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Article published In: Diachronica
Vol. 34:2 (2017) ► pp.219–252

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Chocó Spanish double negation and the genesis of the Afro-Hispanic dialects of the Americas

 | University of Texas at Austin | Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies
Published online: 20 July 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.34.2.03ses
Abstract
Chocó Spanish is an Afro-Hispanic dialect spoken in the Pacific lowlands of Colombia. This variety is characterized by the presence of double-negative constructions (neg2) (i.e., yo no como no “I do not eat”), which have repeatedly been classified in the literature as the contemporary traces of a previous Afro-Portuguese creole stage for this vernacular. The present paper provides linguistic and sociohistorical evidence offering an alternative explanation. In particular, neg2 is analyzed as an archaic morphosyntactic trait which already existed in 15th–19th century Spanish and which has been preserved in Chocó Spanish and other conservative Afro-Hispanic vernaculars of Latin America.
Résumé
L’espagnol du Chocó est un dialecte Afro-hispanique parlé dans les plaines du Pacifique de la Colombie. Cette variété se caractérise par la présence de constructions à double négation (neg2) (c'est-à-dire, yo NO como NO “je ne mange pas”), qui selon plusieurs chercheurs constitueraient les dernières traces aujourd’hui d’une forme ancestrale de ce parler, un ancien créole Afro-portugais. Notamment, on y analyse la structure neg2 comme étant un trait morphosyntaxique archaïque, que possédait déjà l’espagnol du 15e au 19e siècle, et qui a été préservée en l’espagnol du Chocó et dans d’autres vernaculaires conservateurs afro-hispaniques de l’Amérique latine.
Zusammenfassung
Chocó Spanisch ist ein afrohispanischer Dialekt, der im pazifischen Tiefland Kolumbiens gesprochen wird. Ein Charakteristikum dieser Varietät sind Konstruktionen mit doppelter Negation (neg2) (z.B. yo NO como NO „Ich esse nicht“), die in der Fachliteratur wiederholt als gegenwärtige Spuren einer vorhergehenden afroportugiesischen Kreol-Stufe dieser Vernakularsprache klassifiziert wurden. Der vorliegende Aufsatz präsentiert linguistische und soziohistorische Evidenz für eine alternative Erklärung. So zeigt die Analyse, dass neg2 ein archaisches morphosyntaktisches Phänomen ist, das bereits im Spanischen des 15.–19. Jahrhundert zu finden war und im Chocó Spanisch und anderen konservativen afrohispanischen Vernakularsprachen in Lateinamerika erhalten blieb.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review on Afro-Hispanic neg2 constructions
    • 2.1The (de)creolization perspective
    • 2.2The non-creole perspective
  • 3.An alternative explanation for Chocó Spanish neg2
  • 4.A sociohistorical sketch of Chocó
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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