On the origin of the Uruguayan voseo

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the origin of the phenomenon of voseo in the Uruguayan Spanish. Description is given to the evolution of the use of pronoun ‘vos’ and the corresponding verb forms in the Old Spanish and classical Spanish language, as well as to specificity of the development of the forms of voseo in Latin America (namely the process hybridization of the paradigm). Special attention is given to the spread of this linguistic phenomenon in the Río de la Plata, which includes the territory of modern Uruguay, in the context of the history of colonization. The author examines the theory of the two “norms” (urban and rural) to clarify the correlation between ‘tú’ and ‘vos’ in the Uruguayan Spanish of the XVIII – XXI centuries. This article is first within the Russian Spanish studies to examine the forms of address in the Uruguayan Spanish from the diachronic perspective, as up to the present it has rarely become the focus of attention of the Soviet and Russian philology. The following conclusions are formulated: 1) the key factor in wide spread occurrence of voseo in the Spanish language of America lies in the specificity of assimilation of the Spanish language by autochthonous and mixed population; 2) unlike Spain and some regions of America, the forms ‘vos’ prevalent Río de la Plata with the beginning of colonization have not been displaced by the form ‘tú’ due ti peripheral location of the territory and remoteness from cultural centers of the empire; 3) at the same time, the presence of tuteo was more noticeable in the cities, which led to the formation of two “norms” in the region – rural, characterized by voseo; and urban tuteo, which was oriented towards Pyrenean norm.