Variation and Change in Spanish (review)

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 271 foice us to confronr aspects of out cultural history and identity we as Americans , perhaps Norm Americans, must confront: our rapacity, racism, machoism (sexism) in our dealing with this land and its peoples. They also present us with admirable acrs of choice, as we continue to define ourselves for worse or for bertei against a backdrop rhat threatens void but promises the sublime, climbable peaks of possibility. (212) In light of this statement, the book appeals to be written for the Kit Carsons of today, the multicultural polyglots who might make a fatal mistake (you know the kind). On this didactic point, and on Canfield's evident pleasure in studying Southwestern novels and films, Mavericks on the Border is a well-intended contribution to the revision of U.S. cultural and political history. Roberto Cantú California State University, Los Angeles Variation and Change in Spanish Cambridge University Press, 2000 By Ralph Penny Evet since William Labov's seminal woik on sound changes in progress in Martha's Vineyard (1963), one of the most important contributions of variationist sociolinguistics has been the possibility of detecting linguistic change in progress. The study of variance and its correlation with stylistic and social factors reveals the very source of linguistic change, and allows for an understanding of howpaiticulai innovations spread, shedding light on the mechanisms of both changes in progress and changes that have already been completed. These ideas underlie Penny's Variation and Change in Spanish, whose main merit is the attempt to integrate synchronic and diachronic perspectives into the study of the history of Spanish . In this book, instead of following the tradition of historical manuals that oiganize theii content around abrupt phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical changes across time, Penny emphasizes the vaiiation, both geogiaphical and social, that gave rise to change in Spanish. Undei this approach, the social history of the speakers is highlighted as Penny reconstructs some of the main mechanisms undetlying variation and change that are observable in former philological studies of Spanish. He emphasizes the changes caused by leveling of irregularities and simplification of structures, and argues that these two processes are rhe main forces driving Spanish evolution as a result of dialect contact and mixing due to constant population movement since the Middle Ages. In chapter 1, "Introduction," Penny briefly sets forth the theoretical framework and tetminology derived from historical sociolinguistics. In chapter 2, "Dialect, language, variety: definitions and relationships," the differences between dialect and language are discussed, clarifying common myths about this relationship among nonlinguists . The concepts of diglossia and diasystems ate applied to chaiacterize some of the relationships between the linguistic varieties in the Iberian Peninsula. Here Penny emphasizes the "seamlessness " of social and geographic dialectal continua , and thus regards the tree model, commonly used in historical linguistics, as inadequate due to, among other reasons, its individual branches that mask the continuity of the Peninsular Romance continuum. Chapter 3, "Mechanisms of Change," aims to present the ways in which linguistic innovations travel thtough both geogiaphical and social space. Grounded in the theory that linguistic innovations "ate passed from one individual to anothei through the accommodation processes which occur in face to face conracr" (63), Penny discusses leveling and simplification in late medieval and eatly modem Spanish. According to the authot, leveling explains (1) the reduction of the six medieval Spanish sibilants to three (in central and northern Spain) or two (elsewhere), (2) the variance between the initial IhI realization and dropping, and the final /h/-less solution, and (3) the merger of the voiced labial fricative and stop that initiated in the 15di century and the final IhI 272 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies victoiy. Simplification, a slightly different process, is responsible for (1) the merger of the perfect auxiliaries, (2) the history of strong preterites, and (3) the neai-meigei of the -er and -«-verb classes. After exemplifying cases of hyperdialectalism, reallocation of variants, and waves, Penny turns to the social factors thar govern rhe propagation of linguistic innovations, drawing from Leslie and James Milroys (1985) work on types of social networks . According to die Milroys, diffuse networks (weak ties among sevetal people) fosrer linguistic change...