What is yopará? (Observations on paraguayan Spanish)

Abstract

The article purports to summarize and rethink a considerable amount of facts collected by various researchers who studied the linguistic situation and the interplay of two languages, Spanish and Guarani, in modern Paraguay. Having revised a number facts pertaining to different levels of the language system, the author arrives at the conclusion that the linguistic phenomenon called yopará is emerging as a new language in the full sense of this word, its mixed origin notwithstanding, a real future national language now taking shape.

Keywords

• spanish
• guarani
• yopará
• bilingualism
• interference
• borrowing
• modal word
• morphosyntactic structure
• grammar category
• lexical frame
• mixed language