Variation, identity and indexicality in southern Spanish. On the emergence of a new variety in urban Andalusia

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to claim that the emergence of a new intermediate variety between standard Castilian Spanish and vernacular varieties from Andalusia (Villena-Ponsoda, 2008; Villena-Ponsoda and Vida-Castro, 2017) is based on a new identity that blends, on the one hand, the individual’s orientation towards modern life, urbanisation and standardness and, on the other hand, faithfulness to the southern traditional-community values. Actually, linguistic features shaping this intermediate variety – among which split of southern consonant mergers (Villena-Ponsoda, 2001; Moya-Corral and Sosiński, 2015) and preservation of the southern erosive changes affecting consonants in syllable-coda position – go far beyond phonology and correlate in such a way that it is conceivable to think of a socially and perceptually coherent variety able to be considered as an alternative to the regional standard from Seville. To prove this, multivariate analyses of phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical variables have been carried out in the context of a research project including southern (Granada, Malaga, Seville) and central (Madrid) urban areas. Results confirm that this variety is basically spoken by young urban middle-class standard-orientated speakers willing to escape from the southern traditional way of life