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Chapter 16. The Mesoamerican linguistic area revisited

  • Pamela Munro
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Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond
This chapter is in the book Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond

Abstract

Campbell, Kaufman & Smith Stark (1986; henceforth CKSS) propose a number of criterial traits for identifying “a particularly strong linguistic area” in Mesoamerica, showing that diverse languages from different language families of the region share enough morphological, syntactic, and lexical features to be legitimately considered a Sprachbund. In this paper, I present data suggesting that another language of Central America explicitly excluded from CKSS’s Mesoamerican list, the Arawakan language Garifuna, should be added to the Mesoamerican typological grouping. I also discuss several additional syntactic features characteristic of languages in the region which may be added to the list of characteristic Mesoamerican traits.

Abstract

Campbell, Kaufman & Smith Stark (1986; henceforth CKSS) propose a number of criterial traits for identifying “a particularly strong linguistic area” in Mesoamerica, showing that diverse languages from different language families of the region share enough morphological, syntactic, and lexical features to be legitimately considered a Sprachbund. In this paper, I present data suggesting that another language of Central America explicitly excluded from CKSS’s Mesoamerican list, the Arawakan language Garifuna, should be added to the Mesoamerican typological grouping. I also discuss several additional syntactic features characteristic of languages in the region which may be added to the list of characteristic Mesoamerican traits.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Contributors xi
  5. Abbreviations and acronyms xiii
  6. Dedication xv
  7. Chapter 1. Language contact in Mesoamerica and beyond 1
  8. Chapter 2. Spanish influence in two Tepehua languages 29
  9. Chapter 3. Spanish infinitives borrowed into Zapotec light verb constructions 55
  10. Chapter 4. The effect of external factors on the perception of sounds in Meꞌphaa 81
  11. Chapter 5. Sociolinguistic factors in loanword prosody 105
  12. Chapter 6. Some grammatical characteristics of the Spanish spoken by Lacandón and Mazahua bilinguals 125
  13. Chapter 7. Spanish loanwords in Amerindian languages and their implications for the reconstruction of the pronunciation of Spanish in Mesoamerica 155
  14. Chapter 8. Loanword evidence for dialect mixing in colonial American Spanish 171
  15. Chapter 9. The impact of language contact in Nahuatl couplets 187
  16. Chapter 10. Spanish–Huastec (Mayan) 16th-century language contact attested in the Doctrina Christiana en la lengua guasteca by Friar Juan de la Cruz, 1571 209
  17. Chapter 11. Historical review of loans in Chichimec (c.1767–2012) 229
  18. Chapter 12. Nahuatl L2 texts from Northern Nueva Galicia 237
  19. Chapter 13. Western and Central Nahua dialects 263
  20. Chapter 14. Loanwords in Apachean from indigenous languages of the Southwest 301
  21. Chapter 15. Language contact across the Andes 319
  22. Chapter 16. The Mesoamerican linguistic area revisited 335
  23. Chapter 17. Language diversity, contact and change in the Americas 355
  24. Chapter 18. Spanish in the Americas 385
  25. Index of subjects and terms 419
  26. Index of authors 425
  27. Index of place, person and ethnic group names 427
  28. Index of languages 429
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.185.16mun

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Contributors xi
  5. Abbreviations and acronyms xiii
  6. Dedication xv
  7. Chapter 1. Language contact in Mesoamerica and beyond 1
  8. Chapter 2. Spanish influence in two Tepehua languages 29
  9. Chapter 3. Spanish infinitives borrowed into Zapotec light verb constructions 55
  10. Chapter 4. The effect of external factors on the perception of sounds in Meꞌphaa 81
  11. Chapter 5. Sociolinguistic factors in loanword prosody 105
  12. Chapter 6. Some grammatical characteristics of the Spanish spoken by Lacandón and Mazahua bilinguals 125
  13. Chapter 7. Spanish loanwords in Amerindian languages and their implications for the reconstruction of the pronunciation of Spanish in Mesoamerica 155
  14. Chapter 8. Loanword evidence for dialect mixing in colonial American Spanish 171
  15. Chapter 9. The impact of language contact in Nahuatl couplets 187
  16. Chapter 10. Spanish–Huastec (Mayan) 16th-century language contact attested in the Doctrina Christiana en la lengua guasteca by Friar Juan de la Cruz, 1571 209
  17. Chapter 11. Historical review of loans in Chichimec (c.1767–2012) 229
  18. Chapter 12. Nahuatl L2 texts from Northern Nueva Galicia 237
  19. Chapter 13. Western and Central Nahua dialects 263
  20. Chapter 14. Loanwords in Apachean from indigenous languages of the Southwest 301
  21. Chapter 15. Language contact across the Andes 319
  22. Chapter 16. The Mesoamerican linguistic area revisited 335
  23. Chapter 17. Language diversity, contact and change in the Americas 355
  24. Chapter 18. Spanish in the Americas 385
  25. Index of subjects and terms 419
  26. Index of authors 425
  27. Index of place, person and ethnic group names 427
  28. Index of languages 429
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