Roxana Fitch
Universitãt Autônoma de Barcelona, Spain

Phraseological localization: parallelism in multi-word expressions between
European Spanish and Latin American Spanish varieties.

Keywords: localization, multi-word expressions, Spanish, dialects

This communication examines the culturally consistent adaptation of certain Spanish multi-word expressions (MWEs) as they are known in Spain and their localized versions in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. MWEs in particular reflect the cultural heritage of the speakers of any given language, and in the nations that inherited Spanish in America, in some cases a process of localization took place, transforming certain Spanish expressions from Spain into variants more culturally and idiosyncratically relevant to the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas.

There is a large number of Spanish multi-word expressions from Spain that have survived in the Spanish varieties spoken in Latin America despite not easily understandable cultural or historical references, such as 'tornar las de Villadiego', which, with the passage of time has lost ground in Mexico, the focus of this study are Spanish MWEs from Spain whose structure or keywords have prevailed in a modified version reflecting the local elements speakers of American Spanishspeaking countries are more familiarized with. Eight Spanish MWE from Spain shall be discussed with their corresponding modified versions in Spanish-speaking Latin America.

One of them is
Spain: Quien fue a Sevilla perdió su silla,
Mexico: El que se fue a la villa, perdió su silla;
Colombia: El que se fue a la Barranquilla, perdió su silla;
Peru: El que se fue a Lima se sentó encima;
Ecuador: El que se fue a Quito perdió su banquito.

The other seven MWE are:
ser el perejil de todas las salsas;
no dar puntada sin hilo;
el quinto pino/cono/infierno/mierda;
marear la perdiz;
de tal palo, tal astilla;
ser lobos de la misma camada;
acabar como el rosário de la aurora.

The Spanish-language Latin American countries with localized MWEs are Mexico, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica.