On Some Cuban Idiomatic Expressions: History, Etymology and the Present

This article examines five Cuban phraseological units from a historical and sociolinguistic perspective. The study employs an interdisciplinary approach that combines linguistics with anthropology and history. Using mixed methodology, the authors analyze these expressions in terms of their form, etymology and their capacity to reflect the impact of colonialism, Afro-Cuban practices, folk legends and popular culture, while emphasizing their function as identity markers with varying degrees of regional and generational diffusion. Moreover, the study examines the role of these phraseological units in the vocabulary of contemporary speakers of various dialects of the Cuban national variety of Spanish, as well as speakers of other national varieties of the language. While the study is based on the tradition of Cuban phraseological research, it introduces innovations through the application of corpus linguistics tools and surveys conducted among speakers of different varieties of Spanish of different ages. The findings reveal several factors contributing to the vitality of phraseological units: proverbs with a well-established structure and rhyme are more persistent and have greater potential to be adopted in other national varieties of Spanish than context-dependent sayings connected to the local reality. The study also identifies generational differences in usage patterns associated with sociocultural changes. On balance, the research highlights the resilience and evolution of these expressions as integral components of Cuba’s linguistic and cultural heritage.

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