Phraseology and diatopic variation in Spanish

Abstract

Phraseology and idioms have been scantly investigated in the field of dialectology, compared to the rich tradition of phonetic and lexicological studies that made available long ago accurate dialectal maps and atlases for all the languages of Europe. There is no lack of irony in this given the etymology of the word idiom itself(<gr. ‚ιδιός „particular“ or „specific“), which refers precisely to what is typical of one’s native soil. On the other hand, speakers often accompany the use of idioms and proverbs with pragmatic markers like as we say in my village, as we say in my homeland, as my grandmother said, even for standard expressions. This seems to presuppose the existence of a relationship – within linguistic consciousness – between phraseology and non-standard diatopic (or diaphasic) varieties, either as a rhetorical strategy or an intuitive hypercorrection. Spanish phraseology and paremiology allow us to observe certain cues in this respect.