Americanized Hispanic terms and their vitality in the work of a 17th century Creole: Agustin de Vetancurt

Abstract

In the texts written in Latin America during the 17th century, there is evidence of Hispanic terms already Americanized by changes of meaning, according to Kany (1962). This study analyzes Chronica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de Mexico (1697) by the Mexican Creole Agustín de Vetancurt (1620-1700) in order to present data on this process of Americanization. The methodology employed in the analysis of the Americanized terms is both quantitative and qualitative. Once the Americanized Hispanicism is detected, the vitality of its use is analyzed in comparison with other texts dating from between 1650 and 1700 recorded in the Corpus Diacrónico del Español (CORDE). The results show that the 21 Hispanicisms found have different degrees of Americanization.

Keywords

• americanized hispanicism
• agustín de vetancurt
• franciscan
• corde
• lexical borrowing