Differential Object Marking in Aymara A linguistic contact-induced phenomenon from Spanish.

Abstract

This study investigates the contact-induced processes underlying the Aymara Object Marking system among Aymara-Spanish bilingual speakers. It explores two diatopic varieties: La Paz (Bolivia) and Muylaque (Peru) Aymara. Unlike previous descriptions, which identified the accusative case as the sole marker of DO, this study reveals that bilingual speakers employ three distinct DO markings: the accusative, nominative, and dative/allative cases. This analysis posits that this departure is due to contact-induced processes, i.e., replica grammaticalization, influenced by Spanish. Quantitative findings substantiate the hypothesis that Aymara-Spanish bilingual speakers are incorporating contact-induced strategies for DO marking in Aymara.