Afro-Peruvian Spanish

The present work not only contributes to shedding light on the linguistic and socio-historical origins of Afro-Peruvian Spanish, it also helps clarify the controversial puzzle concerning the genesis of Spanish creoles in the Americas in a broader sense. In order to provide a more concrete answer to the questions raised by McWhorter’s book on The Missing Spanish Creoles, the current study has focused on an aspect of the European colonial enterprise in the Americas that has never been closely analyzed in relation to the evolution of Afro-European contact varieties, the legal regulations of black slavery. This book proposes the 'Legal Hypothesis of Creole Genesis', which ascribes a prime importance in the development of Afro-European languages in the Americas to the historical evolution of slavery, from the legal rules contained in the Roman Corpus Juris Civilis to the codes and regulations implemented in the different European colonies overseas. This research was carried out with the belief that creole studies will benefit greatly from a more interdisciplinary approach, capable of combining linguistic, socio-historical, legal, and anthropological insights. This study is meant to represent an eclectic step in such a direction.
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Laura Alvarez, Stockholm University:
This piece of work includes one of the few available studies of Afro-Peruvian Spanish varieties. Its distinguishing attribute is that it provides both qualitative and quantitative analyses of linguistic data, collected during fieldwork in the province of Chincha, as well as a thorough socio-historical study based on secondary historical sources. The detailed demographical and historical facts presented are used to challenge earlier assumptions about colonial coastal Peru as an ideal setting for the development of a creole language that would be the origin of Afro-Hispanic varieties. Instead of assuming that Afro-Peruvian Spanish has gone through a process of decreolization, the author argues that it is an “advanced conventionalized second language”. Moreover, the analysis provides relevant information to shed light on the debate about the scarcity of Spanish related creoles and on the genesis and evolution of Afro-Hispanic varieties in Latin America. The author claims that the socio-historical conditions in Spanish colonies diverged from other European powers since Spaniards did not trade enslaved Africans themselves and had a quite different set of legal regulations of slavery.