Spanish in Chicago is a nine-chapter investigation of the impact of language contact, dialectal contact, and intrafamilial dialectal contact on Spanish varieties in Chicago. The book begins with a sociohistorical context of Spanish speakers in Chicago, as well as an overview of interethnic relations and issues of contact and loss (chapter 1). Afterwards, the authors outline their usage of the CHISPA corpus, which includes tasks and sociolinguistic interviews they conducted with 124 Chicagoans of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and MexiRican heritage (chapter 2). Their analysis examines specific linguistic features in five domains of language (i.e. lexicon, discourse markers, code-switching, subjunctive use, and phonology). They compare the use of these features based on participants’ generation, Spanish proficiency, and regional origin.
The authors find that Mexican and Puerto Rican Chicagoans overlap and diverge in how their Spanish is shifting from their countries of origin. For instance, the groups differed in the frequency and distribution of their discourse markers, code-switching, and subjunctive use. They were similar in that generation and proficiency are interrelated factors that had a leading impact on speakers across regional origins, including MexiRicans. That is, higher proficiency was most represented by first- and then second-generation speakers and it correlated with greater Spanish lexical familiarity (chapter 3), higher use of Spanish discourse markers (chapter 4), fewer instances of code-switching (chapter 5), and more use of subjunctive forms (chapter 6). Regarding phonology, the authors identify situational phonological shifts by some Puerto Ricans, and they attribute it to linguistic accommodation resulting from social networks and language attitudes as opposed to generation or proficiency (chapter 7). Alongside these quantitative analyses, the authors include qualitative accounts where participants shared similar perceptions of the circumstances that led to their Spanish language usage (chapter 8).
Ultimately, these results show minimal evidence of dialectal leveling. For instance, despite each group's knowledge of out-group lexicon, they typically did not use words associated with each other's dialects. Correspondingly, despite speakers’ awareness of the ethnic associations attached to the realization of specific phonemes, they seldom used out-group pronunciations. Contrary to predictions, salient phonological features in Puerto Rican Spanish did not reduce over generations (namely, aspirated /s/ and velarized /r/). However, some Puerto Ricans used these features less with Mexican interlocutors, suggesting linguistic accommodation and not necessarily dialectal leveling. Regarding intrafamilial dialectal contact, MexiRicans with Puerto Rican mothers were more likely to pattern other Puerto Ricans in lexicon, discourse markers, and /s/ production. Based on these results, the authors argue that language contact between English and Spanish has a greater impact on emerging practices in Chicago Spanish varieties than dialectal contact between Spanish varieties.
In closing, Potowski & Torres suggest that future research include ethnographic data and examine more linguistic features that distinguish Mexican and Puerto Rican Spanish varieties, such as prosody or subject pronouns. This work lays a solid foundation for such endeavors, and it is a significant contribution to sociolinguistics research and studies of Spanish in the United States.
