2012 Theses Bachelor's

Somos Españoles aqui: Dialect as an index of pride and cultural difference in Buenos Aires

Plunkett, Clare C.

A dialect is linked to social identity and a distinctive scheme of cultural values, and in this paper I show that the traits of the Buenos Aires dialect are linked to the characterization of its citizens as "snobby." Specifically there are two key traits that do not appear as standardized aspects of any other South American country's habla culta, or chosen national dialect. These are the vos, a pronoun that completely eclipses the tu as the standard second-person singular; and the pronunciation of sheismo, wherein the double L is a voiceless post-alveolar sibilant fricative, and is pronounced as the "s" sound in "mission." This paper will examine films, prescriptives, utterances, metadiscourse and individual survey data in order to analyze these particularities of rioplatense Spanish and their implications in production and perceptions of Argentinian culture.