SPAN 425 The Spanish Your Teachers Never Taught You

Have you ever failed to understand someone because they didn't use the word "whom" properly? There is often a big difference between how one is "supposed to" use a language, and how the language is actually used in the world. Where does this difference come from? Why are some ways of speaking considered to be more correct, more logical, or more polite, and others are disdained, discouraged, or ridiculed? More importantly, how do these judgments spread, and what are their consequences? In this course we will read and conduct rigorous linguistic (e.g. phonetic or syntactic) analyses of how Spanish is used in a wide range of communities both in countries where Spanish is the majority language as well as in the United States, we will apply methods from sociolinguistics to explore how linguistic variation is associated with social meanings, and we will critically examine how standard varieties are defined and promoted, and how nonstandard varieties are evaluated, both positively and negatively. We will also engage with points of view of Spanish users, community members, and others through critical study of literary works and other primary sources (e.g. social media, opinion writings, political statements, interviews), to listen to what different people say about varieties of Spanish, and about those who use those varieties. Through these efforts we will explore why languages vary and change, and how and why people come to be evaluated (negatively or positively, accurately, or inaccurately) on the basis of how they speak. Satisfies requirements for the major and minor in Spanish.