Chocó speech

municipality of Medio San Juan

Abstract

his article presents a series of linguistic phenomena of everyday speech in the municipality of Medio San Juan, Chocó, Colombia. These features, which have been repeatedly observed by linguists in the speech of the different Afro-descendant communities in America have been hierarchized. Together with the starting hypothesis —the existence of an Afro-Hispanic speech or a Colombian variety ascribed to Afro-descendants—, objectives have been set out in order to confirm its existence, or to discard it. The main research questions are indicated. Subsequently, a methodological review applicable to works of linguistic sociology is given. Finally, three basic questions are addressed in general terms in the study of AfroHispanic variables: 1) the original African matrix, referring to inquiries about the origin or place in Africa from which the Afro-descendant population of Chocó originates; 2) the linguistic sign, taking into account that the breakdown of the hereditary transmission of the language generates a "conflict" or linguistic evolution, and 3) the pronunciation of the glottal stop in the Colombian Pacific lowlands. A number of lexical examples of everyday speech from Chocó have been selected. Far from postulating conclusions or theses, this paper intends to be an introduction to the subject matter presented.