Migrations and Linguistic Change
* This course is taught in Buenos Aires, Argentina. *

Migrations waves have been a constant throughout history. However, motives, characteristics, directions and also their consequences have witnessed variations in different historical periods. Since the last decades of the XXth Century and beginnings of the XXIst, international migrations have reached striking relevance.
According to the United Nations, “migratory landscape in Latin America and the Caribbean has dramatically change within the last decade. Between 2010 and 2019 the number of immigrants increased to a 66%, whereas emigration only a 26%. Around 42,7 million live outside their countries of origin. This is mainly due to Venezuelan migration.”
Migrations have also a tremendous impact on languages. If it is true that migration is essential to mixture, when different groups mix, this does not necessarily happens in a monolingual environment. Thus, their languages will eventually change by contact. Words, sounds, grammar structures could be adapted or eliminated in a bilingual or multilingual context.
In this course we will deal with issues related to migration and language, and the different ways in which the Spanish language is subjected to changes depending on the new contexts. We will also analyze what happens to the several variations of Spanish in the context of migrations within the Hispanic World. (1 unit)
Linguistics/Culture