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Friday, July 18, 2003
Dictionary Focuses on N.M. Spanish
By Anne Hillerman
For the Journal
It's a classic Spanish reference, continuously in print since 1983 and widely used in classrooms and by Spanish speakers in the Southwest and throughout the United States. Its author, linguist and folklorist Rubén Cobos, now 92, has added more than 1,200 entries and updated thousands more for this new edition of "A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish."
The significance of Cobos' book is that it talks about roots of New Mexico Spanish, says Frances Levine, director of the Palace of Governors, the state's history museum.
If you go
WHAT: Rubén Cobos lecture "Roots of New Mexico Spanish" and booksigning for the new expanded edition of his "A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish"
WHEN: 1-3 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Palace of the Governors Courtyard or the Community Room; enter at 110 Washington Ave.
HOW MUCH: Free
"He really was the first scholar to look at New Mexico Spanish and its linguistic heritage," Levin said. "It is a very unique Spanish, a very specific language, not standard academic Spanish, not Castilian, not Mexican. It reflects the melding of cultures that created New Mexico.
Cobos' book is not a dictionary of common standard Spanish household words in daily use (such as agua, burro or caballo) but, as he explains in his introduction, "words which have local acceptations superimposed on their original meanings, a shift of accent, or definite semantic variations not present in their standard Spanish counterparts."
"Cobos was the first to create a dictionary to give Spanish spoken in New Mexico the respect it deserves," Levin said. "It is without a doubt one of the most important books for understanding New Mexico's history. If you don't understand the way in which the language evolved, you miss a great deal about New Mexico. There is no understating the importance of his work."
Cobos taught at the University of New Mexico for 30 years. His research spans 75 years of direct contact with the Spanish spoken in the towns and villages of the upper Rio Grande and southern Colorado. With the cooperation of villagers and the assistance of his students, Cobos began recording Indo-Hispanic folklore material in the early 1940s. The terms and entries in the dictionary are largely drawn from this archive, which includes personal interviews, local ballads, games and songs, folktales, jokes, home remedies, recipes, proverbs, riddles and accounts of witchcraft. He also draws items from literary works touching on New Mexico history, customs and life.
Folklorist Nasario Garcia, a writer and friend of Cobos, said that he has used the dictionary in his own work and found it to be extremely valuable. Garcia said Cobos' revision of the work was based on his ongoing discoveries, in the last 15 to 20 years, of words omitted from the first version, words he had found in his reading and research.
When he interviewed Cobos extensively 10 years ago, Garcia said, "he told me how he started on his own, annotating words. It all began around 1925-27 at Menaul Presbyterian High School in Albuquerque."
Cobos, who came from San Antonio, Texas, noticed the use of Spanish words here, and words with different connotations or pronunciations than he was used to.
"He recorded some of these words, jotted them down on little pieces of paper and filed them in shoe boxes. That became his archival depository," Garcia said. "That's how he started. When he finished high school, he had quite an accumulation of these words."
Despite the fact that Cobos has written other books and articles the dictionary will be his legacy, Garcia said.
"I think of it not just as a book of citations to thumb through from alpha to zed, not just words and idioms," he said. "It goes beyond that. It includes historical annotations, explanations of folklore — it has valuable cultural facets that educate the reader."
Garcia said Cobos has "worked very hard" on expanding the edition, beginning from the time the first edition came out in 1983, meticulously searching for new words to expand his own knowledge and to be included.
"Those who have used his first edition will welcome this," Garcia said. "I believe it will broaden our knowledge of Spanish in New Mexico."
Levin said that the Palace will continue to host booksignings in connection with the Museum Press, helping call attention to titles that focus on the culture and history of the Southwest.
"I'm working closely with the press and Palace bookstore to make signings events that bring people to the Palace and Fray Angélico Chávez History Library," she said. The museum is also collaborating with Garcia to create a lecture series on New Mexico folklore and linguistics.
"A Dictionary of New Mexico And Southern Colorado Spanish" revised and expanded by Rubén Cobos, 255 pages
Museum of New Mexico Press, clothbound edition: $39.95; paperbound edition: $19.95
Excerpt:
"The Spanish spoken in rural areas of New Mexico and southern Colorado can be described as a regional type of language made up of archaic (16th and 17th century) Spanish; Mexican Indian words, mostly from the Nahuatl; a few indigenous Rio Grande Indian words; words and idiomatic expressions peculiar to the Spanish of Mexico (the so-called mexicanismos); local New Mexico and southern Colorado vocabulary; and countless language items from English which the Spanish-speaking segment of the population has borrowed and adapted for everyday use."