Dialect Divergence and Identity in Basque Spanish

Abstract

The study concludes different results for each of the linguistic variables. The extralinguistic factors 'area of residence', 'parental origin', 'language spoken at home' and 'relative exposure to Basque' have an effect on the appearance of the Basque variant [aw], for the /-ado/ variable. In the case of the use of the multiple vibrant (r), the results show that 'parental origin' and 'area of residence' of the speaker are the explanatory social factors for the use of the Basque variant. The variable (tz) and 'borrowings from Basque' are mostly employed by young generations of urban Basque political networks and neo-Basque speakers who speak mostly Spanish despite attending Basque immersion programs. Contrarily, rural speaker try to avoid the usage of these variants as they mark a perceived lower command of the Spanish standard registers.