El lenguaje de los jóvenes hispanos de la ciudad de Montreal
Canada is internationally known and recognized as a country of linguistic and cultural convergences. In this setting, the Spanish language has found –through the years– a place that seems to be gaining ground every day. With the growth of the Hispanic population in Canada, and especially in the Greater Montreal Region, along with the need to start exploring a situation of language and dialect contact most probably unique in the Hispanic context, for Spanish being in contact not with one, but two majority languages (French and English), we intend to study one of the age groups that most favours linguistic change: the youth. The material used for this study is composed of a corpus made of questionnaires and recordings of group conversations from 53 Spanish-speaking youngsters from various Spanish dialect norms, men and women, between 14 and 24 years of age, and belonging to three generations of immigrants (1, 1.5 and 2). The results show a presence, at all analytical levels, of features specific to the dialect of origin, to standard Spanish, and more or less influence of the majority languages (French and English) depending on the level of linguistic analysis. In that respect, women informants show a disposition to use forms that are considered more prestigious in standard and regional Spanish, as well as among the youth and in a situation of language contact. The influence of the country’s majority languages is especially evidenced in generations 1.5 and 2. With respect to age, while informants of 18 years of age or more favour the use of regional forms, those under 18 years of age favour creations associated to youth language. Contact with youngsters speaking other dialect norms does not favours regional forms nor innovative forms resulting from contact, but levelling and the use of standard Spanish. The main features of such levelling are present at the lexical and morphosyntactical levels. Moreover, the results show various accommodation strategies, fundamentally converging. Finally, and in relation do language attitudes, informants acknowledge that Spanish is a diverse language and see themselves as transmitters of Spanish to future generations.
Youth language Grammar Lexicon Pragmatics Language attitudes Language contact Spanish