Spanish Loan Words in American Indian Languages

Abstract

Ethnic or culture groups as well as individuals learn from their neighbors.* The closer and the more intimate the contacts between peoples the greater and the more profound will be the inter influence of one group upon the other. The exchanges or borrowings made between the groups can involve all aspects of the two cultures, whether they be material, such as tools, plants, and animals, or whether they be non-material in nature, such as customs, religious rites, and superstitions. The spread of these items or culture traits is referred to as cultural diffusion and, by studying this aspect of human activity, we are able to understand not only the origin of common objects and practices but also the culture processes by which these traits have been diffused. In the study of the distribution and diffusion of culture traits, linguistics plays a major role.' When two groups speaking distinct languages make cultural borrowings, they frequently borrow the name of the object or practice from the language of the lending group at the same time as they borrow the culture trait itself. This foreign word now used in a new environment is known as a loan word and the study of loan words in languages enables us to appreciate the development of specific cultures. Cultural borrowing can, of course, take place without linguistic borrowing or loan words but it is safe to assume that a word would not be borrowed in a vacuum, i. e. without the object it represents. Thus the presence of a culture element in a given group and the use of a loan word as its name in the language of that group is the strongest type of proof of the source of the culture element in question.2 The Spanish language offers great possibilities for the study of linguistic and cultural diffusion in the period since the discovery of the New World. The first contacts of the New World with the Old we e brought about by Spaniards and their tongue served as the medium for the communication of culture borrowings between the two Worlds. Spanish acted as the only cultural bridge between Europe and America for about fifty years after the discovery by Columbus and most of the languages of Europe, through terms borrowed from sixteenth-century Spanish, remind us of this important epoch in the history of the Spanish language. Similarly indigenous American languages reveal in the large number of Spanish loan words the profound impact made by European culture on New World groups. This study has as its purpose the description of certain aspects of the study of Spanish loan words in American Indian languages. By means of sample semantic categories and, within these, selected individual words, we shall illustrate how widespread and profound the influence of Spanish has been on certain native languages of America. In carrying out our purpose, we shall illustrate also certain aspects of the process of cultural diffusion or acculturation and, especially, the types of layers of loans that characterize the steps in that process. The illustrative examples that we use have been identified as borrowings from Spanish by capable investigators.3 By comparing these testimonials of Spanish loan words, it is * A paper read at the Thirty-Third Annual Meeting of the AATSP, Chicago, December 2627, 1951.