New Mexican Spanish Hispanos of New Mexico

spanish language in new mexico county.

it commonly thought spanish official language alongside english because of wide usage , legal promotion of spanish in new mexico; however, state has no official language. new mexico s laws promulgated bilingually in spanish , english. although english state government s paper working language, government business conducted in spanish, particularly @ local level. original state constitution of 1912, renewed in 1931 , 1943, provided bilingual government laws being published in both languages. constitution not identify language official. while legislature permitted use of spanish there until 1935, in 21st century state officials required fluent in english. scholars argue that, since not legal matters published in both languages, new mexico cannot considered true bilingual state. juan perea has countered saying state officially bilingual until 1953.

with regard judiciary, witnesses have right testify in either of 2 languages. monolingual speakers of spanish have same right , obligation considered jury duty speakers of english. in public education, state has constitutional obligation provide bilingual education , spanish-speaking instructors in school districts majority of students hispanophone.

in 1995, state adopted state bilingual song, new mexico – mi lindo nuevo méxico .

because of relative isolation of these people other spanish-speaking areas on of area s 400-year history, developed known new mexico spanish. in particular spanish of hispanos in northern new mexico , southern colorado has retained many elements of 16th- , 17th-century spanish spoken colonists settled area. in addition, unique vocabulary has developed here. new mexico spanish contains many words nahuatl, language spoken ancient aztecs of mexico. new mexican spanish contains loan words puebloan languages of upper rio grande valley, mexican-spanish words (mexicanismos), , borrowings english. grammatical changes include loss of second person verb form, changes in verb endings, particularly in preterite, , partial merging of second , third conjugations.