understood as a powerful tool for sociopolitical mobilization and thus becomes… read more