Los préstamos del español en el inglés de los Estados Unidos

Abstract

Borrowings from Spanish have existed in English for more than a millennium. Until about two centuries ago; most of them entered the language in England through Spain. Normally; earlier borrowings show more assimilation to the phonological and morphological patterns of the language. Even more recent borrowings; however; show some changes to adjust to the phonetic requirements of English; such as aspiration of voiceless consonants; making voiced fricatives into stops; the conversion of [x] to [h]; of [β] to [v]; of [ŷ] to [y]; of noncontinuant dentals to [D] before an unstressed syllable and the use of ‘shwa’ Changes found in older borrowings are retraction of the accent; folk etymology and native pronunciation of the vowels. ‘Continuous borrowing’ is defined: borrowings taken into English repeatedly in different periods. Evidence is presented that; while most borrowings entered via the spoken language; many entered or were affected through writing.