Some remarks on Spanish in the bilingual world

Abstract

The core goal of this article consists of raising new questions about the status of Spanish in bilingual contexts. The starting point is that we observe tremendous variance in the repertoire, competence, and use of Spanish by bilinguals across the globe: from very fluent bilinguals to subtractive bilinguals (also known as heritage speakers) to overhearers, who heard Spanish in the background growing up but did not actively speak it. Setting the overhearer type aside, I contend that the other types of bilinguals meet the criteria for native speakerhood, which is nowadays understood in a more flexible and nuanced way than in more traditional variants of sociolinguistics. The discussion centers around the issues of the baseline (the language that serves as input to the bilingual upbringing), minimal exposure required for the acquisition of a language as a native one, and sociolinguistic models that allow for discontinuity in a given language community.

Keywords

• community variation
• heritage language
• native speaker
• overhearer
• subtractive bilingualism