El El español de la zona cafetalera de Puerto Rico y sus narrativas  orales como expresión identitaria

Julia Oliver Rajan

doi:10.7557/1.11.2.6435

Authors

Julia Oliver Rajan University of Iowa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/1.11.2.6435

Keywords:

Puerto Rican Spanish, narrative identity, vowel raising

Abstract

It is common to hear in the coastal towns of Puerto Rico that an example of country or jíbaro speech is "La genti di Laris toma lechi di puti" (The people of Lares drink milk from a pot). Lares, a rural town located in the mountains to the west of the island, has as its phonological feature the vowel ascent of the mid-vowels /e/ and /o/. This phenomenon is found in almost the entire western mountainous area, and people from these communities who have this feature suffer linguistic discrimination when emigrating to seaside municipalities or metropolitan areas. Despite this, the coffee-growing communities enjoy a vast lexicon, centuries-old expressions, stories, and memories that are part of the Puerto Rican cultural heritage. The study analyzes various oral histories of four participants from a digital archive Coffee Zone: Del cafetal al futuro. The analysis is done in a cultural context integrated into a transdisciplinary linguistic, psychological, and sociological framework. The study contributes to the knowledge and understanding of oral narratives as an identity and community expression. The individual identity narratives reflect the historical and cultural journey of this area and the social cohesion that the coffee industry has created in Puerto Rico.

Keywords: Puerto Rican Spanish, narrative identity, vowel raising

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