Three languages from America in contact with Spanish

Abstract

Long before Europeans reached the American shores for the first time, and forced their cultures upon the indigenous population, including their languages, a great many other languages were spoken on that continent. These dated back to the original discoverers of America, who probably came from the West rather than the East. This article briefly sketches the arrival of those first Americans, and the languages that they introduced. Then three modern languages that developed out of these are discussed in some more detail, with respect to both sociolinguistic and grammatical aspects: Otomi, Quechua and Guarani. Finally, an impression is given of what kind of linguistic changes the clash between these languages and Spanish, the official language in many of today’s American countries, has brought about.