The top 10 books on spanishlinguist.us's bookshelf

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Top 10 bookson Spanishlinguist’s bookshelf

These ten books, listed alphabetically by author, cover linguistic topics from the history of the Spanish

language, to etymology, grammar, spelling, dialectal variation, and the psychology of language.


Spanish Word Histories and Mysteries is actually a

book about ENGLISH, from the editors of the American

Heritage Dictionaries. However, its well-informed and

lucidly written etymological entries on 200 words from

abalone to zocalo (no accent, since we’re talking about

English!), offer a deep dive into the sources of the

Spanish lexicon, from Latin to the indigenous languages

of the Americas.


I wish I could afford a copy of Joan Corominas’s six-volume

etymological dictionary (almost $1000 on Amazon), but I can usually

find the information I’m looking for in his shorter, and more affordable,

Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana. Each word is

listed under its root, so that, for example, hipótesis is under tesis and

constante under estar; these cross-references are clear, though they do

entail a lot of page flipping. Entries include not just the etymology of

each word (if known) but its date of first use.


Guy Deutscher is both a serious scholar and a brilliant writer.

The Unfolding of Language, one of my all-time favorite linguistics

books, explains how grammatical elements are created and lost.

Deutscher’s examples come from several languages, including

Spanish.

I’ve also included Deutscher’s Through the Language Mirror,

about linguistic relativity. Spanish comes up in Deutscher’s

discussion of the psychological consequences of grammatical

gender, and the rest of the book is hugely interesting as well.


John Lipski’s Varieties of Spanish in the United States is of

interest for two reasons. The first is Lipski’s expert treatment of

its titular topic. He provides linguistic and historical treatments

of varieties from the traditional Spanish of New Mexico and

Lousiana to the speech of today’s immigrants.

The second reason is Lipski’s useful capsule descriptions of

the different dialects covered in the book: Mexican, Cuban,

Puerto Rican, Dominican, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Guatemalan,

and Honduran Spanish.


Ralph Penny’s A History of the Spanish Language is my “history

of Spanish” bible. It is dense with information, so that you’ll find

yourself consulting it for specific topics, rather than reading it

cover-to-cover in a single pass. It explains, in detail, core historical

topics from vocabulary to verbs, and is truly authoritative.

I’ve also include here Penny’s Variation and Change in Spanish,

which covers geographical and social variation in Spain and in Latin

America. It also includes some higher-level chapters on how and

why language varies and changes, and a chapter on Ladino.


As its title implies, David Pharies’s A Brief History of

the Spanish Language covers the same territory as

Penny’s A History of the Spanish Language, but more

succinctly. It is also more readable -- more of an

introductory text than a reference.


Chris Pountain’s Exploring the Spanish Language is a

valuable introductory textbook in Hispanic linguistics.

Besides core topics on phonology, morphology, and

syntax, it covers sociolinguistics (dialectal and social

variation), and Spanish-based languages such as Ladino

and creoles. My favorite chapter, on “the genius of

Spanish”, discusses the expressive power of Spanish

phenomena such as reflexive verbs, ser and estar, and

the subjunctive.


The Real Academia Española’s Nueva gramática de la

lengua española is an exhaustive treatment of almost

every grammar topic you can think of, from gender to

negation. The subtitle Manual means that the book is a

“reference manual”, not that it includes exercises.

Its companion volume, the RAE’s Ortografía, covers

Spanish spelling and punctuation, again in exhaustive

detail. There are sixty-five pages devoted just to accent

marks!


I was delighted to discover Miranda Stewart’s The

Spanish Language Today, a comprehensive and useful

summary of current developments in Spanish

pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Unusual topics

include language standards beyond the Real Academia,

and contact phenomena including Papiamento and

Fronterizo.


Some historical questions about Spanish can’t be answered just

by looking at Latin -- you have to go farther back, to Indo-

European. That’s where Michael Weiss’s Outline of the Historical

and Comparative Grammar of Latin comes in. It is clear but

intensely scholarly, meant as a reference work more than a

straight-through read. The book proceeds from sounds to nouns

and pronouns to verbs, with some treatment of syntax. Make sure

to buy it directly from Beech Stave Press instead of paying a rip-off

price on Amazon.

The top 10 books on spanishlinguist.us's bookshelf

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