The Reasons Caused The Voseo Popularity in Argentina

The “vos” appellation is applied disproportionately in Hispanic America. While in Central America and Argentina the “vos” appellation has become widespread, in other regions like the Spanish Caribbean and in countries like Mexico, its use is severely limited or non-existent … such are the reasons by which the “vos” appellation has covered its current scope controlled by the historical, sociocultural, economic and geographic factors. The vos title or “voseo/voceo” is the linguistic system which utilizes the vos form in verb tenses. This term equates to ‘you’ in the formal setting, distinguishing a superior from his or her subordinates. Many linguistic experts have tried to decipher the phenomenon of voseo’s popularity among the masses in Argentina the conclusions of which are linked to socio-economic, historical, and geographical factors. From the time of the conquerors in the 15th century, Spain exported her language system with all its complexities and ambiguities. It is incumbent on the Spanish speaker before travelling to carefully research the culture so that grammatical missteps would be diminished and even better, totally avoided. In any case, unlike many other Latin-American countries, Argentines prefer “el Voseo” than “el tuteo.” Although globalization has begun to undermine voseo’s authority, introducing tuteo, Argentines have employed systems like politics, media, and education to ensure that voseo remains inherent in the Argentine vocabulary and remains a source of national pride.

Colonialism and immigration during the late 1800s has an weighty hand to play in voseo’s linguistic authority in Argentina when she comes under the Viceroyalty system. “Tanto los virreinatos fundados por los españoles en Hispanoamérica como el nivel y la dinámica social de los conquistadores y colonizadores fueron elementos críticos que…han determinado la presente”(Benavides). Voceo’s system of address fosters Argentine patriotism. It is on e of the few countries in the world which actively employ voceo at such a large scale and in all of its institutions, irrespective of class, region, or race. Historians report that it was in the region of Rio de la Plata that the vos form came into being and grew in popularity. The peninsular Spanish inhabitants (those who emigrated from Spain or those with pure Spanish blood) popularized and set the foundation for the strong voseo linguistic system. When the early explorers set foot in Argentina, Spain was already torn between the tuteo and voseo. Beginning with courtly and royal designation to the crown and nobles with high position voseo was deemed deferential and respectful. However, as time elapsed voseo began to drop in Spanish usage and prestige. Documents aged during the colonial period testify to the mixture in both these verb forms.

Geography has a potent sway on voseo’s predominance as a linguistic form. The distance between Madrid, Spain and Buenos Aires, Argentina is about 6,200 miles. Back in the ‘golden’ age of Spain, travelling was reckoned to several months’ passage between mother country and colony. Because of limited interaction between countries, voseo remains almost oblivious to Spain’s disowning of voseo. Newall also concurs for “in areas where communication and contact with Peninsular Spanish were less consistent, or where colonization (if by voseo users) began at a later date, voseo use became extensive, and the influence of the tuteo was not present until later. This is an explanation as to why the voseo still exists today in places such as … Argentina” (Newall). The peninsular Spaniards, recently extracted from Spain, were out of touch with the gradual shift and phasing out of the vos in Spain. As a result, isolation and total embracing of voseo, once a colonial mark representative of ownership by Spain become a token of Argentina’s nationalistic peculiarity. “The stable voseo of Argentina is not a recent phenomenon; its roots must be sought in the colonial period and archival research has revealed that it was well-established in Buenos Aires usageby the beginning of the 19th century…and preserves the 15th century peninsular usage may have been the principal if not the uniform model throughout Latin America (Harris 97).In the Andean countries such as Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia, it is not uncommon for vos to be conjugated with the second-person singular familiar e.g. Vos tienes, Vos eres. These differences pose a problem since Argentina shares borders with both Chile and Bolivia and ultimately some fusion will be expected.

Socio-ethnic distinctions lead to wide voceo diffusion in Argentina when scrutinizing the origins and usage of voseo. Since the time of the Spanish conquistadores’ entry on Argentine soil, vos was used to distinguish commoners and aristocrats. The Argentine social class was more rigidified and hierarchized such that the address of a noble had to contain the vos form. The sistema-casta, the Spanish caste system, was a racial, segregationist system which comprised of españoles, peninsulares, criollos, castizos, mestizos, mulatos, indios, negros etc. In the regular social interaction, vos is preferred when a lower casted person holds discourse with one occupying a higher complexion or socio-economic position. Outside Argentina and other Andean countries, “voseo … is identified with uncultured speech. In other it coexists with tu where tu is characteristic of upper class usage” (Cotton 148). Voseo declined in social prestige in Spain until inferiority becomes attached to the address. Another sociolinguistic study has concluded that the social and prestige connection with voseo is near erased. Those of live in rural and urban areas use voseo, on the other hand, the upper middle classes would prefer tuteo (Moyna). A further age analysis on voseo users has led to the finding that older people in Argentina would use tuteo whereas the younger age bracket would adopt and apply voseo more readily.

Tu and vos competition and confusion result with the intermingling of both cultural identity, history, and location. “According to Lipski, while the use of vos in place of tu is widespread and virtually the norm in spontaneous speech in countries particularly in Argentina, the co-existence of the prestige norm tu and its predominance in all but regional literature leads to a certain amount of linguistic insecurity” (Stewart 123). The blurring of the lines between both you-singular forms is understandable in the face of globalization, generational language changes, immigration, education, and standard of living. Due to the crushing influence of American imperialism and the American media’s preference for the tu form, confusion encroaches as new approaches to address are adopted and adapted. Once enjoying a stronghold in Argentina for a few centuries, the winds of change have shaken the vos’ linguistic foundation. However amidst the external influences, to preserve the legacy of voseo in Argentina, Argentine’s educate their children that tu is equivalent to vos. Moreover, the mainstream media’s faithful and consistent use of vos has kept the voseo address from fading into obsoleteness. The Hispanic voseo usage defines the grammatical application of the second person singular pronoun, used commonly in reference to the pronoun vos. The distinction between vos and tu are sometimes clear-cut and then again sometimes clouded. First of all, vos endures in Argentina among the remnant Latin American countries which employ this form because of its history, socio-political culture, and geographic location. Another semantic issue with crops up with the usage of vos is conjugation of the corresponding verbs and agreement. The localized implementation and popularity of vos in Argentina poses problems to the non-Spanish speaker who has learnt American Spanish, Central American, or Caribbean Spanish. The function of vos differs in the socio-cultural context as a matter of politeness and age identification. At the same time, although vos remains in current, widespread use in Argentina, traditional usage is still threatened by the ever-present tu form. There is considerable variation in the verbal form conjugated with vos…the pronoun vos was originally conjugated with the familiar second person plural endings and this usage has survived…In Argentina where the use of vos is most thoroughly accepted the principal verb endings for the three present tense conjugations (hablar, comer, vivir are ás, és, ís). For the imperative, in the vos address, Argentines say vení for the positive command and the tuteo form for the negative command, thus no vengas.

Vos is utilized as a token showing familiarity, confidence, and intimacy. “Hoy en día vos se emplea en todas las esferas sociales en Argentina, Uruguay y Costa Rica y se considera tratamiento familiar y de confianza en los demás países y regiones voseantes” (Cotelo).

Friends, neighbors, and relatives used the vos form when addressing one another. Argentines pride themselves on the voseo. At the same time, Argentines can also use the vos as a formal title. Speakers can be heard in the office and professional spaces in reference to equals or superiors.

Finally, Argentina continues to be a beacon in HispanoAmerica as far as use and promulagation of the vos form is concerned. A well-known critic reports that “en los países donde se conserva el voseo es habitual la inseguridad sobre la corrección de esta forma. Sólo Argentina ha incorporado vos tan difundido (Mendez), thus establishing that cultural transference and adoption can be conscious or sub-conscious. Argentines pride themselves on a notable heritage preserved for hundreds of years and which survives today and a veritable linguistic force.