Castellanización e intenciones comunicativas en las crónicas de Indias

Abstract

The Chronicles of the Indies are documents written by authors with different communicative intentions (government, military, or religious officials). Scholars have traditionally argued that, although the language policies of the Spanish crown promoted the Hispanicization of the Indians, these policies were not coherent in practice. Schools for Indians and contact with Spaniards were the two contexts in which the Spanish language was learned; however, the results were limited in both contexts. The aim of this article is to examine data on the interlanguage of the Indians of the sixteenth century according to different chroniclers and within these two types of educational context. Using six chroniclers with different communicative objectives, this research systematically defines the importance of these chronicles and the effect of the recommendations of royal decrees. A military author did not require evidence of Spanish-language learning testimonies to provide evidence for his account to receive the king's favour or reward. Those chroniclers who were government or religious officials refer to interlanguage according to their perceptions of earthly or spiritual conquest. This research aims to distinguish the different characteristics of the various chroniclers and to verify in a unified and related manner the data contributed by other works. © W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2013.