Sobre las formas en -ra en el español de Galicia

Abstract

The article analyzes the frequency, sociolinguistic distribution and values of the –ra verb forms in a sample of spoken Galician Spanish made up of 18 semi-directed interviews from the PRESEGAL–PRESEEA corpus. A first quantitative analysis of the data shows that the frequency of the etymological indicative –ra, a value which has survived both in Galician and in Spanish spoken in Galicia, varies considerably from one speaker to another. Furthermore, individual preferences neither seem to be related to age, gender or educational level of the speakers, nor —apparently— to how frequently they use the subjunctive –se form, which on the whole is more common in this variety of Spanish than in others. Nevertheless, by bringing the había + participle data into the picture we can make sense of the actual distribution and values of both –ra and –se verb forms in the corpus.