Linguistic attitudes of Spanish speakers towards varieties of the Spanish language

Abstract

This study analyzes the linguistic beliefs and attitudes of Spanish speakers towards four varieties of the Spanish language: Andean variety, Rioplatense variety, Mexican variety, and Peninsular variety, as well as voices of Brazilians who speak Spanish as a foreign language, using data from the corpus of an ongoing doctoral thesis research. The methodology is based on a questionnaire following the matched guise technique proposed by Lambert and Lambert (1975). Based on the theoretical framework on linguistic beliefs, attitudes, and representations by Méndez Guerrero (2022), Pereira and Costa (2012), Moreno Fernández (2009), and Lambert and Lambert (1975), it is proposed that the most prestigious varieties will be the Peninsular and Rioplatense varieties. The former is the one closest to the variety used by the majority of participants in the study. Regarding the latter, it receives the most positive evaluations in attitude research. Furthermore, it is proposed that there will be a high level of linguistic security among participants, given that their variety, the Peninsular, is considered the most prestigious in the research context. It was found that, in line with the hypotheses presented, the varieties that received the most positive evaluations were Rioplatense and Peninsular. Regarding the second hypothesis, it was confirmed that the majority of participants in the research demonstrated linguistic security.