Code-Switching and Immigrant Identity in Rosa Nissán’s Hisho que te nazca
by
Rey Romero
1
Code-switching is the linguistic term for the alternation of two or more
languages (codes) between and within sentences in the discourse of one
speaker (Poplack, 581). Although this phenomenon is typical of the speech
(oral production) of bilinguals, several authors have implemented
code-switching as a literary or poetic device to portray the bilingual and
bicultural setting or character (Keller, 178). This paper focuses on the use
of code-switching, namely Spanish and Judeo-Spanish, in the literary work of
Mexican Sephardic author Rosa Nissán.
Nissán debuted her literary career in 1992 with
Novia que te vea, a novel that
relates the childhood and womanhood of Oshinica, a first-generation Mexican
of Turkish Sephardic parents.
This novel and the subsequent eponymous film introduced Sephardic language
and culture to the Mexican public at large, emphasizing commonalities
between the immigrant and national groups. Because of the success of
Novia que te vea, both novel and film have been reviewed and
critiqued in several articles, most thoroughly by Halevi-Wise (1998) and
Alfaro-Velcamp (2006). In this paper, I will focus solely on Nissán’s second
novel, Hisho que te nazca,
published in 1996, because it has not been studied previously from either a
literary or linguistic angle, and I believe Judeo-Spanish is utilized more
as a literary device and less as a linguistic curiosity. In this paper, I
will describe the characteristics of the code-switching present in
Hisho que te nazca and will discuss several motivations for its
implementation throughout the novel.
One of the interesting issues regarding the novel’s code-switching is that
Spanish and Judeo-Spanish are considered to be two dialects rather than two
languages. In linguistics, the
critical point to decide between a language and a variety (lect) of a
language is mutual intelligibility. If two linguistic groups are mutually
intelligible, then they speak dialects of the same language. Both of
Nissán’s novels are written in what we may call an academic version of Latin
American Spanish, but the dialogues are interspersed with Mexico City
Spanish (also known as chilango)
and Judeo-Spanish. In spite of the common origin of all these varieties of
Spanish, the geographical distance and lack of familiarity with the Spanish
of the other community could pose an intelligibility challenge for the
reader. The author has attempted to minimize this obstacle by providing a
Judeo-Spanish/Spanish glossary at the end of both
Novia que te vea and
Hisho que te nazca. The reader
finds unfamiliar Judeo-Spanish words in italics, thereby indicating its
‘otherness’ and their explanation in the glossary. It is interesting that
the reader is assumed to be familiar with
chilango Spanish, as the author
did not provide italics or glossary for this dialect.
However, from a linguistic point of view, it is clear
why Nissán assumed that the reader might need additional help
understanding Judeo-Spanish, as it diverges from Latin American Spanish at
the phonological (pronunciation), morphological (word formation), and
lexical (vocabulary) level. For instance, Judeo-Spanish maintained the Old
Spanish palatal system (with additional changes), as illustrated by the
pronunciation of <j> in mujer
‘woman’ and ojo ‘eye’ like the
second <g> in ‘garage’ (a voiced palatal fricative in phonological terms).
In Peninsular and Latin American varieties, this Old Spanish fricative
became a velar [x] or glottal [h]. This particular phonological divergence
is readily illustrated in the novel’s title, as the author has attempted to
transcribe the voiced palatal fricative with <sh> in the word
Hisho (Spanish
hijo). This is also exemplified
throughout the novel with the name of the main character,
Oshinica, the Sephardic adaptation
of the French Eugénie plus the
Judeo-Spanish diminutive -ika. I
believe that the fact that this distinct Judeo-Spanish pronunciation is part
of the main character’s name serves as a literary device to instantly remind
the reader of the protagonist’s Hispanic and Jewish background, something
both familiar and unfamiliar to the predominantly Catholic Spanish-speaking
public, and also establish an indelible link between Oshinica and her
Sephardic identity, a key theme throughout the novel. Other examples of
palatal vs. velar divergence present in the novel include
bashar (Spanish
bajar ‘to lower’),
deshar (Spanish
dejar ‘to leave out’), and
viesha (Spanish vieja ‘old
woman’). Due to orthographical limitations in Spanish, Nissán utilized the
same digraph <sh> to transcribe both voiced and voiceless palatal
fricatives, which are distinct phonemes in Judeo-Spanish. Other examples of
phonological divergence explained in the novel’s glossary include the
preservation of initial /f/: fuir
‘to escape, flee’ (Spanish huir)
and metastasis of the consonantal group /dr/:
tadre ‘evening’ (Spanish
tarde).
These phonological differences conveyed through orthography could
easily be solved by the reader by inferring from their context, yet the
author chooses to address them in the glossary. This illustrates how
important the “voice” of Judeo-Spanish is for the novel, since the reader
must hear it at its essence even when the lexical items are basically the
same and pronunciation differences are minimal.
On the other hand, a key point for the Spanish reader is confronting the
divergent Judeo-Spanish lexicon, especially those items inherited from Old
Spanish or adapted from Hebrew, Turkish, French, and other Mediterranean
languages. Judeo-Spanish
vocabulary contains Old Spanish lexical items that have either fallen into
disuse or that are considered archaic or rural in certain areas of Latin
America and Spain (Romero, 52). Examples of these items in the novel include
topar (Spanish encontrar
‘to find’), merkar (Spanish
comprar ‘to buy), and
consesha (Spanish
cuento de
moraleja ‘fable with moral
lesson’). In addition to this layer, like most languages of Jewish groups,
Judeo-Spanish vocabulary is also characterized by Hebrew and Aramaic items,
especially to convey religious and cultural concepts (Wexler, 99). Oshinica
and her family use the following, among others:
benadam ‘human being,’
mazal ‘luck,’
tevilá ‘ritual bath,’ and
Shabat ‘Sabbath.’ The final layer
is composed of borrowings from French and Turkish. This is not surprising
since Oshinica’s family hails from Turkey, and in the early twentieth
century there the language of Western education and upper mobility was
French. Oshinica’s family
immigrated to Mexico soon after World War I, a time when Turkey experienced
a surge in nationalism, including Turkish-only language policies (Sachar,
104). Examples of Turkisms incorporated into the novel’s Judeo-Spanish
include deli ‘crazy’, englenear
‘to have fun’, mushteris
‘customers’, and sarjosh ‘drunk’.
These divergent phonological and lexical features indicate a switch in the
code in the speech of characters. These characteristics let the reader know
that the language is now Judeo-Spanish, and I will discuss the purpose of
this switch in a subsequent section.
However, in spite of being an artificial version of code-switching, because
it has been created by the author and not documented through
naturally-occurring linguistic data, the Judeo-Spanish and Spanish
alternation in the novel mimics the patterns found in real-life bilingual
speakers. Moreover, these
patterns have been studied with empirical linguistic data.
According to Poplack (609), fluent bilinguals tend to make more
switches inside the sentences, known as intra-sentential switches. For
example, “tiene que coser parte de la camisita para el bebé, echar
dulzurías y bendiciones entre la
ropita” (She has to sew part of the baby’s shirt, throw in
sweets and blessings amid the
clothes). This sentence is mostly in Spanish, but the word for sweets,
dulzurías, has been rendered in Judeo-Spanish.
However, most of the novel’s switches actually occur between
sentences, in inter-sentential code-switching. Poplack’s research
demonstrated that less-fluent bilinguals preferred this kind of switching,
probably because their lack of fluency prevented them from incorporating
elements from one language into the grammar of another (609).
To
illustrate, observe this inter-sentential code-switching, “Mira qué
yuselicas cosas te trusho de Houston, es muy buen padre.
Hazlo por tus hishicos. Ya quisieran muchas tener un marido como el
tuyo” (Look what beautiful things he brought you from Houston, he’s a good
father.
Do it for your children. Many
would like to have a husband like yours). The first two phrases contain
phonological and lexical elements characteristic of Judeo-Spanish, but the
last sentence has changed to Spanish, as evidenced by the pronunciation of
muchas (Judeo-Spanish munchas).
But, overall, the most common pattern in Oshinica’s language is the
usage of single Judeo-Spanish items in the Spanish discourse.
In linguistics, these temporary, single-word switches are denominated
‘nonce borrowings’ and in Oshinica’s speech they appear to depict cultural
concepts or practices such as ashugar
(bridal dress), fashadura
(ceremony similar to a baby shower),
dulzuría (typical sweets).
The older Sephardic women characters, especially her mother and aunts, use
longer Judeo-Spanish sentences, and rarely any
chilango Spanish lexicon.
Curiously, Oshinica’s Judeo-Spanish usage mimics her use of Hebrew,
as the hagiolanguage only appears momentarily to depict a Jewish concept
that would be difficult to explain in Spanish:
Shabat,
matzá, Rosh Ashaná,
Pesaj,
bar mitzvoth, birith,
among others.
Nissán has managed to establish the divergent dialectal characteristics of
Judeo-Spanish and also mimic realistic code-switching patterns throughout
her novel. But the reason behind
this language alternation may be a bit more nuanced. In the beginning of
Novia que te vea, her first novel,
Oshinica explains that she is using Ladino (her preferred nomenclature for
Judeo-Spanish) “para que se diviertan,” for the amusement of the reader.
But, beyond entertainment, I believe that this code-switching is necessary
in order to give an accurate depiction of the transition from the
Judeo-Spanish immigrant family to the first generation Mexican child. This
child would probably grow up bidialectal, with the ability to navigate
between the two cultures and their corresponding “Spanishes,” albeit mixing
them. The following illustrates this dialect mixing within Oshinica’s home:
-Aide Bulizú, ¿de qué abrithes [sic]
esta ventana?, mos estamos entesando.
“Y cerren, cuando lleguí me estaba atabafando.
“Cuando quieras oír más janum, ven una tadre a mi caré con las de la calzada
de La Piedad, ahí sí te vas a englenear.
-Hey, Bulizú, why did you open
this window? We are freezing.
“So close it, when I arrived I
was suffocating.
“When you want to hear more, ma’am, one of these evenings you should come to
my game night, with the women from La Piedad Avenue, now that’s a lot of
fun.
-Damn, I think my husband is probably home by now and he gets furious if I’m
not there.
This example reflects several linguistic patterns that appear throughout the
novel. First, most Judeo-Spanish dialogues occur when the older characters
are speaking or when Oshinica is quoting them. Judeo-Spanish rarely occurs
within Oshinica’s dialogues or thoughts. Numerically speaking, roughly one
third of all Judeo-Spanish code-switches occur within Oshinica, and most are
nonce borrowings. When comparing
both of Nissán’s novels, we see that Oshinica’s Judeo-Spanish in
Hisho que te nazca contrasts with her younger self in
Novia que te vea, as the character
has become more Mexican and less immigrant.
This is reflected in her independence and feminism, as she breaks
cultural taboos with her divorce and in pursuing a career in the arts and
letters. Ultimately, the author
has allowed for this transformation to be reflected in the language as
Judeo-Spanish gives way to language mixing and, most strikingly, Oshinica’s
predilection for chilango Spanish.
She uses the Mexico City dialect even to address the older Sephardic
women, as in the previous dialogue.
She uses phrases such as híjoles (damn) and padre
(cool), her adjectives and adverbs overuse the diminutive -ito: nadita (nothing) and
she emphasizes them with re-:
rebonito (very beautiful).
In short, the purpose of including Judeo-Spanish and Spanish
code-switching in the novel goes beyond providing a mere curiosity, and it
adds a linguistic dimension to the protagonist’s cultural metamorphosis into
a first-generation Mexican and her battle between the old country’s mores
and the call of feminism.
Oshinica’s attitude towards Judeo-Spanish also fits a realistic linguistic
situation of first generation families. Whereas the immigrant parents tend
to maintain their heritage language and may or may not become bilingual in
the new language, their children and grandchildren may become semi-speakers
of the heritage language or eventually lose it, but become fluent in the new
language. This first generation may exhibit ambivalent attitudes towards
their own performance of the heritage language, often perceiving it as
imperfect. Oshinica declares
that the older women who play cards with her mother “hablan un ladino
precioso” (they speak beautiful Ladino). Perhaps this comment of admiration
reveals that she is aware that her own Judeo-Spanish is not as authentic or
as fluent as the older generation’s.
In fact, Oshinica’s Judeo-Spanish every now and then includes failed
attempts at Judeo-Spanish forms, as she overcompensates by changing the
pronunciation of Mexican Spanish words:
trabasho (work; Judeo-Spanish
lavoro or
echo), movio (boyfriend,
groom; Judeo-Spanish novio). These
‘fake’ Judeo-Spanish lexical items reveal her linguistic insecurity, and
ultimately, her linguistic patterns in avoiding Judeo-Spanish and embracing
the Mexican dialect.
Although Rosa Nissán has taken a decisive linguistic risk by including
different levels of code-switching with a divergent Spanish dialect, the
effect is an authentic story of growth of first-generation Mexican Oshinica.
By including Judeo-Spanish, the author asserts the protagonist’s
Sephardic identity and also emphasizes her struggle between the two
cultures. This is achieved thanks to the linguistic characteristics of
Judeo-Spanish, a variety distinct from the reader’s Spanish, but familiar
enough to be comprehended and integrated in the text. At the same time, by
including Judeo-Spanish in a Mexican novel, Nissán introduces to a greater
public this particular dialect, thereby providing a literary foothold for an
otherwise underrepresented and endangered language.
Works cited
Nissán, Rosa. Novia que te vea. Mexico City: Planeta, 1992.
Nissán, Rosa. Hisho
que te nazca. Mexico City: Plaza & Janés, 1996.
Sachar, Howard. Farewell España: The
World of the Sephardim Remembered. New York:
Vintage, 1994.
1 Rey Romero (PhD Spanish Linguistics) is Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the University of Houston-Downtown, where he teaches courses in linguistics and translation. He is the author of Spanish in the Bosphorus: A sociolinguistic study on the Judeo-Spanish spoken in Istanbul (2012) and over a dozen peer-reviewed articles on Judeo-Spanish linguistics. The author would like to thank J. Mushabac and J. Roumani for all their comments and guidance.