Unsolved Problems in Spanish and Spanish-American Linguistics

Abstract

Despite the enormous progress that has been achieved in linguistic studies, and especially in Romance linguistics, during the last half century, we can certainly say that thei most striking feature of research in Hispanic philology is the fact that so little work has been done, by and large, in a field that is potentially so rich. * There are notable exceptions, of course, as in the case of certain areas and topics; but as yet the field of Hispanic linguistics lacks the basic works, and even the research tools and monographs, that will make possible some day the great dictionaries and histories that the Hispanic languages so richly deserve. There are many different approaches to philological study, and many different aims. Let me say from the outset that I have little interest in the controversies of the several linguistic schools. We can be sure that the collaboration of all is necessary if we aspire to obtain a complete picture of the linguistic history of the Hispanic peoples; the successful investigator, in our field as well as in others, must work from a broad basis and, like the anthropologist, for example, use not only the tools necessary for minute analysis and historical reconstruction, on the one hand, but also explain and evaluate in terms of meaning and function, on the other. In reviewing the various fields represented in my report, I shall take up first the traditional disciplines, such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax, and then discuss briefly our needs in some of the newer fields, like dialectology, linguistic geography, and stylistics. I shall conclude by discussing some of the more general needs in the field, such as bibliogaphies, surveys, seminars, and the training of investigators. Sta ting, then, with the field of phonet s, it can be said that in no branch of linguistic studies has such progress been at ained as in the study of speech sounds. The key to the historical interpretation of the development of language has been found principally in this discipline, a field in which a great number of discoveries have been made and new methods devised. In the Hispanic field, however, despite the cognized importance of phonetics in linguistic studies, and despite the exemplary studies we have concerning Peninsular Spanish, only a small part of Hispanic America has been studied scientifically. And even where some work has been done, a change in method is at times necessary. One of our most urgent needs is a series of manuals on the pronunciation of the principal linguistic regions of America comparable to that of Professor Navarro for Peninsular Spanish. For regions as important as Mexico or Colombia we still lack an accurate description and classification of vowels and consonants. In the case of vowels we need to know more about their quality and quantity, weakening of unstressed vowels, tendencies toward diphthongization, labialization, or nasalization. The treatment of groups of vowels is especially important. As I suggest below, the study of the versification of folk poetry would be of assistance in dealing with this question. * A paper read before the Spanish Language and Mediaeval Literature Section of the Modern Language Association at its Annual Meeting in New York City, December 29, 1950. 233