Linguistic Components of Chilenity: Lexicology

Abstract

The different diatopic varieties of Spanish are characterized by different phenomena of phonetic and morpho-syntactic variation, and, more importantly, by a rich lexical variation. In the case of the Chilean variety, its characteristic features are, in general, of a lexical nature and are due to specific linguistic contacts within Chile’s geographical area, which are absent or less frequent in other areas: contacts with Quechua, Aymara, Mapuche (or mapudungún), German, gypsy, or with the Argentine variety of Spanish. The existence of such lexical loans in the Chilean variety of Spanish can be explained by the Republic of Chile’s historical and cultural evolution.