LiVVaL Linguaggio e Variazione | Variation in Language

Series | LiVVaL
Edited book | Language Attitudes and Bi(dia)lectal Competence
Chapter | Differential Object Marking in Aymara

Differential Object Marking in Aymara

A linguistic contact-induced phenomenon from Spanish.

Abstract
This study investigates the contact-induced processes underlying the Aymara Object Marking system among Aymara-Spanish bilingual speakers. It explores two diatopic varieties: La Paz (Bolivia) and Muylaque (Peru) Aymara. Unlike previous descriptions, which identified the accusative case as the sole marker of DO, this study reveals that bilingual speakers employ three distinct DO markings: the accusative, nominative, and dative/allative cases. This analysis posits that this departure is due to contact-induced processes, i.e., replica grammaticalization, influenced by Spanish. Quantitative findings substantiate the hypothesis that Aymara-Spanish bilingual speakers are incorporating contact-induced strategies for DO marking in Aymara.


Open access

Submitted: May 29, 2023 | Published June 30, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Transitive verbsSpanishAymaraDOMContact-induced language change


read this chapter