Research on NYCS shows koineization and potential English contact effects on phonology and morphosyntax (e.g., Otheguy & Zentella 2012, Otheguy, Zentella, & Livert 2007, Orozco 2018, Raña-Risso & Tobón 2018). Address research in other varieties of US Spanish (e.g., Hernández 2002, Sorenson 2016) is limited to 2PS T-form variation (tú~vos). This pilot study explores variation between T-forms (tú and vos) versus V-forms (usted) in New York City Spanish (NYCS) to suggest possible effects of interdialect and language contact alongside relative language dominance on 2PS address norms.

Participants include immigrants and heritage Spanish speakers of Colombian, Dominican, Ecuadorian, Venezuelan, Mexican, Chilean, Salvadorian, and Argentinian backgrounds. They were presented with pictures of 40 scenes each with a speaker addressing an interlocutor. Scenes had short captions in English containing you, which participants were instructed to translate to their variety of Spanish. Scenes varied by speaker-interlocutor pairings, affect, and settings. Pairings varied by proximity (stranger to intimate), hierarchy (up to down, equals, down to up), gender (male/female), and age (older to younger, same age, younger to older). Affect varied from affectionate to conflictive. Settings included family, work, and service and fleeting encounters.

Preliminary results suggest very limited (<15%) use of usted, which appears variably only in conflict situations or highly formal pairings (e.g., boss/employee). Some participants were categorical T-form users, with vos appearing only variably with Argentinians. Similarly, greatest usted use was by Colombians, but with tú usage still predominant. There were mixed usages of explicit pronoun usted followed by tú agreement patterns among participants with heritage Spanish features.

Similar to other Spanish varieties, it appears that NYCS is moving toward a heavily T-form oriented 2PS system, although perhaps at a more accelerated rate. NYC born participants, however, often conserve tendencies associated with family dialects although even immigrants show some convergence to wider NYCS patterns.

References

• Hernández, J. E. (2002). Accommodation in a dialect contact situation. Filología y Lingüística 28(2), 93-110.
• Otheguy, R., & Zentella, A. C. (2012). Spanish in New York: language contact, dialectal leveling, and structural continuity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Otheguy, R., Zentella, A. C., & Livert, D. (2007). Language and dialect contact in Spanish in New York: toward the formation of a speech community. Language 83(4), 770-802.
• Orozco, R. (2018). Spanish in Colombia and New York City: language contact meets dialectal convergence. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Raña-Risso, R. & Tobón, C. (2018). On the relationship between subject placement and overt pronouns in the Spanish of New York City bilinguals. Journal of Language Contact 11(2), 324-347.
• Sorenson, T. (2016). ¿De dónde sos? Difference between Argentine and Salvadoran voseo to tuteo accommodation in the United States. In M. I. Moyna & S. Rivera-Mills (Eds.) Forms of Address in the Spanish of the America (pp. 171-196). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.