Cities and the Contact Theory

I've been working my way through "The role of the city in the formation of Spanish American dialect zones" by John Lipski as a beginning document for my research. Lipski's article focuses mainly on the development of different dialects within the Americas based on a "contact-induced language change" theory that emphasizes the importance of contact between people and cultures (specifically the native cultures and the newly arrived Spaniards) as the driving force behind the evolutionary paths taken in different regions.

Lipski begins by addressing the idea of the "found principle", which "is modeled after population genetics, in which an originally recessive or disadvantageous trait can spread in a colony due to (1) mutation, (2) changes in the ecological conditions, and (3) a significant proportional increase in the carriers of the particular trait." The idea behind this theory is that the first settlers in the Caribbean (which was the first Spanish colonial stronghold) developed differences in their language thanks to the great distance between the colonies and the homeland, and that as each new wave of Spaniards came to the new world, they transplanted this newly evolved language onto mainland America. However, Lipski points out that modern language models do not follow the same evolutionary pathway that the founder principle predicted, and therefor believes it to be untrue.

Instead, Lipski believes that it was only was multiple cultural groups were in close proximity with one another that language evolution took place. The city, he says, was the only place for such a mixing of languages to become possible- the country side did not allow enough contact with one another for the change in Spanish to become widespread. The language of the indiginous population, the Spaniards, and the African slaves and servants brought over began to mix together as they interacted and co-inhabited the city. African vocabulary became even more evident in Spanish in the generation of children growing up with African nannies. Even things like the dance the Tango were transplanted into what is now seen as typical Hispanic culture.

The cities in Latin America and the Caribbean that are centers for certain Spanish dialects are also those that were chosen as the main ports for trade and industry during the Spanish colonial period. They were also the areas of highest population density and population in general. Lipski does not see it as a coincidence that these port cities became the epicenters for linguistic evolution. Lipski even cites the relatively small populations of these cities (in contrast with the vast cities of Sevilla and Madrid), as the reason that language changes were so easy: spreading language amongst a smaller group of people was much easier than in the huge cities of Europe.

By the 17th century, the Spanish American population had broken away from the critical changes in the official Spanish language. In Iberian Spanish, grammatical changes (such as the elimination of the pronoun vos for a time) were taking place, but these alterations were not reflected in the Spanish of the Americas, indicating that a distinct break had taken place between the mother nation and the Americas. To further the differences between the dialects, the American cities had a surge in Italian, Canary Island, African, and Creole immigrants that flooded the cities not only with themselves, but with their distinct dialects.

The final point that Lipski makes is that once the cities of the Americas were allowed to grow more rapidly (improvements in sanitation and the passing of several illnesses that had kept population low in previous years allowed for incredible growth), the dialects that had developed there were spread amongst the general population, which created the larger dialect zones that are present today.