The "Vosotrismo" or "Vosotreo" of Canary Islands Speech: Causes and Consequences

Abstract

There is not and there has never been, in the Spanish pronominal system, a more unstable field than that of second person plural forms. This grammatical subsystem has unceasingly evolved since the origins of the language. It has been conditioned by the need to renovate the forms of treatment of respect towards the listener. Social use inevitably degrades these formulas as the use of courtesy forms is generalized. This article aims to describe and explain, both semantically and socially, the heterogeneous situations that the use of this system (in particular, the form vosotros) presents in the current Canarian society. These situations point out to more or less ingenious solutions, like the conversion of the classic form of familiar treatment vosotros into a formula of respect whose future is quite uncertain, due to the pressure exerted by the most educated Canarian speakers and by the rules of the standard language.