20. Where and how does bozal Spanish survive?
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John M. Lipski
Abstract
Bozal Spanish – pidginized language once spoken by African-born slaves acquiring Spanish under duress – has usually been approached only through historical reconstruction based on second-hand written documents. Central to the debate over the reconstruction ofbozal language is the extent to whichbozal speech exhibited consistent traits across time and space, and the possibility that Afro-Hispanic pidgins may have creolized across large areas of Spanish America. Literary imitations – all of questionable validity – are insufficient to resolve the issue; only first-hand data from legitimate Afro-Hispanic speech communities may shed light on earlier stages of language contact. The present study reviews four sources of authentic data: surviving Afro-Hispanic linguistic isolates; collective memories of recently disappearedbozal speech; ritualized representations ofbozal language; descendents of return-diasporabozal speakers. The surviving Afro-Hispanic speech communities that have been studied to date are found in Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. These speech communities exhibit only a few deviations from monolingual Spanish, and do not suggest the prior existence of a stable Spanish-derived creole. New data are presented on a recently-discovered Afro-Bolivian speech community, where a fully restructured Afro-Hispanic dialect still survives. The Afro-Bolivian dialect provides a scenario for the formation of reconstructed varieties of Spanish in the absence of a pan-American creole. Ritualized representations ofbozallanguage are found among thenegros congos of Panama and in Afro-Cubansantería andpalo mayombe ceremonies. Collective recollections of recentbozal language are found in Cuba, where the last African-bornbozales disappeared less then a century ago. Finally, return-diaspora speakers have been reported for Benin, Nigeria, and Angola, and may be found elsewhere in West Africa. By combining data from these remaining sources and comparing them with literary and folkloric texts, a more realistic reconstruction of emergent Afro-Hispanic contact varieties can be obtained.
Abstract
Bozal Spanish – pidginized language once spoken by African-born slaves acquiring Spanish under duress – has usually been approached only through historical reconstruction based on second-hand written documents. Central to the debate over the reconstruction ofbozal language is the extent to whichbozal speech exhibited consistent traits across time and space, and the possibility that Afro-Hispanic pidgins may have creolized across large areas of Spanish America. Literary imitations – all of questionable validity – are insufficient to resolve the issue; only first-hand data from legitimate Afro-Hispanic speech communities may shed light on earlier stages of language contact. The present study reviews four sources of authentic data: surviving Afro-Hispanic linguistic isolates; collective memories of recently disappearedbozal speech; ritualized representations ofbozal language; descendents of return-diasporabozal speakers. The surviving Afro-Hispanic speech communities that have been studied to date are found in Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. These speech communities exhibit only a few deviations from monolingual Spanish, and do not suggest the prior existence of a stable Spanish-derived creole. New data are presented on a recently-discovered Afro-Bolivian speech community, where a fully restructured Afro-Hispanic dialect still survives. The Afro-Bolivian dialect provides a scenario for the formation of reconstructed varieties of Spanish in the absence of a pan-American creole. Ritualized representations ofbozallanguage are found among thenegros congos of Panama and in Afro-Cubansantería andpalo mayombe ceremonies. Collective recollections of recentbozal language are found in Cuba, where the last African-bornbozales disappeared less then a century ago. Finally, return-diaspora speakers have been reported for Benin, Nigeria, and Angola, and may be found elsewhere in West Africa. By combining data from these remaining sources and comparing them with literary and folkloric texts, a more realistic reconstruction of emergent Afro-Hispanic contact varieties can be obtained.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction ix
-
Part I. Heritage Spanish in the United States
- 1. Subjects in early dual language development 3
- 2. Interpreting mood distinctions in Spanish as a heritage language 23
- 3. Anglicismos en el léxico disponible de los adolescentes hispanos de Chicago 41
-
Part II. Education and policy issues
- 4. Teaching Spanish in the U.S. 61
- 5. The politics of English and Spanish aquí y allá 81
- 6. Language attitudes and the lexical de-Castilianization of Valencian 101
- 7. Are Galicians bound to diglossia? 119
-
Part III. Pragmatics and contact
- 8. Addressing peers in a Spanish-English bilingual classroom 135
- 9. Style variation in Spanish as a heritage language 153
- 10. “Baby I'm Sorry, te juro, I'm Sorry” 173
- 11. Cross-linguistic influence of the Cuzco Quechua epistemic system on Andean Spanish 191
- 12. La negación en la frontera domínico-haitiana 211
-
Part IV. Variation and contact
- 13. On the development of contact varieties 237
- 14. Linguistic and social predictors of copula use in Galician Spanish 253
- 15. Apuntes preliminares sobre el contacto lingüístico y dialectal en el uso pronominal del español en Nueva York 275
- 16. Is the past really the past in narrative discourse? 297
- 17. The impact of linguistic constraints on the expression of futurity in the Spanish of New York Colombians 311
- 18. Quantitative evidence for contact-induced accommodation 329
- 19. Está muy diferente a como era antes 345
-
Part V. Bozal Spanish
- 20. Where and how does bozal Spanish survive? 359
- 21. The appearance and use of bozal language in Cuban and Brazilian neo-African literature 377
- Index 395
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction ix
-
Part I. Heritage Spanish in the United States
- 1. Subjects in early dual language development 3
- 2. Interpreting mood distinctions in Spanish as a heritage language 23
- 3. Anglicismos en el léxico disponible de los adolescentes hispanos de Chicago 41
-
Part II. Education and policy issues
- 4. Teaching Spanish in the U.S. 61
- 5. The politics of English and Spanish aquí y allá 81
- 6. Language attitudes and the lexical de-Castilianization of Valencian 101
- 7. Are Galicians bound to diglossia? 119
-
Part III. Pragmatics and contact
- 8. Addressing peers in a Spanish-English bilingual classroom 135
- 9. Style variation in Spanish as a heritage language 153
- 10. “Baby I'm Sorry, te juro, I'm Sorry” 173
- 11. Cross-linguistic influence of the Cuzco Quechua epistemic system on Andean Spanish 191
- 12. La negación en la frontera domínico-haitiana 211
-
Part IV. Variation and contact
- 13. On the development of contact varieties 237
- 14. Linguistic and social predictors of copula use in Galician Spanish 253
- 15. Apuntes preliminares sobre el contacto lingüístico y dialectal en el uso pronominal del español en Nueva York 275
- 16. Is the past really the past in narrative discourse? 297
- 17. The impact of linguistic constraints on the expression of futurity in the Spanish of New York Colombians 311
- 18. Quantitative evidence for contact-induced accommodation 329
- 19. Está muy diferente a como era antes 345
-
Part V. Bozal Spanish
- 20. Where and how does bozal Spanish survive? 359
- 21. The appearance and use of bozal language in Cuban and Brazilian neo-African literature 377
- Index 395
