Recognition and valuation of Hispanic-American cultural varieties of Spanish by Sevillians: data from the PRECAVES XXI project

Abstract

In this research we surveyed the linguistic beliefs and attitudes towards the five Hispanic-American cultured varieties of Spanish of a representative sample of sociolinguistically stratified Sevillian subjects. The methodology of the PRECAVES XXI project was used for this purpose. Some outstanding results were: 1) the way of speaking of these geolectal areas does not correspond to the idiomatic model of the respondents; 2) the most and least recognized varieties were Rioplatense and Chilean, respectively; 3) the direct valuations yielded a certain tendency to show greater esteem for the lesser-known accents; 4) the indirect evaluations showed, in general, quite positive scores, although there were some downgrades in features related to the socioeconomic projection of the people and the country; and 5) the evaluations of women were often kinder than those of men.