''Loísmo'', with its feminine counterpart ''laísmo'', is a feature of certain dialects of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

consisting of the use of the pronouns ', ', ', and ' (which are normally used for

direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...

s) in place of the pronouns ''le'' and ''les'' (which are used for

indirect object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...

s). ''Loísmo'' and ''laísmo'' are almost entirely restricted to some dialects in central Spain; they are virtually absent from formal and written language. In practice ''laísmo'' is much more frequent than ''loísmo''. A simple example would be saying ''lo hablé'' (lit. "I spoke him"), ''la hablé'' (lit. "I spoke her"), ''los hablé'' (lit. "I spoke them asculine), or ''las hablé'' (lit. "I spoke them eminine) where a speaker of a dialect without ''loísmo'' would say ''le(s) hablé'' ("I spoke to him/her/them"). This effectively means the loss of a

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...

case Case or CASE may refer to: Instances * Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design * Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type Containers * Case (goods), a package of relate ...

marker. The difference between ''lo'' (

accusative case In grammar, the accusative case ( abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "he ...

) and ''le'' (

dative case In grammar, the dative case ( abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink". In this examp ...

) are holdovers from

Latin declension Latin declension is the set of patterns according to which Latin language, Latin words are Declension, declined—that is, have their endings altered to show grammatical case, Grammatical number, number and Grammatical gender, gender. Nouns, pron ...

. The general trend in the evolution of Spanish has been to drop such declensions, but most dialects of Spanish have preserved this feature for object pronouns. It just happens that speakers with ''loísmo'' have further lost this distinction, replacing it with a different distinction of a semantic kind. Another effect of ''loísmo'' and ''laísmo'' is that the gender of the indirect object is clearer than it would be using ''le''. One issue with non-''loísmo'' dialects is that the ''le'' pronoun is ambiguous, as it does not specify gender. For example, ''le doy un beso'' can mean "I give him a kiss", "I give her a kiss", or even "I give you (formal) a kiss". One way around this ambiguity is to clarify the pronoun with a prepositional phrase; for our example, this would mean ''le doy un beso a él'', ''le doy un beso a ella'', or ''le doy un beso a usted'', respectively. Since ''lo'' indicates masculine and ''la'' indicates feminine, using ''loísmo'' and ''laísmo'' means that this clarification is not necessary. ''Loísmo'' can also seemingly change the meaning of certain phrases, since some verbs take on a different meaning based on the case of their objects. For example, ''le pegué'' means "I struck him", but a speaker with ''loísmo'' would say ''lo pegué'', which literally means "I pasted/stuck him (onto something)" in dialects without ''loísmo''.

''Loísmo'' and the ''Real Academia Española''

The ''

Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanopho ...

'' listed ''loísmo'' and ''laísmo'' as correct in 1771; however, it condemned their use in 1796. The Academy's online grammar guiderae.es
/ref> currently states it is "inappropriate" to use them. The lack of acceptance from the RAE has caused a certain classist or social stigma to be attached to ''loísmo'' and those who use it. This often leads to

hypercorrection In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a ...

, with ''loístas'' choosing the ''le'' pronoun even for direct objects as a form of ''

leísmo ''Leísmo'' ("using ''le''") is a dialectal variation in the Spanish language that occurs largely in Spain. It involves using the indirect object pronouns ''le'' and ''les'' in place of the (generally standard) direct object pronouns ''lo'' ...

''.

References

External links

Articles in the ''Diccionario panhispánico de dudas'' of the Royal Spanish Academy (in Spanish)
Loísmo

Laísmo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loismo Spanish grammar an:Leísmo fr:Laïsme it:Laísmo hu:Leizmus, laizmus és loizmus ja:ライスモ pl:Leísmo

''Loísmo'' and the ''Real Academia Española''

See also

References

External links