Language Contact Phenomena in Louisiana Isleno Spanish

Abstract

early years of the twentieth century, an apparently significant number of natives of Andalucia, Galicia, Asturias, Valencia, and other parts of Spain moved into the islerio communities and cast their lot with the descendents of Canary Islanders (Guillotte 1982). The amount of linguistic influence of these later Spanish immigrants has yet to be determined, and even the demographic proportions of Peninsular Spaniards and Canary Islanders may only be guessed at, given the lack of accurate documentation, but it is evident that the term islehos refers as much to the heartland of this group, Delacroix Island (in reality an inland area surrounded by bayous) as to the insular origin of the Spanish settlers.3 Due to the geographical and cultural isolation of the islehos, from the turn of the nineteenth century until the 1940s, most members of the community were monolingual Spanish speakers, although some creole French crept into the isleho lexicon over the years, and only with the opening of the first schools in St. Bernard Parish, well into the twentieth century, did islefios learn English as a group. The oldest surviving members of the isleho community, over about 60 years of age, learned Spanish as a first language and suffered linguistic and social problems upon first attending school, in which then (as now) classes were conducted entirely in English. Many older islehos were raised thinking that they were in Spain and that the entire nation in which they lived spoke Spanish, so complete was the cultural isolation, even from the nearby villa of New Orleans. In the twentieth century, several factors combined to effect a