The Social History of Language

The standard English that we use today, based on the dialect favored in London during the fifteenth century, is not inherently better than other dialects spoken in England at the time. It was, however, the language of the court and the ruling class, and so became the basis for standardized English.

A similar evolution occurred in Spain. Assistant Professor Fernando Tejedo-Herrero traces the emergence of standardized Spanish, tracking the process by which courtly Spanish became the dominant form. Tejedo-Herrero is not principally interested in accounting for specific linguistic transformations; rather, he is interested in the social and economic forces that, abetted by advances in technology like printing, favor one form over the other. “The forms that did not become standard often persist as dialectal variants,” he says, “which underscores their vitality.”

Tejedo-Herrero sheds light on this process by going back to the Siete Partidas (Seven-Part Code), the most important and influential legal treatise ever produced in Spain. The Partidas were written in the thirteenth century to provide a uniform code of laws for the growing kingdom of Castile and were reproduced in manuscript form for two centuries before the advent of the printing press. “You can see the editors of the printed Partidas bringing together manuscripts from different parts of the country and choosing the variants that were most acceptable to them,” he says.

“They consciously chose variants based on what was acceptable at court.” In most cases, the unselected variants persisted in manuscripts produced locally after the printed edition was released, but were progressively stigmatized.

As part of his efforts to provide a window on the forces driving standardization, Tejedo-Herrero is putting the finishing touches on a dictionary for the Partidas that will contain over 25,000 items. “Because it regulated every aspect of life, it is an excellent text for this purpose,” he comments. “The incidence of new vocabulary introduced in the Partidas is quite high.”

Tejedo-Herrero is not simply motivated by academic curiosity, however. Attitudes toward language varieties are very much with us today in the United States, thanks to the influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. “Will there be an accepted new blend in the U.S. or will one dialect become dominant?” he asks. “Right now, that’s an open question. The process that is unfolding now will help us gain a better understanding of some of the language changes that occurred in the fifteenth century, but the past also helps us gain insight into the present.”

Tejedo-Herrero’s research also impacts his teaching. Awarded a University Teaching Fellowship from U.Va.’s Teaching Resource Center in 2006, Tejedo-Herrero uses his findings to help his students see the language they are learning in a larger perspective. “Language is not set in stone,” he says. “It is the product of specific social and economic forces that privilege one form over another.”