Spanish diminutive markers -ito/-ita in Mesoamerican languages A challenge for acceptance of gender distinction

Claudine Chamoreau (1)

1 SeDyL - Structure et Dynamique des Langues

This paper explores patterns in the borrowing of the Spanish diminutive markers -ito/-ita in some languages of Mesoamerica. These borrowings are particularly interesting because they encode two different categories: the diminutive category, and the grammatical gender category which distinguish-es between a masculine form -ito and a feminine form, -ita. In Mesoamerican languages that have adopted the Spanish diminutive marker, the first category is already attested while the second is absent from all languages except Yucatec Maya. The primary aim in this paper is to establish the reasons why these languages have borrowed these markers even though they possess a device for expressing the diminutive category. The relevant factor seems to be structural, that is, the adoption of a morphologi-cal mechanism. The second purpose of this paper is to explain how these languages borrowed a marker encoding gender distinction. Typological features of the replica languages are relevant for the accep-tance of grammatical gender.

Mots clés: contact linguistics; morphology; diminutive; langues mésoaméricaines

Domaines: Linguistique

Claudine Chamoreau. Spanish diminutive markers -ito/-ita in Mesoamerican languages A challenge for acceptance of gender distinction. Akademie-Verlag. Morphologies in Contact, Akademie-Verlag, pp.71-91, 2012. ⟨halshs-00672257⟩