Sociolinguistic patterns of Andalusian Spanish

Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide a sociolinguistic appraisal of Andalusian dialectal varieties of Spanish. Andalusian is derived from a southern simplification of the phonological system of thirteenth-century Castilian as the result of dialect koineization. Innovatory varieties accept natural phonological changes affecting syllable structure and reduce phoneme inventory. Since standard Spanish is a conservative dialect, Andalusian is said to be divergent. Nevertheless, convergent trends of pronunciation also develop among the most educated speakers, so that Andalusian speech communities exhibit a great deal of variation, and southern divergent features can be reversed through social pressures into a less natural and more complex phonemic system. What characterizes today's Andalusian speech behavior is a certain division between eastern and western varieties, which is the result of historical, social, and structural conditions. Convergence and divergence from the national standard underlie recent developments. On the one hand, western divergence and social acceptance of southern features is taking these varieties away from the national standard of Spain and bringing them nearer to the innovatory dialects of America. On the other hand, eastern convergence is contributing to the formation of a regional koiné where separated varieties are hardly recognized.

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