Tuteo, Effeminacy and Homosexuality: Change and Continuity in Costa Rican Spanish

Abstract

AbstractCosta Rica’s second-person singular (2PS) address system is known for both its changing nature and its incorporation oftuteo, ustedeo,andvoseoforms. While the latter are generalized across communicative contexts,tuteouse has oscillated over time, being consistently associated with foreignness, effeminacy and homosexuality, with one study (Marín Esquivel, Rebeca. 2012. El pronombre ‘tú’ en los grupos homosexual y heterosexual heredianos.Revista Comunicación21(2). 31–40) suggesting that homosexual men report usingtuteoat levels significantly higher than heterosexuals. In this study, we revisit this finding using new data from a survey that elicited stated preferences for address forms and attitudes towardstuteoacross different communicative contexts. Multinomial logistic regressions compared the address choices of homosexual men with those of heterosexual men and women, and attitudes were gauged by means of a thematic analysis. Results indicate that currently, with few exceptions, what best characterizes the distribution of address forms are similarities, regardless of sexuality or gender, with all participants reporting low rates oftuteouse across communicative settings. While these results suggest continued change intuteouse, linguistic attitudes reveal a persistent perceived ideological connection betweentuteo,foreignness, effeminacy and homosexuality.