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date: 05 March 2021

Abstract and Keywords

Paraguayan Guarani (PG) is a Tupian language spoken as an official language along with Spanish in Paraguay and with non-official status in Brazil and Argentina. While Paraguay shows unusual percentages of societal bilingualism compared to other Latin American countries, PG is in a diglossic relation to Spanish, with the latter language being the prestigious one in every case. PG differs from contemporary indigenous Guarani varieties and historical Jesuitical Guarani regarding the presence of Spanish in its lexicon and grammar. The century-long contact with Spanish influenced Guarani at phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical levels. PG should not be viewed as a monolithic mixed language, not only because it is comprised of a series of mixed lects that may or may not evolve in the direction of a bilingual mixed language, but also because the level and type of mixing of PG mixed lects are not characteristic of bilingual mixed languages to the extent that they do not show the genealogical lexicon-grammar split. Historically, PG has become a discursive strategy for the creation and negotiation of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural identities in Paraguay.

Keywords: Guaraní, Paraguay, Spanish, code-mixing, borrowing, loanwords

Jorge Gómez Rendón

Jorge Gómez Rendón lectures at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador. His research focuses on the linguistic and social outcomes of contact between Amerindian languages and Spanish, in particular the emergence of mixed varieties such as Media Lengua and Jopará. In recent years he has been active in the documentation of indigenous languages in Ecuador and the study of pre-Inca languages in the Northern Andes.

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