Características del español oral de hablantes de herencia angloparlantes de 6 a 12 años en Castilla y León

Resumo

Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States and its interaction with English has been extensively studied for decades. In this context, Spanish is the family language, which is widely influenced by English, the majority language. In Castilla y León, Spain, there are also family speech contexts where Spanish interacts with English. However, in these situations, the family language is English and the majority language is Spanish. In this research study, the speech characteristics of heritage English-speakers in Castilla y León are identified. In order to do that, a series of semi-structured interviews were performed. This methodology has served to create a general overview of its morphsyntactic, phonetic and lexical characteristics. Therefore, the linguistic patter of Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States is described and then compared to the characteristics of the Spanish language of heritage English-speakers in Castilla y León. Although the languages that interact with each other are the same, there are two main differences in their context of use and their social prestige: 1) Spanish is the family language in the United States and English is the family language in Spain; 2) Spanish is a prestigious language only in Spain while English is a prestigious language in both Spain and the United States. Data obtained by conducting semi-structured interviews show that the linguistic patter of Spanish of English-speakers in Spain and Spanish as a Heritage language in the United States are similar.