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43 books match the query 'Spanish language'

cover of A Brief History of the Spanish Language

A Brief History of the Spanish Language

David A. Pharies

University of Chicago Press, 2007

Spanish is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world and a language of ever-increasing importance in the United States. In what will likely become the introduction to the history of the Spanish language, David Pharies clearly and concisely charts the evolution of Spanish from its Indo-European roots to its present form. An internationally recognized expert on the history and development of this language, Pharies brings to his subject a precise sense of what students of Spanish linguistics need to know.

After introductory chapters on what it means to study the history of a language, the concept of linguistic change, and the nature of language families, Pharies traces the development of Spanish from its Latin roots, all with the minimum amount of technical language possible.  In the core sections of the book, readers are treated to an engaging and remarkably succinct presentation of the genealogy and development of the language, including accounts of the structures and peculiarities of Latin, the historical and cultural events that deeply influenced the shaping of the language, the nature of Medieval Spanish, the language myths that have become attached to Spanish, and the development of the language beyond the Iberian Peninsula, especially in the Americas. Focusing on the most important facets of the language’s evolution, this compact work makes the history of Spanish accessible to anyone with a knowledge of Spanish and a readiness to grasp basic linguistic concepts.

Available in both English and Spanish editions, A Brief History of the Spanish Language provides a truly outstanding introduction to the exciting story of one of the world’s great languages.
 
[more]
cover of A Brief History of the Spanish Language: Second Edition

A Brief History of the Spanish Language

Second Edition

David A. Pharies

University of Chicago Press, 2015

Since its publication in 2007, A Brief History of the Spanish Language has become the leading introduction to the history of one of the world’s most widely spoken languages. Moving from the language’s Latin roots to its present-day forms, this concise book offers readers insights into the origin and evolution of Spanish, the historical and cultural changes that shaped it, and its spread around the world.

A Brief History of the Spanish Language focuses on the most important aspects of the development of the Spanish language, eschewing technical jargon in favor of straightforward explanations. Along the way, it answers many of the common questions that puzzle native speakers and non-native speakers alike, such as: Why do some regions use tú while others use vos? How did the th sound develop in Castilian? And why is it la mesa but el agua?

David A. Pharies, a world-renowned expert on the history and development of Spanish, has updated this edition with new research on all aspects of the evolution of Spanish and current demographic information. This book is perfect for anyone with a basic understanding of Spanish and a desire to further explore its roots. It also provides an ideal foundation for further study in any area of historical Spanish linguistics and early Spanish literature.

A Brief History of the Spanish Language is a grand journey of discovery, revealing in a beautifully compact format the fascinating story of the language in both Spain and Spanish America.
[more]
cover of A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish: Revised and Expanded Edition

A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish

Revised and Expanded Edition

Rubén Cobos

Museum of New Mexico Press, 2011

Continuously in print since 1983, Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, has become a classic Spanish reference book, widely used in classrooms across the United States. As a teenager in Albuquerque, esteemed linguist and folkorist Rubén Cobos (1911-2010) was intrigued by and began documenting the regional variations of spoken Spanish. This was to become his work of a lifetime spanning seventy-five years. Dr. Cobos began recording Indo-Hispanic folklore material in the early 1940s. With the co-operation of the villagers, farmers, sheepherders, and other hard-working people in the small towns throughout New Mexico and Southern Colorado he recorded the nuances, slang and the regionally distinctive words of Spanish spoken in the communities of the upper Rio Grande and Southern Colorado.

Ruben Cobos spent a decade working on the revised and expanded edition of the dictionary, published in 2003. The Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish has assumed its place as the most authoritative reference on the archaic dialect of Spanish spoken in this region.
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cover of A Primer of Pastoral Spanish

A Primer of Pastoral Spanish

Michael J. McGrath

Catholic University of America Press, 2022

A Primer of Pastoral Spanish is designed to provide clergy, religious and laity alike with the tools to be pastoral among Spanish-speaking people. This primer is modeled after Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish (1953), whose author, Margarita Madrigal, bases her methodology on creating with the language instead of memorizing it. Previous knowledge of Spanish is not necessary, although, as you will discover, you already know thousands of words in Spanish. The vocabulary you know in English is the foundation on which you can build your knowledge of Spanish vocabulary. There are thousands of English words that become Spanish words if you can recognize the slight change that takes place from one language to the other. For example, you will learn how to conjugate a verb in Spanish to the first-person singular of the past tense by dropping a letter from its translation in English and adding an accent. There are 40 units in this primer. If you were to study each unit 30 minutes a day throughout Lent, for example, think about how far you could progress. Each unit consists of four sections: Vocabulary, Prayer or Culture, Cornerstones, and Vocabulary Review. There are four Check Your Progress units. These present more Challenges based on the grammar, vocabulary, and culture you learned in the previous units. The answers to the Challenges are at the end of these units.
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cover of Advances in the Analysis of Spanish Exclamatives

Advances in the Analysis of Spanish Exclamatives

Ignacio Bosque

The Ohio State University Press, 2017

Advances in the Analysis of Spanish Exclamatives is the first book entirely devoted to Spanish exclamatives, a special sentence type often overlooked by contemporary linguists and neglected in standard grammatical descriptions. The seven essays in this volume, each by a leading specialist on the topic, scrutinize the syntax—as well as the semantic and pragmatic aspects—of exclamations on theoretical grounds.
The book begins by summarizing, commenting on, and evaluating previous descriptive and theoretical contributions on Spanish exclamatives. This introductory overview also contains a detailed classification of Spanish exclamative grammatical types, along with an analysis of their main properties. Special attention is devoted in the book throughoutto the syntactic structures displayed by exclamative patterns; the differences between exclamations and other speech acts (specifically questions and imperatives); the peculiar semantic denotation of exclamative words and their relationship to quantifiers denoting high degree; the semantics of adjectives and adverbs expressing extreme evaluation; the form and interpretation of negated and embedded exclamatives; the properties of optative utterances; and the different ways in which expressive contents are related to unexpected reactions of the speaker, as well as possible knowledge shared by interlocutors.
This groundbreaking volume provides a complete and accurate picture of Spanish exclamation by integrating its numerous component parts.
 
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cover of Backcountry Mexico: A Traveler’s Guide and Phrase Book

Backcountry Mexico

A Traveler’s Guide and Phrase Book

By Bob Burleson and David H. Riskind

University of Texas Press, 1986

<p>If you've always longed to strike out through the open country of northern Mexico armed with frying pan and bedroll, then this guide to the people, culture, folkways, landscape, and language of rural Mexico is for you. Out of twenty years of travel in backcountry Mexico, authors Bob Burleson and David Riskind have produced perhaps the most practical and accurate guide available for the unconventional tourist&mdash;the man or woman who prefers to get off the beaten path by foot, burro, mule, canoe, raft, or vehicle.</p>
<p>Going well beyond the usual tourist guidebook entries, <cite>Backcountry Mexico</cite> will help you hire a guide and burro, navigate rural roads and trails, and communicate with the friendly and, sometimes, unfriendly folks you are likely to meet in a rural setting.</p>
<p>In addition to English-Spanish and Spanish-English vocabulary lists containing both standard words and numerous terms relating to people, conditions, land, and situations not ordinarily encountered in tourists' lists, the authors have provided literally hundreds of helpful phrases and short conversations in easy-to-use sections arranged according to topics. Experienced unconventional travelers themselves, Burleson and Riskind have become experts in such subjects as "Eating and Staying Well on the Road, " "Camping in Mexico, " "Rural Mexican Village Life," and many more. Their experience, and the resultant wealth of language and cultural information contained in this guide, will help you to enjoy your trip ancd to better understand and appreciate the people and the land you visit.</p>
<p>Throughout the book, the language examples are interwoven with beautifully illustrated anecdotes about culture and lifeways, so that the traveler is equipped with practical knowledge as well as appropriate behavior and speech. Fascinating in its treatment of a culture that is little known and unique in its coverage of rural-style Mexican Spanish, <cite>Backcountry Mexico</cite> will prove invaluable to anyone who ventures forth into northern Mexico.</p>
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cover of Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish

Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish

By Joseph J. Keenan

University of Texas Press, 2014

Many language books are boring—this one is not. Written by a native English speaker who learned Spanish the hard way—by trying to talk to Spanish-speaking people—it offers English speakers who have a basic knowledge of Spanish hundreds of tips for using the language more fluently and colloquially, with fewer obvious “gringo” errors.

Writing with humor, common sense, and a minimum of jargon, Joseph J. Keenan covers everything from pronunciation, verb usage, and common grammatical mistakes to the subtleties of addressing other people, “trickster” words that look alike in both languages, inadvertent obscenities, and intentional swearing. He guides readers through the set phrases and idiomatic expressions that pepper the native speaker’s conversation and provides a valuable introduction to the most widely used Spanish slang.

With this book, both students in school and adult learners who never want to see another classroom can rapidly improve their speaking ability. Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish will be an essential aid in passing the supreme language test—communicating fluently with native speakers.

[more]
cover of Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish

Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish

By Joseph J. Keenan

University of Texas Press, 1994

Many language books are boring—this one is not. Written by a native English speaker who learned Spanish the hard way—by trying to talk to Spanish-speaking people—it offers English speakers with a basic knowledge of Spanish hundreds of tips for using the language more fluently and colloquially, with fewer obvious "gringo" errors.

Writing with humor, common sense, and a minimum of jargon, Joseph Keenan covers everything from pronunciation, verb usage, and common grammatical mistakes to the subtleties of addressing other people, "trickster" words that look alike in both languages, inadvertent obscenities, and intentional swearing. He guides readers through the set phrases and idiomatic expressions that pepper the native speaker's conversation and provides a valuable introduction to the most widely used Spanish slang.

With this book, both students in school and adult learners who never want to see another classroom can rapidly improve their speaking ability. Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish will be an essential aid in passing the supreme language test-communicating fluently with native speakers.

[more]
cover of Breve historia de la lengua española: Segunda edición revisada

Breve historia de la lengua española

Segunda edición revisada

David A. Pharies

University of Chicago Press, 2015

Publicada inicialmente en 2007, esta Breve historia de la lengua española se ha convertido en la introducción más difundida a una de las lenguas más importantes del mundo por la extensión de su dominio y el número de hablantes. Este libro ofrece al lector un relato conciso que se propone profundizar en la evolución de la lengua desde sus raíces latinas hasta el presente, prestando especial atención a los cambios históricos y culturales que contribuyeron a su evolución y propagación por el mundo.
La Breve historia de la lengua española se concentra en los cambios más importantes de la evolución de la lengua, evitando la jerga académica ininteligible y favoreciendo la claridad en las explicaciones. Por el camino, intenta dar respuesta a muchas de las preguntas que con frecuencia desconciertan a los hablantes nativos y no nativos: ¿Por qué se utiliza tú en algunos lugares y vos en otros? ¿Cómo surgió la pronunciación como fricativa interdental de la zeta castellana? ¿Por qué se dice la mesa pero el agua con un artículo que parece masculino?
            David A. Pharies es un experto en el estudio de la historia y evolución del español, que goza de un reconocido prestigio en la escena internacional. Para actualizar esta segunda edición ha revisado en profundidad todos los aspectos de la evolución del español, incluido su desarrollo demográfico. El libro va dirigido a quienes tienen un conocimiento básico del español y desean aprender más sobre sus orígenes. También constituye una base ideal para emprender el estudio de cualquier aspecto de la lingüística histórica española y de la literatura medieval. Entretenida y accesible, la Breve historia de la lengua española es un gran viaje de descubrimiento en una presentación amena y sucinta.

Since its publication in 2007, A Brief History of the Spanish Language has become the leading introduction to the history of one of the world’s most widely spoken languages. Moving from the language’s Latin roots to its present-day forms, this concise book offers readers insights into the origin and evolution of Spanish, the historical and cultural changes that shaped it, and its spread around the world.
A Brief History of the Spanish Language focuses on the most important aspects of the development of the Spanish language, eschewing technical jargon in favor of straightforward explanations. Along the way, it answers many of the common questions that puzzle native and nonnative speakers alike, such as: Why do some regions use tú while others use vos? How did the th sound develop in Castilian? And why is it la mesa but el agua?
David A. Pharies, an internationally recognized expert on the history and development of Spanish, has updated this edition with new research on all aspects of the evolution of Spanish while adding current demographic information as well. This book is perfect for anyone with a basic understanding of Spanish and a desire to further explore its roots. It also provides an ideal foundation for further study in any area of historical Spanish linguistics and early Spanish literature. Both absorbing and accessible, A Brief History of the Spanish Language is a grand journey of discovery in a beautifully compact format.
[more]
cover of Breve historia de la lengua española: Spanish edition

Breve historia de la lengua española

Spanish edition

David A. Pharies

University of Chicago Press, 2007

El español es la cuarta lengua más hablada en el mundo y el idioma de una cada vez mayor importancia en los Estados Unidos de América. En lo que esperábamos resultara la introducción a la historia de la lengua española, David Pharies, clara y conscientemente, trazó la evolución del español desde sus raíces indo-europeas hasta su estado actual. Un reconocido experto internacional en la historia y el desarrollo de esta lengua, Pharies presenta sobre este tema un sentido preciso de lo que los estudiantes de español necesitan saber.

Después de los capítulos introductorios de lo que significa el estudio de la historia de una lengua, el concepto del cambio lingüístico y de la naturaleza de las familias lingüísticas, Pharies   hace un seguimiento al desarrollo del español desde sus raíces latinas, todo ello con una mínima cantidad de lenguaje técnico posible. En las secciones centrales del libro, los lectores son llevados por una presentación sucinta, comprometedora y admirable, de la genealogía y desarrollo de la lengua incluyendo explicaciones de las estructuras y peculiaridades del latín, los eventos históricos y culturales que influenciaron profundamente la forma del lenguaje, la naturaleza del español medieval, los mitos lingüísticos formando parte del español y el desarrollo de la lengua más allá de la península ibérica, en particular, en el continente americano. Centrándose en las más importantes facetas de la evolución de la lengua, esta obra concisa hace que la historia del español sea accesible a todos, con una comprensión del mismo y una disposición para entender los conceptos básicos del lenguaje.

Disponible en ambas ediciones, inglés y español, Una Breve Historia de la Lengua Española, nos brinda una extraordinaria introducción a la fascinante historia de una de las más importantes lenguas del mundo.

Spanish is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world and a language of ever-increasing importance in the United States. In what will likely become the introduction to the history of the Spanish language, David Pharies clearly and concisely charts the evolution of Spanish from its Indo-European roots to its present form. An internationally recognized expert on the history and development of this language, Pharies brings to his subject a precise sense of what students of Spanish linguistics need to know.

After introductory chapters on what it means to study the history of a language, the concept of linguistic change, and the nature of language families, Pharies traces the development of Spanish from its Latin roots, all with the minimum amount of technical language possible.  In the core sections of the book, readers are treated to an engaging and remarkably succinct presentation of the genealogy and development of the language, including accounts of the structures and peculiarities of Latin, the historical and cultural events that deeply influenced the shaping of the language, the nature of Medieval Spanish, the language myths that have become attached to Spanish, and the development of the language beyond the Iberian Peninsula, especially in the Americas. Focusing on the most important facets of the language’s evolution, this compact work makes the history of Spanish accessible to anyone with a knowledge of Spanish and a readiness to grasp basic linguistic concepts.

Available in both English and Spanish editions, A Brief History of the Spanish Language provides a truly outstanding introduction to the exciting story of one of the world’s great languages.
 
[more]
cover of Building Confianza: Empowering Latinos/as Through Transcultural Health Care Communication

Building Confianza

Empowering Latinos/as Through Transcultural Health Care Communication

Dalia Magaña

The Ohio State University Press, 2021

Dalia Magaña’s Building Confianza demonstrates that effective doctor-patient communication in Spanish requires that practitioners not only have knowledge of Spanish but also have transcultural knowledge of Latino/a values and language use. Using linguistic analysis to study real-time doctor-patient interactions, Magaña probes the role of interpersonal language and transcultural competency in improving patient-centered health care with Spanish-speaking Latino/as, highlighting successful examples of how Latino/a cultural constructs of confianza (trust), familismo (family-orientation), personalismo (friendliness), respeto (respect), and simpatía (kindness) can be deployed in medical interactions. She proposes that transcultural interactions entail knowing patients’ cultural values and being mindful about creating an interpersonal connection with patients through small talk, humor, self-disclosure, politeness, and informal language, including language switching and culturally appropriate use of colloquialisms. By explicitly articulating discourse strategies doctors can use in communicating with Spanish-speaking patients, Building Confianza will aid both students and providers in connecting to communities of Spanish speakers in health care contexts and advancing transcultural competence.
[more]
cover of Centros y Programas de Escritura en América Latina: Opciones teóricas y pedagógicas para la enseñanza de la escritura disciplinar

Centros y Programas de Escritura en América Latina

Opciones teóricas y pedagógicas para la enseñanza de la escritura disciplinar

Estela Inés Moyano

University Press of Colorado, 2023

Emerging from more than two decades of work in Latin America, this edited collection explores the implementation of reading and writing programs and centers in Central and South America. Reflecting the multiplicity of theories and gazes that underlies research and practice in teaching and learning to read and write in academic contexts, the contributors to this volume consider how these theoretical and methodological alternatives have contributed to the design and implementation of teaching and learning strategies that address the needs of students, faculty, and institutions while also working with (and around) the resources available in each institutional setting. Centros y Programas de Escritura en América Latina offers insights for those concerned with contributing to students’ education to improve their academic reading and writing, and, ultimately, to a more equitable university experience for all.
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cover of Contemporary Advances in Theoretical and Applied Spanish Linguistic Variation

Contemporary Advances in Theoretical and Applied Spanish Linguistic Variation

Juan J. Colomina-Almiñana

The Ohio State University Press, 2017

Contemporary Advances in Theoretical and Applied Spanish Linguistic Variation by Juan J. Colomina-Almiñana, reframes the understanding of language variation and change as an intimate interplay between both linguistic features and social factors always occurring in unison in the same historical process. Its ten chapters, divided into four parts, provide both a synchronic and a diachronic view of Hispanic sociolinguistics, focusing not only on the historical development of Spanish as a Romance language, but also analyzing certain idiosyncratic elements of non-standard Spanish varieties across multiple regions, nations, and diasporas. In addition, the volume offers an enchronic perspective of this phenomenon by analyzing how certain sustained cultural practices may drive concrete linguistic developments.
 
This volume makes three major contributions to Hispanic sociolinguistics. First, it covers variation in less commonly studied varieties, which are new areas of interest in a broader world where certain minorities and their languages are crucial. Second, it offers recent and innovative approaches to variation coming from formal theories in order to spark a debate about methodology that is more comprehensive of the diverse approaches to variation currently practiced in the field. Finally, it includes chapters that combine quantitative and qualitative analysis of different linguistic variables.
 
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cover of Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule

Contracting Colonialism

Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule

Vicente L. Rafael

Duke University Press, 1993

In an innovative mix of history, anthropology, and post-colonial theory, Vicente L. Rafael examines the role of language in the religious conversion of the Tagalogs to Catholicism and their subsequent colonization during the early period (1580&ndash;1705) of Spanish rule in the Philippines. By tracing this history of communication between Spaniards and Tagalogs, Rafael maps the conditions that made possible both the emergence of a colonial regime and resistance to it. Originally published in 1988, this new paperback edition contains an updated preface that places the book in theoretical relation to other recent works in cultural studies and comparative colonialism.
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cover of Cultural Erotics in Cuban America

Cultural Erotics in Cuban America

Ricardo L. Ortíz

University of Minnesota Press, 2006

Miami is widely considered the center of Cuban-American culture. However vital to the diasporic communities’ identity, Miami is not the only—or necessarily the most profound—site of cultural production. Looking beyond South Florida, Ricardo L. Ortíz addresses the question of Cuban-American diaspora and cultural identity by exploring the histories and self-sustaining practices of smaller communities in such U.S. cities as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

In this wide-ranging work Ortíz argues for the authentically diasporic quality of postrevolutionary, off-island Cuban experience. Highlighting various forms of cultural expression, Cultural Erotics in Cuban America traces underrepresented communities’ responses to the threat of cultural disappearance in an overwhelming and hegemonic U.S. culture. Ortíz shows how the work of Cuban-American writers and artists challenges the heteronormativity of both home and host culture. Focusing on artists who have had an ambivalent, indirect, or nonexistent connection to Miami, he presents close readings of such novelists as Reinaldo Arenas, Roberto G. Fernández, Achy Obejas, and Cristina García, the playwright Eduardo Machado, the poet Rafael Campo, and musical performers Albita Rodríguez and Celia Cruz.

Ortíz charts the legacies of sexism and homophobia in patriarchal Cuban culture, as well as their influence on Cuban-revolutionary and Cuban-exile ideologies. Moving beyond the outdated cultural terms of the Cold War, he looks forward to envision queer futures for Cuban-American culture free from the ties to restrictive—indeed, oppressive—constructions of nation, place, language, and desire.

Ricardo L. Ortíz is associate professor of English at Georgetown University.
[more]
cover of Dialogue with Europe, Dialogue with the Past: Colonial Nahua and Quechua Elites in Their Own Words

Dialogue with Europe, Dialogue with the Past

Colonial Nahua and Quechua Elites in Their Own Words

Justyna Olko

University Press of Colorado, 2018

Dialogue with Europe, Dialogue with the Past is a critical, annotated anthology of indigenous-authored texts, including the Nahua, Quechua, and Spanish originals, through which native peoples and Spaniards were able to convey their own perspectives on Spanish colonial order. It is the first volume to bring together native testimonies from two different areas of Spanish expansion in the Americas to examine comparatively these geographically and culturally distant realities of indigenous elites in the colonial period.
 
In each chapter a particular document is transcribed exactly as it appears in the original manuscript or colonial printed document, with the editor placing it in historical context and considering the degree of European influence. These texts show the nobility through documents they themselves produced or caused to be produced—such as wills, land deeds, and petitions—and prioritize indigenous ways of expression, perspectives, and concepts. Together, the chapters demonstrate that native elites were independent actors as well as agents of social change and indigenous sustainability in colonial society. Additionally, the volume diversifies the commonly homogenous term “cacique” and recognizes the differences in elites throughout Mesoamerica and the Andes.
 
Showcasing important and varied colonial genres of indigenous writing, Dialogue with Europe, Dialogue with the Past reveals some of the realities, needs, strategies, behaviors, and attitudes associated with the lives of the elites. Each document and its accompanying commentary provide additional insight into how the nobility negotiated everyday life. The book will be of great interest to students and researchers of Mesoamerican and Andean history, as well as those interested in indigenous colonial societies in the Spanish Empire.
 
Contributors: Agnieszka Brylak, Maria Castañeda de la Paz, Katarzyna Granicka, Gregory Haimovich, Anastasia Kalyuta, Julia Madajczak, Patrycja Prządka-Giersz
 
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cover of Dichos! The Wit and Whimsy of Spanish Sayings

Dichos! The Wit and Whimsy of Spanish Sayings

By Joseph J. Keenan

University of Texas Press, 2019

One of the most challenging—and entertaining—aspects of learning another language is the idiom. Those quirky phrases, steeped in metaphor and colorful cultural references, enliven conversation and make your cross-cultural communication familiar, fun, and meaningful. ¡Dichos! (Sayings) brings us a vibrant compendium of both age-old and brand-new expressions from across Latin America, compiled by the language enthusiast whose Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish transformed thousands of readers’ interactions with the Spanish language.

¡Dichos! is divided into thematic sections covering topics ranging from games and relaxation to politics, macho men, and Mondays. Spanish speakers can also use the book to identify the spot-on/best slangy English equivalent for a Spanish-language idiom. Packed with gems like La barba me huele a tigre, y yo mismo me tengo miedo (My beard smells of tiger, and I’m even afraid of myself) and Para todo mal, mezcal; para todo bien, también (For everything bad, mezcal; for everything good, likewise), this book is the ultimate tool for taking your language skills to the next level as you navigate nuance with humor and linguistic agility.

[more]
cover of Dichos! The Wit and Whimsy of Spanish Sayings

Dichos! The Wit and Whimsy of Spanish Sayings

By Joseph J. Keenan

University of Texas Press, 2019

One of the most challenging—and entertaining—aspects of learning another language is the idiom. Those quirky phrases, steeped in metaphor and colorful cultural references, enliven conversation and make your cross-cultural communication familiar, fun, and meaningful. ¡Dichos! (Sayings) brings us a vibrant compendium of both age-old and brand-new expressions from across Latin America, compiled by the language enthusiast whose Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish transformed thousands of readers’ interactions with the Spanish language.

¡Dichos! is divided into thematic sections covering topics ranging from games and relaxation to politics, macho men, and Mondays. Spanish speakers can also use the book to identify the spot-on/best slangy English equivalent for a Spanish-language idiom. Packed with gems like La barba me huele a tigre, y yo mismo me tengo miedo (My beard smells of tiger, and I’m even afraid of myself) and Para todo mal, mezcal; para todo bien, también (For everything bad, mezcal; for everything good, likewise), this book is the ultimate tool for taking your language skills to the next level as you navigate nuance with humor and linguistic agility.

[more]
cover of Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain

Grammar Lessons

Translating a Life in Spain

Michele Morano

University of Iowa Press, 2007

In the thirteen personal essays in Grammar Lessons, Michele Morano connects the rules of grammar to the stories we tell to help us understand our worlds. Living and traveling in Spain during a year of teaching English to university students, she learned to translate and interpret her past and present worlds—to study the surprising moments of communication—as a way to make sense of language and meaning, longing and memory.
    Morano focuses first on her year of living in Oviedo, in the early 1990s, a time spent immersing herself in a new culture and language while working through the relationship she had left behind with an emotionally dependent and suicidal man. Next, after subsequent trips to Spain, she explores the ways that travel sparks us to reconsider our personal histories in the context of larger historical legacies. Finally, she turns to the aftereffects of travel, to the constant negotiations involved in retelling and understanding the stories of our lives. Throughout she details one woman’s journey through vocabulary and verb tense toward a greater sense of her place in the world.
    Grammar Lessons illustrates the difficulty and delight, humor and humility of living in a new language and of carrying that pivotal experience forward. Michele Morano’s beautifully constructed essays reveal the many grammars and many voices that we collect, and learn from, as we travel.
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cover of Hegemonies of Language and Their Discontents: The Southwest North American Region Since 1540

Hegemonies of Language and Their Discontents

The Southwest North American Region Since 1540

Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez

University of Arizona Press, 2017

Spanish and English have fought a centuries-long battle for linguistic dominance in the Southwest North American Region. Covering the time period of 1540 to the present, Hegemonies of Language and Their Discontents provides a deep and broad understanding of the contradictory methods of establishing language supremacy in this U.S.-Mexico transborder region and the manner in which those affected have responded and acted, often in dissatisfaction and at times with inventive adaptations.

Well-regarded author Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez details the linguistic and cultural processes used by penetrating imperial and national states. He argues that these impositions have been not linear but hydra-headed, complex and contradictory, sometimes accommodated and sometimes forcefully imposed. Such impositions have created discontent resulting in physical and linguistic revolts, translanguage versions, and multilayered capacities of use and misuse of imposed languages—even the invention of community-created trilingual dictionaries.

Vélez-Ibáñez gives particular attention to both sides of the border, explaining the consequences of the fragile splitting of the area through geopolitical border formation. He illustrates the many ways those discontents have manifested in linguistic, cultural, educational, political, and legal forms.

From revolt to revitalization, from silent objection to expressive defiance, people in the Southwest North American Region have developed arcs of discontent from the Spanish colonial period to the present. These narratives are supported by multiple sources, including original Spanish colonial documents and new and original ethnographic studies of performance rituals like the matachines of New Mexico. This unique work discusses the most recent neurobiological studies of bilingualism and their implications for cognitive development and language as it spans multiple disciplines. Finally, it provides the most important models for dual language development and their integration to the "Funds of Knowledge" concept as creative contemporary discontents with monolingual approaches.
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cover of Iberian Imperialism and Language Evolution in Latin America

Iberian Imperialism and Language Evolution in Latin America

Edited by Salikoko S. Mufwene

University of Chicago Press, 2014

As rich as the development of the Spanish and Portuguese languages has been in Latin America, no single book has attempted to chart their complex history. Gathering essays by sociohistorical linguists working across the region, Salikoko S. Mufwene does just that in this book. Exploring the many different contact points between Iberian colonialism and indigenous cultures, the contributors identify the crucial parameters of language evolution that have led to today’s state of linguistic diversity in Latin America.
           
The essays approach language development through an ecological lens, exploring the effects of politics, economics, cultural contact, and natural resources on the indigenization of Spanish and Portuguese in a variety of local settings. They show how languages adapt to new environments, peoples, and practices, and the ramifications of this for the spread of colonial languages, the loss or survival of indigenous ones, and the way hybrid vernaculars get situated in larger political and cultural forces. The result is a sophisticated look at language as a natural phenomenon, one that meets a host of influences with remarkable plasticity.  
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Interfaces and Domains of Quantification

Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach

The Ohio State University Press, 2014

Quantification is an intrinsically complex mechanism of expression in natural language, comprising a variety of structural shapes and semantic domains whose inventory has not been completely charted to date. Several linguistic forms associated with quantification in Spanish are explored in Interfaces and Domains of Quantification by Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach, from indefiniteness and ellipsis to the quantificational properties of relative clauses and adverbial particles.
 
Interfaces and Domains of Quantification advocates an interface approach to the grammar of Spanish quantification. Only a precise characterization of the syntactic properties of quantificational constructions and of their associated meanings allows us to understand how more general syntactic and semantic constraints are at work. Among other findings, the interaction of scope and parallelism with ellipsis is reconsidered; the structural significance of modal anchoring and essential properties for the interpretation of indefiniteness is explored in detail; additionally, quantificational variability and correlativity phenomena in relative clauses are analyzed; degree expression is characterized for concessive conditionals and superlatives; and, finally, several discourse particles with a quantificational core are shown to be critical for the articulation of semantic and discourse-pragmatic relations. Taking a detailed look at the different forms, patterns and structures associated with several quantificational domains seems to be the only fully explanatory way to advance our knowledge of the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of quantificational structures.
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cover of Intermediate Spanish Memory Book: A New Approach to Vocabulary Building

Intermediate Spanish Memory Book

A New Approach to Vocabulary Building

By William F. Harrison and Dorothy Winters Welker

University of Texas Press, 1997

Mnemonics is an age-old device for remembering names, numbers, and many other things. As in the authors' previous Memory Books, the Intermediate Spanish Memory Book makes use of this reliable memory help in a series of mnemonic jingles that are by turns playful, sardonic, touching, and heroic to help both students and independent learners acquire and remember Spanish vocabulary. The 500-plus words in this book represent a more advanced vocabulary than those in the Spanish Memory Book (1990) and the Spanish Memory Book, Junior Edition (1993).

The mnemonic jingles present both the sound of the Spanish word (indicated by syllables in italic type) and its English meaning (given by a word or phrase in boldface type):

merienda: picnic, afternoon tea

Mary, end a boring picnic.
Just say, "I'm going home. I'm sick, Nick."

This innovative approach to vocabulary building is simple, effective, and entertaining.

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cover of Manual for (Relatively) Painless Medical Spanish: A Self-Teaching Course

Manual for (Relatively) Painless Medical Spanish

A Self-Teaching Course

By Ana Malinow Rajkovic

University of Texas Press, 1992

Spanish-speaking patients are no rarity in United States hospitals and clinics, as many English-speaking health care providers have discovered. To help these providers better communicate with the patients they serve, Ana Malinow Rajkovic has prepared the Manual for (Relatively) Painless Medical Spanish, a lively and innovative self-teaching guide to the grammar, pronunciation, and medical vocabulary of Spanish.

Presented in a systematic and highly entertaining fashion, twelve lessons cover some of the most commonly encountered situations. These include the family clinic, the emergency room, appendicitis, the social chat, pregnancy, family planning, pelvic inflammatory disease and urinary tract infection, depression, children with asthma, patients with angina, explaining a venipuncture and a spinal tap, and patients with shortness of breath. Each lesson closes with a bilingual interview that includes vocabulary and grammar introduced in that lesson. A guide to the medical history and physical examination appears in English and Spanish in the appendix.

Excellent in the classroom or for independent learning, the Manual will enable health care providers better to understand and supply the needs of Spanish-speaking patients.

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cover of Me llamo Marcela: My Story as a Heritage Speaker

Me llamo Marcela

My Story as a Heritage Speaker

Written by Marcela T. Garcés and illustrated by Andrés E. Garcés

The Ohio State University Press, 2024

On her first day of middle school Spanish class, Marcela thought she’d excel—after all, she’d grown up speaking Spanish at home and on visits to family in Colombia. Instead, she quickly felt like a confused imposter, unsure how a language that was part of her heritage and identity could so elude her. And so, at age thirteen, with the help of her Spanish teacher Doña Maribel, Marcela began her formal journey studying Spanish. She never anticipated how much she’d discover about learning a language and what it means to be a heritage speaker—someone who grows up using a language at home but often lacks more formal knowledge of it. In this charming graphic memoir that captures a little-discussed aspect of growing up multicultural, Marcela recounts her earliest Spanish teachers: Colombian street vendors, family members who shouted or whispered words, and her beloved Doña Maribel, who helped her connect the Spanish of her youth with what she was learning in the classroom. Childhood memories from trips to Colombia intertwine with her adolescence, when Marcela resolves to study the language for herself, not because people correct her or expect her to speak it well but because she wants to learn. This comic, drawn by Marcela’s brother Andrés, shows the complicated path of language and identity that Marcela travels as a heritage speaker.
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cover of Mexican Americans and Language: Del dicho al hecho

Mexican Americans and Language

Del dicho al hecho

Glenn A. Martínez

University of Arizona Press, 2006

When political activists rallied for the abolition of bilingual education and even called for the declaration of English as an official language, Mexican Americans and other immigrant groups saw this as an assault on their heritage and civil rights. Because language is such a defining characteristic of Mexican American ethnicity, nearly every policy issue that touches their lives involves language in one way or another.

This book offers an overview of some of the central issues in the Mexican American language experience, describing it in terms of both bilingualism and minority status. It is the first book to focus on the historical, social, political, and structural aspects of multiple languages in the Mexican American experience and to address the principles and methods of applied sociolinguistic research in the Mexican American community. Spanish and non-Spanish speakers in the Mexican American community share a common set of social and ethnic bonds. They also share a common experience of bilingualism.

As Martínez observes, the ideas that have been constructed around bilingualism are as important to understanding the Mexican American language experience as bilingualism itself. Mexican Americans and Language gives students the background they need to respond to the multiple social problems that can result from the language differences that exist in the Mexican American community. By showing students how to go from word to deed (del dicho al hecho), it reinforces the importance of language for their community, and for their own lives and futures.
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cover of Mopan Maya-Spanish-English Dictionary

Mopan Maya-Spanish-English Dictionary

Charles A Hofling

University of Utah Press, 2011

Charles Andrew Hofling

Smithsonian-Utah Publications in American Indian Languages

Lyle Campbell and Ives Goddard

Linguistics

This is highly valuable dictionary of the Mopan (Mayan) language. In addition to its many entries, it also provides an introductory grammatical description, as well as general dictionary features such as parts of speech, examples, cross-references, variant forms, homophones, and indexes. The book also contains special sections on orthography and pronunciation unique to this important Mayan language, as well as translations into English and Spanish.

The dictionary has the merits well known from other dictionaries of indigenous languages of the Americas, preserving knowledge systems as they are encoded in vocabulary and providing valuable information for numerous fields, including Mayanists, Mesoamericanists, American Indian scholars, anthropologists, historians, linguists, students of Mayan hieroglyphic writing, and members of modern Mayan communities, among others.

This is the second book in the new Smithsonian-Utah Publications in American Indian Languages (SUPAIL) series, a joint venture of the University of Utah Press and the Smithsonian Institution.

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cover of Mother Tongues of the High Andes: Gender, Language, and Indigenous Difference in Peru

Mother Tongues of the High Andes

Gender, Language, and Indigenous Difference in Peru

Sandhya Krittika Narayanan

University of Arizona Press, 2025

The Peruvian altiplano, a high plateau around Lake Titicaca, is known for its breathtaking landscapes and the cultivation of commodities like quinoa and alpaca wool. The region also stands out for its history of inter-Indigenous language contact and multilingualism between Quechua- and Aymara-speaking communities. This linguistic ecology predates the Spanish conquest and persists today, making the altiplano, with its capital, Puno, a unique space where Indigenous multiplicity is recognized and celebrated. Yet this celebration is accompanied by additional ideological challenges around defining Quechua and Aymara as distinct Indigenous languages and ethnic groups.

Anthropologist Sandhya Krittika Narayanan begins with these challenges, and asks: What does it mean to be a Quechua or Aymara speaker in Puno today? What does it mean to be an Indigenous ethnic Quechua or Aymara individual?

Mother Tongues of the High Andes opens with these questions, exploring what Quechua and Aymara languages and identities mean for Indigenous puneños as they navigate their past and present. Narayanan argues that understanding inter-Indigenous linguistic and social differences involves examining Indigenous gender roles, responsibilities, and linguistic practices, particularly those of Indigenous puneña women. She shows how these practices have contributed to the maintenance of Indigenous multilingualism and continuity in local modes of understanding Indigenous identity and difference.

Even as ideologies around Indigenous identity and linguistic practices shift due to global discourses on Indigenous ethnic identity and nationalism, Indigenous women continue to play a crucial role, promoting new ways to speak and think about Quechua and Aymara linguistic differences, making the Indigenous roots and histories of Puno recognizable to a global audience. Through a comprehensive ethnographic exploration of gender, language, and Indigenous difference, Narayanan shows how the linguistic and social practices of Indigenous puneña women both contest and reaffirm competing visions of Quechua and Aymara linguistic identity and authority. 
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cover of Rancheros in Chicagoacán: Language and Identity in a Transnational Community

Rancheros in Chicagoacán

Language and Identity in a Transnational Community

By Marcia Farr

University of Texas Press, 2006

Rancheros hold a distinct place in the culture and social hierarchy of Mexico, falling between the indigenous (Indian) rural Mexicans and the more educated city-dwelling Mexicans. In addition to making up an estimated twenty percent of the population of Mexico, rancheros may comprise the majority of Mexican immigrants to the United States. Although often mestizo (mixed race), rancheros generally identify as non-indigenous, and many identify primarily with the Spanish side of their heritage. They are active seekers of opportunity, and hence very mobile. Rancheros emphasize progress and a self-assertive individualism that contrasts starkly with the common portrayal of rural Mexicans as communal and publicly deferential to social superiors.

Marcia Farr studied, over the course of fifteen years, a transnational community of Mexican ranchero families living both in Chicago and in their village-of-origin in Michoacán, Mexico. For this ethnolinguistic portrait, she focuses on three culturally salient styles of speaking that characterize rancheros: franqueza (candid, frank speech); respeto (respectful speech); and relajo (humorous, disruptive language that allows artful verbal critique of the social order maintained through respeto). She studies the construction of local identity through a community's daily talk, and provides the first book-length examination of language and identity in transnational Mexicans.

In addition, Farr includes information on the history of rancheros in Mexico, available for the first time in English, as well as an analysis of the racial discourse of rancheros within the context of the history of race and ethnicity in Mexico and the United States. This work provides groundbreaking insight into the lives of rancheros, particularly as seen from their own perspectives.

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cover of Sin fronteras: Inclusive Spanish Grammar Guidebook

Sin fronteras

Inclusive Spanish Grammar Guidebook

Liana Stepanyan, María Mercedes Fages Agudo, Carolina Castillo Larrea, Goretti Prieto Botana

Amherst College Press, 2024

Sin fronteras: Inclusive Spanish Grammar Guidebook is the first ever Spanish language text to teach non-binary and gender-neutral language. It is an invaluable resource for intermediate and advanced learners that offers concise explanations and exercises for all major clausal structures, tenses, and moods. Along with including non-binary and gender-neutral language, the volume also incorporates the voseo, or the use of vos as a second-person singular pronoun that is common in many Latin American countries. This book expands the scope of traditional grammar instruction by including reading, writing, discussion, and independent research tasks that support the development of the competencies necessary to thrive in an increasingly interconnected and diverse world. Sin fronteras is suitable for independent study or for supplemental use in conversation classes, classes for heritage speakers, classes with a focus on the professions (e.g., medical Spanish, Spanish for business), and literature classes.
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cover of Southwestern Medical Dictionary: Spanish-English, English-Spanish

Southwestern Medical Dictionary

Spanish-English, English-Spanish

Margarita Artschwager Kay

University of Arizona Press, 2001

As doctors' time becomes more limited, communication with patients becomes more important and the need for doctor-patient understanding becomes critical. Here is a book that helps bridge the gap between the professional language of health care providers and that of people whose first language is Spanish.

A staple of southwestern health care for more than twenty years, this dictionary can make a difference in patient care. Now available in a revised edition, it focuses on vocabulary used in health contexts by Spanish-speaking people in order to help patients tell their stories and medical practitioners to understand them. Unlike other bilingual dictionaries that emphasize scientific terms, this one focuses on standard Spanish terms as well as regional expressions peculiar to Mexican Spanish—language encountered in Chicago as easily as in Phoenix.

In the Spanish-to-English section, Spanish terms are followed by English translations and sample sentences to help health care practitioners understand how a patient might use them:

acedías, heartburn, pain in lower esophagus perceived as in the heart. Uno tiene la tendencia a sufrir de acedías después de comer chile. One has a tendency to suffer heartburn after eating chile. (syn: acidez, agruras del estómago)

In the English-to-Spanish section, English words are translated into simple Spanish terms along with English synonyms.

Now available in a revised edition, this handy reference features:

• more than 3,000 entries
• new entries that reflect current health problems and treatments
• inclusion of cognates
• Spanish definitions of English words
• anatomical drawings with bilingual labels
• more material on medicinal plants, including an appendix of poisonous and non-poisonous plants
• lists of food items and kinship terms

This book is an indispensable reference for all health care professionals who see patients of Mexican origin. Combining idiomatic precision with technical accuracy, it can help break down language barriers on either side of the border.
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cover of Spanish Memory Book: A New Approach to Vocabulary Building

Spanish Memory Book

A New Approach to Vocabulary Building

By William F. Harrison and Dorothy Winters Welker

University of Texas Press, 1990

Using mnemonics is an age-old technique for remembering names, numbers, and many other things. In Spanish Memory Book, William Harrison and Dorothy Welker offer original mnemonic rimes that are by turns amusing, ironic, pathetic, sentimental, and sardonic to help students and independent learners acquire and remember Spanish vocabulary.

Included are mnemonic jingles for 700 of the 2,000 most commonly used Spanish words. Each jingle contains both the sound of the Spanish word and its English meaning. The authors have included a general pronunciation guide to Spanish vowels and consonants.

This innovative approach, which the authors have used successfully with their own students, is simple, effective, and entertaining. In the words of one student, "This book teaches me not only Spanish words but English words as well."

[more]
cover of Spanish Memory Book: A New Approach to Vocabulary Building, Junior Edition

Spanish Memory Book

A New Approach to Vocabulary Building, Junior Edition

By William F. Harrison and Dorothy Winters Welker

University of Texas Press, 1990

Mnemonics is an age-old technique for remembering names, numbers, and many other things. In Spanish Memory Book, Junior Edition, William Harrison and Dorothy Welker offer onginal mnemonic rimes appropriate in subject matter and skill level for junior high and high school students to help them acquire and remember Spanish vocabulary.

Included are mnemonic jingles for several hundred of the 2,000 most commonly used Spanish words. Each jingle contains both the sound of the Spanish word and its English meaning. The authors have also included a general pronunciation guide to Spanish vowels and consonants.

This innovative approach, which the authors have used successfully with their own students, is simple, effective, and entertaining. In the words of one student, "This book teaches me not only Spanish words but English words as well."

[more]
cover of Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r)

Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r)

By David Brodsky

University of Texas Press, 2005

It's time for a new approach to learning Spanish verbs. Unlike popular verb guides that require the rote memorization of hundreds of verb forms, this book clearly explains the rules that govern the conjugation of all classes of Spanish verbs—especially the irregular ones that give second-language learners the most trouble. These simple, easy-to-understand rules for conjugating Spanish verbs are effective learning tools for both beginning students and more advanced speakers who want to perfect their usage of Spanish verb forms.

Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r) has many helpful features that you won't find in any other verb guide:

  • Clear explanations of all verb tenses and forms.
  • The simple rules that govern the conjugation of all verbs—including the 90% of irregular verbs whose irregularities are entirely predictable.
  • A detailed discussion of how each verb form is used, with numerous examples.
  • A full explanation of the distinction between ser and estar—the single most confusing element in the Spanish verbal system.
  • An extended treatment of the subjunctive that will help you understand why it is used in some situations but not others.
  • Conjugations for 35 model Spanish verbs and a comprehensive listing of 4,800 verbs that indicates which of the models each verb follows.

Going well beyond any other guide in the clarity and detail of its explanations—as well as the innovative manner in which individual verbs are linked to model conjugations—Spanish Verbs Made Simple(r) is the only guide to Spanish verbs a learner needs.

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cover of Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach

Spanish Vocabulary

An Etymological Approach

By David Brodsky

University of Texas Press, 2008

Unlike other vocabulary guides that require the rote memorization of literally thousands of words, this book starts from the premise that using the etymological connections between Spanish and English words—their common derivations from Latin, Greek, and other languages—is the most effective way to acquire and remember vocabulary. This approach is suitable for beginners as well as for advanced students. Teachers of the language will also find much material that can be used to help motivate their students to acquire, and retain, Spanish vocabulary.

Spanish Vocabulary is divided into four parts and four annexes:

  • Part I provides background material on the origins of Spanish and begins the process of presenting Spanish vocabulary.
  • Part II presents "classical" Spanish vocabulary—words whose form (in both Spanish and English) is nearly unchanged from Latin and Greek.
  • Part III deals with "popular" Spanish vocabulary, which underwent significant changes in form (and often meaning) during the evolution from Latin to Spanish. A number of linguistic patterns are identified that will help learners recognize and remember new vocabulary.
  • Part IV treats a wide range of themes, including words of Germanic and Arabic origin, numbers, time, food and animals, the family, the body, and politics.
  • Annex A: Principal exceptions to the "Simplified Gender Rule"
  • Annex B: 700 words whose relations, if any, to English words are not immediately obvious
  • Annex C: -cer verbs and related words
  • Annex D: 4,500 additional words, either individually or in groups, with English correspondences
[more]
cover of Spanish and Empire

Spanish and Empire

Nelsy Echavez-Solano

Vanderbilt University Press, 2007

Essays in this volume deal with the historical, linguistic, and ideological legacy of the Spanish Empire and its language in the New World.
[more]
cover of The Afro-Bolivian Spanish Determiner Phrase: A Microparametric Account

The Afro-Bolivian Spanish Determiner Phrase

A Microparametric Account

Sandro Sessarego

The Ohio State University Press, 2014

In this important new study, Sandro Sessarego provides a syntactic description of the Afro-Bolivian Spanish determiner phrase. Afro-Bolivian Spanish is one of the many Afro-Hispanic dialects spoken across Latin America and, from a theoretical point of view, is rich in constructions that would be considered ungrammatical in standard Spanish. Yet these constructions form the core grammar of these less-prestigious, but equally efficient, syntactic systems. Because of the wide variety of their usages, Sessarego’s study of these contact varieties is particularly valuable in developing and refining theories of syntactic microvariation.
 
This dialect presents phenomena that offer a real challenge to current linguistic theory. The Afro-Bolivian Spanish Determiner Phrase elaborates on the importance of enhancing a stronger dialogue between formal generative theory and sociolinguistic methodology, in line with recent work in the field of minimalist syntax. Sessarego’s study combines sociolinguistic techniques of data collection with generative models of data analysis to obtain more fine-grained, empirically testable generalizations.
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cover of The Promise of the Foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines

The Promise of the Foreign

Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines

Vicente L. Rafael

Duke University Press, 2005

In The Promise of the Foreign, Vicente L. Rafael argues that translation was key to the emergence of Filipino nationalism in the nineteenth century. Acts of translation entailed technics from which issued the promise of nationhood. Such a promise consisted of revising the heterogeneous and violent origins of the nation by mediating one’s encounter with things foreign while preserving their strangeness. Rafael examines the workings of the foreign in the Filipinos’ fascination with Castilian, the language of the Spanish colonizers. In Castilian, Filipino nationalists saw the possibility of arriving at a lingua franca with which to overcome linguistic, regional, and class differences. Yet they were also keenly aware of the social limits and political hazards of this linguistic fantasy.

Through close readings of nationalist newspapers and novels, the vernacular theater, and accounts of the 1896 anticolonial revolution, Rafael traces the deep ambivalence with which elite nationalists and lower-class Filipinos alike regarded Castilian. The widespread belief in the potency of Castilian meant that colonial subjects came in contact with a recurring foreignness within their own language and society. Rafael shows how they sought to tap into this uncanny power, seeing in it both the promise of nationhood and a menace to its realization. Tracing the genesis of this promise and the ramifications of its betrayal, Rafael sheds light on the paradox of nationhood arising from the possibilities and risks of translation. By repeatedly opening borders to the arrival of something other and new, translation compels the nation to host foreign presences to which it invariably finds itself held hostage. While this condition is perhaps common to other nations, Rafael shows how its unfolding in the Philippine colony would come to be claimed by Filipinos, as would the names of the dead and their ghostly emanations.

[more]
cover of The University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Spanish-English, English-Spanish: Universidad de Chicago Diccionario Español-Inglés, Inglés-Español

The University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Spanish-English, English-Spanish

Universidad de Chicago Diccionario Español-Inglés, Inglés-Español

Edited by David A. Pharies

University of Chicago Press, 2002

The University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary is the most popular dictionary of its kind. Its familiar name is known to millions of general readers, students, educators, and travelers. Improved for greater ease of use, and brought completely up to date, the fifth edition of The University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary is now more than ever the perfect resource for both language learners and experienced language users.

With thousands of added entries, the Dictionary builds on the features that have made it the leader in its field for more than fifty years: authority, scope, clarity, and conciseness. And with this edition, the Dictionary brilliantly captures the current core vocabularies of two rapidly changing—and increasingly connected—languages and cultures.

Entirely bilingual, the fifth edition focuses on two contemporary international languages—American English and a basic, worldwide Spanish that draws from both Latin American and Iberian sources.

Designed for a wide range of users, including travelers, businesspeople, students, teachers, and professionals, the new Dictionary is the essential first resource for speakers of both languages—from beginners to those at all other stages. Up to date, just comprehensive enough, and extraordinarily clear and easy to use, the new edition of The University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary stands alone. No other dictionary offers so many users so much help—or so much value.
[more]
cover of The University of Chicago Spanish-English Dictionary, Sixth Edition: Diccionario Universidad de Chicago Inglés-Español, Sexta Edición

The University of Chicago Spanish-English Dictionary, Sixth Edition

Diccionario Universidad de Chicago Inglés-Español, Sexta Edición

David A. Pharies, Editor in Chief

University of Chicago Press, 2012

A concise, authoritative, up-to-date guide to Spanish and English

The University of Chicago Spanish–English Dictionary has long set the standard for concise bilingual dictionaries. Portable yet remarkably thorough, the dictionary enables users to find the precise equivalents of the words and phrases they seek.

Completely bilingual, the book focuses on two contemporary international languages, American English and a worldwide Spanish rooted in both Latin American and Iberian sources.
 
The sixth edition has been updated with six thousand new words and meanings selected for their frequency of use, rising popularity, and situational necessity. In order to best represent the dynamic and increasingly connected cultures of three continents, this edition features enhanced coverage of the vocabulary associated with four areas of increasing global importance: medicine, business, digital technology, and sports.
 
Clear, precise, and easy to use, The University of Chicago Spanish–English Dictionary continues to serve as the essential reference for students, travelers, business people, and everyone interested in building their linguistic proficiency in both Spanish and English.
[more]
cover of The Writer's Reference Guide to Spanish

The Writer's Reference Guide to Spanish

By David William Foster, Daniel Altamiranda, and Carmen de Urioste

University of Texas Press, 2000

Writers and editors of Spanish have long needed an authoritative guide to written language usage, similar to The MLA Style Manual and The Chicago Manual of Style. And here it is! This reference guide provides comprehensive information on how the Spanish language is copyedited for publication.

The book covers these major areas:

  • Language basics: capitalization, word division, spelling, and punctuation.
  • Language conventions: abbreviations, professional and personal titles, names of organizations, and nationalities.
  • Bibliographic format, particularly how Spanish differs from English.
  • Spanish language forms of classical authors' names.
  • Literary and grammatical terminology.
  • Linguistic terminology.
  • Biblical names and allusions.
  • A dictionary of grammatical doubts, including usage, grammatical constructions of particular words and phrases, verbal irregularities, and gender variations.
[more]
cover of Words and Worlds Turned Around: Indigenous Christianities in Colonial Latin America

Words and Worlds Turned Around

Indigenous Christianities in Colonial Latin America

David Tavárez

University Press of Colorado, 2017

A sophisticated, state-of-the-art study of the remaking of Christianity by indigenous societies, Words and Worlds Turned Around reveals the manifold transformations of Christian discourses in the colonial Americas. The book surveys how Christian messages were rendered in indigenous languages; explores what was added, transformed, or glossed over; and ends with an epilogue about contemporary Nahuatl Christianities.

In eleven case studies drawn from eight Amerindian languages—Nahuatl, Northern and Valley Zapotec, Quechua, Yucatec Maya, K'iche' Maya, Q'eqchi' Maya, and Tupi—the authors address Christian texts and traditions that were repeatedly changed through translation—a process of “turning around” as conveyed in Classical Nahuatl. Through an examination of how Christian terms and practices were made, remade, and negotiated by both missionaries and native authors and audiences, the volume shows the conversion of indigenous peoples as an ongoing process influenced by what native societies sought, understood, or accepted.

The volume features a rapprochement of methodologies and assumptions employed in history, anthropology, and religion and combines the acuity of of methodologies drawn from philology and historical linguistics with the contextualizing force of the ethnohistory and social history of Spanish and Portuguese America.

Contributors: Claudia Brosseder, Louise M. Burkhart, Mark Christensen, John F. Chuchiak IV, Abelardo de la Cruz, Gregory Haimovich, Kittiya Lee, Ben Leeming, Julia Madajczak, Justyna Olko, Frauke Sachse, Garry Sparks

[more]
cover of Zones of Encuentro: Language and Identities in Northern New Mexico

Zones of Encuentro

Language and Identities in Northern New Mexico

Lillian Gorman

The Ohio State University Press, 2024

Winner, 2025 New Mexico Book Awards, Multicultural Category
Finalist, New Mexico Book Awards, BIPOC Author or Subject Category and First Book Category

Working at the intersection of Latina/o/x cultural studies, sociocultural linguistics, and Chicana feminist studies, Lillian Gorman’s Zones of Encuentro takes an in-depth look at the cultural and linguistic interactions between two distinct Latina/o/x communities in the region: Nuevomexicanos (Hispanic people who trace their presence in the region to colonial times and whose families have historically spoken Traditional New Mexican Spanish, or TNMS) and first-generation Mexicano immigrants (who tend to speak Mexican Spanish). Gorman examines the everyday lived language experiences and ethnolinguistic identities of Mexicanos and Nuevomexicanos together, specifically through the case of mixed Mexicano-Nuevomexicano families. Through an interdisciplinary critical reading of ethnographic data, pláticas (informal conversations that gather family and community knowledge), interviews, articles, and historical memoirs, Gorman analyzes language ideologies, identity formations, and language practices by exploring complex spaces of encounter within Mexicano-Nuevomexicano families. Zones of Encuentro complicates homogeneous notions of language and identity and contemplates what a shared cultural and linguistic homeplace looks like for Mexicanos and Nuevomexicanos in northern New Mexico.

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