Resumen de Efectos del contacto de lenguas en el castellano de Mallorca: una perspectiva histórica
This study uses two phenomena of the Spanish in contact with Catalan in Mallorca (the verb pedir ‘ask for something’ with the semantic and syntactic structure of preguntar ‘ask a question’ and the preponderance of synthetic cantaré over periphrastic future voy a cantar) as case studies in order to emphasize the relevance of a historical perspective in the study of contact varieties. The analysis reveals that (i) these features are attested in Mallorcan Spanish at least since the 1700s and (ii) they had some sort of existence in monolingual varieties of Spanish at the time when the language was introduced to the island. The historical data suggest that these features of Mallorcan Spanish are not, as traditionally believed, contact-driven innovations, but the result of the preservation of structures that are recessive in monolingual Spanish but in Mallorca have been reinforced by the existence of a parallel Catalan structure.
