A Historical-Variationist Analysis of Subject Pronoun Expression in 19th and Early 20th Century Arizonan Spanish

This diachronic study is a variationist analysis of subject pronoun expression (SPE) in two key Spanish-language Arizonan newspapers, El Fronterizo (1878–1914) and Tucsonense (1915–1957), following Tucson’s annexation to the United States through Gadsden Purchase, period great social change during which Spanish-speaking population city underwent gradual process anglicization. Since some research on SPE Spanish suggests that English-Spanish bilingualism increases use overt personal pronouns (SPPs) because their almost categorical English, this study’s main aim track initial stages such progression when was steadily extending Tucson. In respect, our results show presence SPPs does increase over time data analyzed; however, lower rates contemporary Tucson Phoenix spoken raise possibility percentage surge aforementioned rather due offline written nature which, for instance, weakens effect online constraints, as switch reference, ambiguous TAM endings, non-reflexive verbs. Even so, regression analyses with mixed-effects statistical software Rbrul reveal linguistic factor groups shaping are essentially same ones found operating varieties Spanish.