Sociolinguistic accommodation by Ecuadorian migrants in Granada (Spain)

Abstract

This chapter shows the processes of linguistic accommodation of Ecuadorian migrants in a Spanish-speaking community that has very different linguistic features from the Ecuadorian community. Two linguistic features are studied using quantitative methods. Ecuadorian migrants in Granada maintain very strongly the features of Andean Spanish. This is evident in the treatment of the /-s/ in coda, which continues to have typically Andean characteristics, very different from the treatment given to the same sound by those born in Granada. In the case of the diminutive morphemes, we can no longer be so categorical because a sociolinguistic accommodation is observed, as there are cases of the morpheme -illo, which is unusual in Ecuador. The scarce convergence is influenced by the fact that the Andean features studied coincide with the prestigious features of the Spanish of central-northern Spain, with which the emigrants have contact both through the media and through their penetration of the Andalusian variety, which leads to the stigmatisation of vernacular features.