Competing national and regional vernaculars: Implicit attitudes towards informal address in Montevideo and Rocha, Uruguay
Author ORCID Identifier
Loureiro-Rodríguez: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8447-4590
Moyna: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3189-4417
Açar: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9589-9757
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Variation and change
Location
MBSC Dodge Room 302A
Start Date
18-10-2024 12:30 PM
End Date
18-10-2024 1:00 PM
Abstract
Uruguay presents a complex system of informal address, including two competing pronouns (tú, vos), their verbs (tienes ‘you haveT’ vs. tenés ‘idV’), and mixing of tú pronouns and vos verbs, for three options (TT, VV, TV) (Steffen 2010). While voseo is preferred throughout Uruguay, a peculiar demographic history and subsequent isolation resulted in pockets of tuteo in the east, particularly Rocha (Rona 1967). Ethnographic analyses and surveys have been used to explore attitudes towards address in Montevideo (Elizaincín & Díaz 1981, Weyers & Canale 2013, a. o.) and Rocha (Albertoni 2016, Weyers 2014). Although indirect measures may better capture the complexities of tuteo/voseo variation, experimental analyses of implicit attitudes are rare (Moyna & Loureiro-Rodríguez 2017).
The current study seeks to fill the gap by comparing attitudes of participants from Montevideo (n = 82) and Rocha (n = 75) towards TT, VV, TV using a matched-guise test (Lambert 1967) with one male and one female voice. Participants evaluated each guise on ten attributes related to status, solidarity, and perceived national and regional identity using a 5-point Likert scale. We fit a cumulative link mixed effects model for each trait assuming random effects for participants and fixed effects for address type, speaker, and participants characteristics (gender, age, education, location). We found that the VV variant is perceived as more modern and more Uruguayan and from Montevideo than either TT or TV, both of which received higher ratings for Rocha provenance. Speaker gender also plays a role in attitudes towards guises. The male was rated as less modern than the female when using VV and TT, but no significant differences were found for TV. By contrast, the female was perceived as less fake when she used TT and TV compared to VV, while the male was perceived as less fake than the female for all text variants, especially when using VV. The evaluation of guises interacted in complex patterns with rater social class and provenance. Overall, our results show that the evaluation of prestige pan-Hispanic features (such as tuteo) can be undercut at the national level if they also index non-normative regional identities.
Competing national and regional vernaculars: Implicit attitudes towards informal address in Montevideo and Rocha, Uruguay
MBSC Dodge Room 302A
Uruguay presents a complex system of informal address, including two competing pronouns (tú, vos), their verbs (tienes ‘you haveT’ vs. tenés ‘idV’), and mixing of tú pronouns and vos verbs, for three options (TT, VV, TV) (Steffen 2010). While voseo is preferred throughout Uruguay, a peculiar demographic history and subsequent isolation resulted in pockets of tuteo in the east, particularly Rocha (Rona 1967). Ethnographic analyses and surveys have been used to explore attitudes towards address in Montevideo (Elizaincín & Díaz 1981, Weyers & Canale 2013, a. o.) and Rocha (Albertoni 2016, Weyers 2014). Although indirect measures may better capture the complexities of tuteo/voseo variation, experimental analyses of implicit attitudes are rare (Moyna & Loureiro-Rodríguez 2017).
The current study seeks to fill the gap by comparing attitudes of participants from Montevideo (n = 82) and Rocha (n = 75) towards TT, VV, TV using a matched-guise test (Lambert 1967) with one male and one female voice. Participants evaluated each guise on ten attributes related to status, solidarity, and perceived national and regional identity using a 5-point Likert scale. We fit a cumulative link mixed effects model for each trait assuming random effects for participants and fixed effects for address type, speaker, and participants characteristics (gender, age, education, location). We found that the VV variant is perceived as more modern and more Uruguayan and from Montevideo than either TT or TV, both of which received higher ratings for Rocha provenance. Speaker gender also plays a role in attitudes towards guises. The male was rated as less modern than the female when using VV and TT, but no significant differences were found for TV. By contrast, the female was perceived as less fake when she used TT and TV compared to VV, while the male was perceived as less fake than the female for all text variants, especially when using VV. The evaluation of guises interacted in complex patterns with rater social class and provenance. Overall, our results show that the evaluation of prestige pan-Hispanic features (such as tuteo) can be undercut at the national level if they also index non-normative regional identities.