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Abstract

Post-classic Spanish had profound changes in its system of forms of address, including the nominal as well as pronominal forms. Such changes involved Gallicized appellations that were introduced in the 18th Century – both in the family (papá, mamá), and social settings (madama) –. Accordingly, in the parent-child relationship we find that the nominal forms of address papa/mamá favour the innovative use of tú instead of the conservative usted. Currently, it is not known whether Gallicized appellations in the social setting have favoured patterns of innovative forms of address. Having new empirical evidence, the purpose of this work is the research of the unknown history of the madama and madamita forms of address in 18th and 19th Century Spanish society, from the perspective provided by text corpus. This study will demonstrate how the modern usage of madama is quite different from its medieval use, and that, by temporal polygenesis, the Gallicized form of address would have appeared twice in the Spanish language, with different patterns of use and in different social strata.