DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2022.11.39012

Abstract: The article addresses the subject of the semantics of Spanish words and collocations containing the roots -gr(i)eg- (-grec-, -gring-, etc.), -helen-, -bizant-, associated with Greece and with the Greek culture. The author analyzes the semantics and etymology of the words and expressions the way they are represented in the two most reputable explanatory dictionaries, Diccionario de la lengua española (DLE) and Diccionario de americanismos. In some cases, the usage of the selected units is described with reference to corpus data (Modern Spanish corpora — CREA and CORPES XXI). The study has revealed the presence of a significant proportion of “learned borrowings” (“cultismos”), which is explained by the importance of Ancient Greek and Byzantine culture for European civilization in general and for Spain in particular. It is stated that the semantic evolution of some vocabulary units was influenced by stereotypical ideas about Greece and the Greeks. In addition, the analysis of Diccionario de americanismos has shown some peculiarities of the usage of the words and expressions under analysis in Latin American Spanish (e. g. the more frequent use of “gringo” and its derivatives).

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2022.10.39009

Abstract: The article addresses the subject of the use of Greek in the apologiae for Castilian (Spanish) language, drawing upon the key Spanish scientific treatises, and literary texts of the Spanish Golden Age (end of the 15th — first half of the 17th centuries), which mention Greek in an attempt to assert the prestige of Castilian. Particular attention is paid to the judgments about Greek and native languages expressed in the works of A. de Nebrija, J. de Valdés, C. de Villalón, F. de Medina, A. de Morales, F. de Quevedo, G. Correas and other writers and thinkers. Most studies in the field have always been primarily focused on the comparisons of Romance languages with their “mother”, Latin, while the use of Greek in the apologiae for Castilian has been a less frequent topic of study. The author comes to a conclusion that Greek invariably acts as the highest reference point for the Spanish grammarians, philologists and thinkers (and as an arbitrator or, sometimes, an "ally" of Castilian), while the attitudes towards Latin evolve over the course of the 15th–17th centuries.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2021.12.37094

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the origin of the phenomenon of voseo in the Uruguayan Spanish. Description is given to the evolution of the use of pronoun ‘vos’ and the corresponding verb forms in the Old Spanish and classical Spanish language, as well as to specificity of the development of the forms of voseo in Latin America (namely the process hybridization of the paradigm). Special attention is given to the spread of this linguistic phenomenon in the Río de la Plata, which includes the territory of modern Uruguay, in the context of the history of colonization. The author examines the theory of the two “norms” (urban and rural) to clarify the correlation between ‘tú’ and ‘vos’ in the Uruguayan Spanish of the XVIII – XXI centuries. This article is first within the Russian Spanish studies to examine the forms of address in the Uruguayan Spanish from the diachronic perspective, as up to the present it has rarely become the focus of attention of the Soviet and Russian philology. The following conclusions are formulated: 1) the key factor in wide spread occurrence of voseo in the Spanish language of America lies in the specificity of assimilation of the Spanish language by autochthonous and mixed population; 2) unlike Spain and some regions of America, the forms ‘vos’ prevalent Río de la Plata with the beginning of colonization have not been displaced by the form ‘tú’ due ti peripheral location of the territory and remoteness from cultural centers of the empire; 3) at the same time, the presence of tuteo was more noticeable in the cities, which led to the formation of two “norms” in the region – rural, characterized by voseo; and urban tuteo, which was oriented towards Pyrenean norm.