Kolonialer Sprachkontakt: Spuren der indigenen Lebenswelt und der lenguas generales des historischen Paraguays im Spanischen der Jesuiten

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this contribution is to examine the contact situation between Spanish and indigenous languages in historical Paraguay, using a corpus of one hundred texts written by Jesuits in the 18th century. To overcome cultural and linguistic barriers, the members of the Jesuit Order used various strategies, especially learning the two lenguas generales Guaraní and Quichua for missionary work, which resulted in a certain multilingualism among the religious. The main focus is on the linguistic influences on colonial Spanish, coming from older indigenous varieties and especially from the lenguas generales Guaraní and Quichua, both widespread across the region in historical Paraguay. The traces of this historical contact situation can be found in toponymic designations, and as lexical and even morphological borrowings, which are still vital today, especially in the American varieties of Spanish.