A Political History of Spanish: The Making of a Language

Cambridge University Press, 8/29/2013
EAN 9781107005730, ISBN10: 1107005736

Hardcover, 446 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English

Spanish is spoken as a first language by almost 400 million people in approximately 60 countries, and has been the subject of numerous political processes and debates since it began to spread globally from Iberia in the thirteenth century. A Political History of Spanish brings together a team of experts to analyze the metalinguistic origins of Spanish and evaluate it as a discursively constructed artefact; that is to say, as a language which contains traces of the society in which it is produced, and of the discursive traditions that are often involved and invoked in its creation. This is a comprehensive and provocative new work which takes a fresh look at Spanish from specific political and historical perspectives, combining the traditional chronological organization of linguistic history and spatial categories such as Iberia, Latin America and the US, whilst simultaneously identifying the limits of these organizational principles.

Part I. Theoretical Underpinnings
1. Language, politics and history
an introductory essay José del Valle
Part II. The Making of Spanish
Iberian Perspectives
2. Introduction Alberto Medina, Henrique Monteagudo and José del Valle
3. The prehistory of written Spanish and the thirteenth-century nationalist zeitgeist Roger Wright
4. Language, nation and empire in early modern Iberia Miguel Martínez
5. The seventeenth-century debate over the origins of Spanish
links of language ideology to the morisco question Kathryn Woolard
6. The institutionalization of language in eighteenth-century Spain Alberto Medina
7. The officialization of Spanish in mid-nineteenth-century Spain
the Academy's authority Laura Villa
8. Spanish and other languages of Spain in the Second Republic Henrique Monteagudo
Part III. The Making of Spanish
Latin American and Transatlantic Perspectives
9. Introduction Elvira Narvaja de Arnoux and José del Valle
10. Language, religion and unification in early colonial Peru Paul Firbas
11. Grammar and the state in the Southern Cone in the nineteenth century Elvira Narvaja de Arnoux
12. The politics of lexicography in the Mexican Academy in the late nineteenth century Bárbara Cifuentes
13. Language in the Dominican Republic
between Hispanism and Panamericanism Juan Valdez
14. Language diversity and national unity in the history of Uruguay Graciela Barrios
15. Language debates and the institutionalization of philology in Argentina in the first half of the twentieth century Guillermo Toscano y García
16. Linguistic emancipation and the academies of the Spanish language in the twentieth century
the 1951 turning point José del Valle
Part IV. The Making of Spanish
US Perspectives
17. Introduction José del Valle and Ofelia García
18. Language, church and state in territorial Arizona Elise M. DuBord
19. The politics of Spanish and English in territorial New Mexico Arturo Fernández Gibert
20. Public health and the politics of language in early twentieth-century Texas Glenn Martínez
21. Categorizing Latinos in the history of the US Census
the official racialization of Spanish Jennifer Leeman
Part V. The Making of Spanish Beyond Spain and the Americas
22. Introduction Mauro Fernández and José del Valle
23. The status of Judeo-Spanish in the Ottoman Empire Yvette Bürki
24. Language and the Hispanization of Equatorial Guinea Susana Castillo Rodríguez
25. The representation of Spanish in the Philippine Islands Mauro Fernández.

Advance praise: 'With more than 400 million speakers spread over every continent, the Spanish language represents a powerful social and political force in the modern world. A political history of Spanish traces the development of Spanish from a rustic regional vernacular to a multi-center world powerhouse, including the rise of Castilian as the variety of choice and the institutional control of the Royal Academy. The coverage includes Spain, Spanish America, the United States, Africa, and Asia. This skilfully configured anthology provides a valuable complement to linguistic histories of Spanish, by documenting the socio-political currents that shaped one of the world's most prominent languages. Historians, linguists, political scientists, and students of language and culture will find relevant and thought-provoking material in these essays.' John Lipski, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, Pennsylvania State University