Novedad bibliográfica

• Provides a panoramic view of the evolution of Spanish from an ecological perspective
• Includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter to help readers critically engage with the topic
• Connects demographic, socioeconomic and cultural evidence with linguistic data to offer a holistic reassessment of the role of contact in the history of Spanish
• Incorporates both well-known settings of change and lesser-known situations of contact in minoritised populations

Languages do not exist beyond their speakers, but the history of individual languages has often been told as if they had a life of their own, emerging from other languages, growing and sometimes dying. When applied to Spanish, this story line commonly begins in spoken Latin, with the language taking shape in medieval Spain before spreading beyond Europe in the colonial period.

This book proposes a new take on this narrative. Instead of seeing Spanish as a linguistic entity with linear development, what would its history look like if we think of it as a centuries-long constellation of contact events? A History of Spanish as a Contact Language revisits the evolution of Spanish from the perspective of the ecology of language, centring speakers as the only historical agents of language transmission and change. Taking the speakers’ vantage point opens up exciting possibilities to rethink what Spanish is, how it has changed, and who has played a role in this process.