Lexical Borrowings from Spanish into Wayuunaiki: Contact, Classification, and Motivations

Abstract

This study identifies and analyzes lexical borrowings from Spanish into Wayuunaiki (an Arawak language spoken in Colombia and Venezuela). The analysis, based on bibliographic documentation and fieldwork, focuses on the borrowability and semantic domains of Spanish loanwords and the factors motivating Spanish loanword adoption into Wayuunaiki. The results show that, despite the typological distance, Wayuunaiki is prone to adopting lexical items from Spanish, as evident in the moderate number of lexical borrowings identified. A key motivating factor for Spanish loanword incorporation is Wayuunaiki speakers’ need for lexical items to refer to new concepts adopted from the dominant Spanish-speaking culture. This phenomenon is partly due to the contact dynamics between Wayuunaiki and Spanish. Besides expanding on the description of the Wayuunaiki language and its contact with Spanish, this study contributes to identifying factors and motivations favoring the adoption of loanwords between typologically distant languages.