Spanish in Colombia and New York City : Language Contact Meets Dialectal Convergence

This volume fills a void in language variation and change research. It is the first to provide an empirical, comparative study of Spanish in Colombia and New York City. Remarkable similarities in the linguistic conditioning on language variation in both communities contrast with interesting differences in the effects of social predictors. The book provides a window into the effects of language and dialect contact on change and serves as a model for studies comparing diasporic populations to their home speech communities. Dedication 6 Table of contents 8 About the author 12 Preface • Gregory R. Guy 14 1 Introduction 18 2 The expression of futurity 44 3 The expression of nominal possession 78 4 Variable subject personal pronoun expression 112 5 Effects of social predictors 140 6 Conclusions 172 References 186 Index 204