Isleño Spanish

Isleño Spanish (Spanish: español isleño) is a dialect of the Spanish language spoken by the descendants of Canary Islanders who settled in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana during the late eighteenth century.[2][3][4][5][6] This dialect was greatly influenced by adjacent language communities as well as immigration from peninsular Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries.[2][3][4] The dialect spoken by the Isleños who settled along Bayou Lafourche is differentiated as Brule/Bruli Spanish.[7][8]

Isleño Spanish
español isleño
Pronunciation	[ehpaˈɲol ihleˈɲo]
Native to	United States
Region	Louisiana (St. Bernard Parish, Plaquemines Parish)
Ethnicity	Isleño (Louisiana)
Native speakers	About 50 in St. Bernard Parish (2020)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Castilian languages Spanish Isleño Spanish
Writing system	Latin alphabet (Spanish alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

In the present day, Isleño Spanish is approaching complete extinction.[1][9][10] Through the twentieth century, modernization and urbanization came to greatly disrupt the transmission of Spanish along coupled by the hardships of natural disasters.[2][10][11] The remaining Spanish speakers of the community tend to be elderly individuals from fishing communities of eastern St. Bernard Parish.[2][1]

History

Main article: Isleños (Louisiana) § History

The Isleños are descendants of colonists from the Canary Islands who arrived in Spanish Louisiana between 1778 and 1783.[10][11] It estimated that about 2,000 Canary Islanders were settled into a series of communities, one of those coming to be known as San Bernardo (Saint Bernard).[2][11]

Early in the establishment of this community, a minority of Acadians were present along with Filipinos from the nearby community of Saint Malo which intermarried with the Canary Islanders.[12] In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the community was reinforced by immigration from rural, peninsular Spanish regions such as Andalusia, Santander, Galicia, and Catalonia.[3] A survey conducted in 1850 found at least 63 natives of Spain, 7 Canary Islanders, 7 Cubans, and 7 Mexicans in the community.[2]

Decline

The 1915 New Orleans hurricane destroyed much of the Isleño fishing communities situated in eastern St. Bernard Parish.[13] Only a couple years later, the Spanish flu pandemic left over one thousand people dead in St. Bernard Parish.[14] With the adoption of the Louisiana Constitution of 1921, public schooling was conducted in English.[15]

After World War II, urbanization and modernization played a greater effect on the community the retention of Spanish.[2][11][10][16] This was compounded by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 which severely damaged much of Isleño community and presence in St. Bernard Parish.[17] In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the community and only a fraction of Isleño families have returned to their original communities.[1][18]

Currently, the transmission of the Spanish language has halted completely along with the preservation of many traditions.[2][1][11] Those who know Isleño Spanish or speak the dialect as a first language are often elderly community members.[2][1][16]

Phonology

In many respects Isleño Spanish shares an array of similarities with the other Spanish dialects generally of the Caribbean, the Canary Islands, and rural Spain.[2][3][5]

Similar to much of Latin America, the Canary Islands, and southern Spain, Isleño Spanish merges the phonemes /θ/ and /s/ into the single phoneme /s/, a phenomenon known as seseo.[2][5] Additionally, Isleño Spanish lacks /ʎ/, with /j/ being weak and beginning to approach [ʒ] in the word-initial position.[2][3][4][5]

• /d/ experiences deletion in word-finally and is elided in words such as usted [uhté] 'you' and nada [ˈna] 'nothing'.[2][4][5]
• /g/, just as /b/ and /d/, experiences elision in words like seguro [seúro] 'sure, certain'.[2][4][5]
• /n/ is highly variable, with word-final /n/ being realized more often as [n] and occasionally [ŋ].[2][5]
• /r/ is realized differently in its preconsonantal forms resulting in [l], [ɾ] [ɸ], and [h], with its word-final form being habitually deleted.[2][4][5][19]
• /s/ is possesses variable behavior where it is aspirated to [h] in preconsonantal and word-final positions, but is preserved in some instances.[2][3][4][5]
• /x/ is pronounced [h], which is common in Caribbean Spanish dialects, southern Spain, and the Canary Islands.[2][4]

Morphology & syntax

• The verb ir meaning 'to go' in the majority of Spanish dialects, has become dir in Isleño Spanish.[2][5][8][16] This is not uncommon among rural dialects of Spanish which has been attributed to the pattern acaba de ir.[2][16]
• Pronouns are used redundantly in Isleño Spanish, just as in the Caribbean dialects, for phonological reasons and to maintain distinction between subjects.[2][4][5][16] Moreover, ustedes is used exclusively with vosotros remaining unknown.[2][4][5]
• Non-inverted questions such as ¿Cómo usted se llama? rather than ¿Cómo se llama usted? are common in Isleño Spanish, which is a characteristic shared by various Caribbean Spanish varieties.[2]

Vocabulary

Contact with other groups and substantial immigration into the St. Bernard community has shaped their vocabulary to some extent. Some of the largest contributions have been made by English, Louisiana French, Louisiana Creole, regional dialects of Spanish, and the various Castilian languages.[3][4][5] Additionally, due in large measure to the isolation of the Isleños, several archaic terms deriving from Old Spanish have been preserved.[2]

Isleño Spanish	Canarian Spanish	Caribbean Spanish	Standard Spanish	Louisiana French	Louisiana Creole	English
candí (m.)	dulce (m.)	dulce (m.)	caramelo (m.) dulce (m.)	candi (m.)	dou, doudous kandi trit	candy
colorado (m.)	rojo (m.)	rojo (m.)	rojo (m.)	rouge (m.)	rouj	red
grocería (f.)	supermercado (m.) tienda de comestibles (f.)	bodega (f.) colmado (m.) supermercado (m.)	supermercado (m.)	boutique (f.) grosserie, grocerie (f.)	grosri, lagrosri	grocery store
jaiba (f.)	cangrejo azul (m.) cangrejo (m.)	jaiba (f.) cangrejo (m.)	cangrejo azul (m.) cangrejo (m.)	crabe (m.)	krab	blue crab crab
lacre (m.)	lago (m.)	lago (m.)	lago (m.)	lac (m.)	lak	lake
liña (f.)	liña (f.)	sedal (m.)	sedal (m.)	fil de pêche (m.) ligne de pêche (f.)	ling, liñ lalign a pèche	fishing line
mancar	extrañar fallar	extrañar fallar	extrañar fallar	manquer rater	manke rate	to miss to fail
miquá, micuena (f.)	pato cuchara (m.)	pato cuchareta (m.)	cuchara común (m.)	micoine (m.)	kana mikwonn	northern shoveler
peje (m.)	peje (m.) pez (m.)	pez (m.) peje (m.)	pez (m.)	poisson (m.)	pwason	fish
seña (f.) letrero (m.)	seña (f.) letrero (m.)	letrero (m.) cartel (m.)	letrero (m.) cartel (m.)	signe (f.)	sign, siñ signal, siñal	sign
titi, tite (m.) tío (m.)	titi, tití (m.) tío (m.)	tío (m.)	tío (m.)	oncle (m.) nonc (m.)	nonk	uncle

Brule Spanish

The Isleños who settled in the community of Valenzuela along Bayou Lafourche were greatly influenced by the immigration of Acadian refugees and further isolation.[3][7][8] The dialect has been considered an "offshoot" of Isleño Spanish and is referred to as Brule or Bruli Spanish.[3][8] The dialect is highly endangered if not already extinct as only a few dozen octogenarian speakers were known to exist in the early 1990s.[3]

The dialect possesses a large number of loanwords from Louisiana French which is seen as the main distinction between it and Isleño Spanish.[3][7] Even so, an amount of similarities in vocabulary between Brule and Isleño Spanish exist:

Brule Spanish	Isleño Spanish	Canarian Spanish	Standard Spanish	Louisiana French	Louisiana Creole	English
ajena, ansí	asina	así asina	así	donc	donk	so thus
cambar	cambar	cambar	doblar torcer	plier tordre	pliyé torkèt	to bend to twist
coquilla (f.)	coquilla (f.)	concha (f.)	concha (f.)	coquille (f.)	kokiy, lékay, ekay	shell
costumbre (m.)	costumbre (m.)	costumbre (f.)	costumbre (f.)	coutume (f.)	labitud, labichud koutumm	custom habit
dir	dir	ir dir	ir	aller	ale, alé	to go
grocería (f.)	grocería (f.)	supermercado (m.) tienda de comestibles (f.)	supermercado (m.)	boutique (f.) grosserie, grocerie (f.)	grosri, lagrosri	grocery store
mesmo, mehmo	mesmo, mehmo	mismo mesmo	mismo	même	mème parèy	same
pandil (m.)	pandil (m.)	reloj (m.)	reloj (m.)	pandule (f.)	lapandil, lapendil lòrlòj	clock

Notable Isleño Spanish-speaking people

• Frank Michael Fernández, Jr.
• Irván "Puco" Pérez

See also

• Isleño (Louisiana)
• Canarian Spanish
• Caribbean Spanish
• Spanish in the United States

References

1. Miloshoff, Andrew (2020-05-26). "The Last Echoes of Spanish Louisiana: Observations of the Isleño Spanish Dialect of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana". 2020 JHU Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium.
2. Lipski, John M. (July 1, 1990). The Language of the Isleños: Vestigial Spanish in Louisiana. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press. pp. i, 1, 3, 4–6, 8–9, 17, 35. ISBN 0807115347.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
3. Armistead, Samuel G. (1992). The Spanish Tradition in Louisiana. Katz, Israel J. Newark, Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta. pp. ix, 3–4, 5, 7, 28. ISBN 9780936388489.
4. MacCurdy, Raymond R. (1950). The Spanish Dialect in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press. pp. 19–20, 29–30, 35, 36–38, 39, 39–40, 43, 45–47.
5. Coles, Felice (1999). Isleño Spanish. Languages of the World. Materials 278. München; Newcastle: LINCOM EUROPA. pp. 3, 8–9, 11–12, 12–13, 13–15, 15, 24, 34. ISBN 3-89586-593-1.
6. Alvar, Manuel (1989). El dialecto canario de Luisiana (in Spanish). Las Palmas: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. pp. 11–13. ISBN 84-89728-58-5.
7. Raymond R., MacCurdy (December 1959). "A Spanish Word-List of the "Brulis" Dwellers". Hispania. 42 (4): 547–554. doi:10.2307/335051. JSTOR 335051.
8. Holloway, Charles Edward (1993). The Death of a Dialect: Brule Spanish in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. pp. viii–ix, 43–45, 143.
9. Perez, Samantha. (2011). The Isleños of Louisiana : on the water's edge. Charleston, SC: History Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-60949-024-9. OCLC 696100223.
10. Hyland, William de Marigny. "Los Isleños – A Historic Overview". Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society of St. Bernard. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
11. Din, Gilbert C. (1 August 1999). The Canary Islanders of Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. pp. 25, 75, 196, 197. ISBN 978-0-8071-2437-6.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
12. Hinton, Matthew (2019-10-23). "From Manila to the Marigny: How Philippine pioneers left a mark at the 'end of world' in New Orleans". Very Local New Orleans.
13. Roy, William F., ed. (1915-10-02). "Severe storm destroys life and property". The St. Bernard Voice. XXVI (39).
14. Hyland, William de Marigny (2020-04-23). "Louis Alfred Ducros M.D.: Biographical Sketch". Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society of St. Bernard Newsletter: 3.
15. "French's Legal Status in Louisiana". CODOFIL. Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
16. Lestrade, Patricia Manning (1999). Trajectories in Isleño Spanish with special emphasis on the lexicon. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama. pp. 5-6, 13, 45, 52-53.
17. Harris, Sara-Ann. "The Evolution of the Isleño Identity". Folklife in Louisiana. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
18. Marshal, Bob. Jacobs, Brian. Shaw, Al. The Lens, Propublica (August 28, 2014). "This is what Louisiana stands to lose in the next 50 years". ProPublica. Retrieved 2019-12-30.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
19. Fortier, Alcée (1894). Louisiana Studies: Literature, Customs and Dialects, History and Education. New Orleans: F.F. Hansell & Bro. p. 203.