Analysis of the use and distribution of Canarian Spanish lexicon on social media: the case of Twitter

Abstract

This study is based on the hypothesis that in recent years, a revaluation of the Canarian Spanish dialect is taking place among its speakers, propelled primarily by the democratization of media and the active engagement of these speakers in information production. If it holds true that this revaluation is underway, an increase in the fre- quency of use of certain linguistic features specific to this variant of the Spanish language could be expected, particularly with regard to its unique lexical forms. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to confirm whether this increase in the frequency of Canarian lexicon usage is in- deed taking place and second, to understand the usage and distribution of some of the lexical forms characteristic of this dialect. To accomplish this, some of these lexical forms have been selected and analysed on social media, specifically on X, formerly known as Twitter. Through the analysis of a corpus of geolocated posts originating from the Canary Is- lands and published between 2006 and 2022, a notable increase across the archipelago in the frequency of use of the chosen terms, encom- passing both their literal and metaphorical interpretations, has been observed. Furthermore, it is notable that Canarian Spanish speakers feel comfortable using their distinctive lexicon, irrespective of the content of their messages.