Juan A Thomas, Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics (University at Albany, 2006)
Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry (MIT, 1992)
Research Interests:
Languages in contact; attitudes in Second Language Acquisition; phonology; philology (Hispanic, Italian, Galician)
Languages Spoken:
Spanish, English, Italian, Galician-Portuguese, French, German (reading knowledge); Latin (reading knowledge)
Selected Publications: Book:
2017
Diary of a small Hispanic Community. Utica: Eugene Paul Nassar Ethnic Studies Heritage Center.
Edited volumes:
2022
Rudolf Muhr, Eugenia Duarte, Cilene Rodrigues, Juan Thomas (eds.):
Pluricentric languages in the Americas. Graz (Austria), Berlin (Germany): PCL Press.
2020
Muhr, Rudolf & Juan Thomas (eds).
Pluricentric Theory beyond Dominance and Non-Dominance: A Critical View. Graz (Austria), Berlin (Germany): PCL Press
2016
Muhr, Rudolf in collaboration with Eugênia Duarte, Amália Mendes, Carla Amorós Negre & Juan A. Thomas (Eds).
Pluricentric languages and non-dominant varieties worldwide: volume 2:The pluricentricity of Portuguese and Spanish: New concepts and descriptions. Frankfurt a.M./ Wien u.a.: Peter Lang Verlag.
2008
Westmoreland, Maurice and Juan Antonio Thomas (eds).
Selected Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla. vii+ 161 pages.
Refereed Articles:
2023
"Un estudio contrastivo de anglicismos en algunas lenguas románicas de EE.UU. [A contrastive study of Anglicisms in some Romance Languages of the U.S.]" In Lucía Luque Durán, et al. (eds.): Contraste de lenguas y sus aplicaciones [Language contrast and its applications]. Sevilla [Spain], Editorial de la Universidad de Sevilla. 229-243.
2022
"
What taboo Anglicisms say about U.S. Spanish" In Rudolf Muhr, Eugenia Duarte, Cilene Rodrigues, Juan Thomas (eds.): Pluricentric languages in the Americas. Graz/Berlin, PCL-Press.
2021
"Review of
Nuevas voces sobre el spanglish: una investigación polifónica."
International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest. 35 (1) 2021. 142-143.
2020
Thomas, J.A. "
Contact-induced pluricentricity? The role of Anglicisms in forging a new variety of Spanish" In Muhr, Rudolf & Juan Thomas (eds). Pluricentric Theory beyond Dominance and Non-Dominance: A Critical View. Graz, Berlin: PCL Press.
2019
"
La especialización de funciones en el repertorio lingüístico del español de Utica, Nueva York" In Betti, S. & Enghels, R. (eds). El inglés y el español en contacto en los Estados Unidos. Rome, Italy: Aracne editrice.
"Imágenes borradas y letras cambiadas: el español en el paisaje lingüístico de Utica, NY” In Betti, S. (ed). Camino Real, 11, 14, 125-137.
Thomas, J.A. & Lotfi Sayahi. "
Language contact phenomena in three Aljamiado texts: Religion as a sociolinguistic factor" In Busic, J. & Beale-Rivaya, Y. (eds). eHumanista: Places of Encounter: Language, Culture, and Religious Identity in Medieval Iberia, 41, 142-154.
2018
"Anglicisms in the Spanish of Utica, NY: unique and shared with worldwide varieties of Spanish" In Muhr, R., Meisnitzer, B (eds). Pluricentric languages and non-dominant varieties worldwide: New pluricentric languages-old problems. Frankfurt a.M./ Wien u.a.: Peter Lang Verlag. pp. 317-328.
"El español y el inglés en una ciudad pequeña de New York" In Díaz Ferro, M., Vaamonde, G., Varela Suárez, A., Cabeza, C., García-Miguel, J., and F. Ramallo(eds.) Actas do XIII Congreso Internacional de Lingüística Xeral (Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on General Linguistics), Vigo, Spain: Universidade de Vigo, 878-883.
2017
"Estadounidismos en el español de Utica, New York" In Paredes García, Florentino, Ana M. Cestero Mancera e Isabel Molina Martos (eds.) Investigaciones actuales en Lingüística. Vol. V: Sobre variación geolectal y sociolingüística, Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá, Servicio de Publicaciones, 197-211.
"Arabismos no galego? [Arabisms in Galician?]," In Álvarez de la Granja, María, Boullón Agrelo, Anna, González Seone, Ernesto (Eds).
Revista galega de filoloxía: Aproximacións á variación lexical no domino galego-portugués, 11, 133-147.
2016
"
Anglicismos en el español de Utica, New York: de la lengua hablada al diccionario Anglicisms in the Spanish of Utica, NY: from the spoken language to the dictionary," Glosas, 9,1, 41 -51.
"Queísmo in the Spanish of Utica, New York: pluricentric variable?" In Muhr, R., E. Duarte, A. Mendes, C. Amorós Negre & J. A. Thomas (Eds). Pluricentric languages and non-dominant varieties worldwide: volume 2:The pluricentricity of Portuguese and Spanish: New concepts and descriptions. Frankfurt a.M./ Wien u.a.: Peter Lang Verlag. pp. 207 -220
2015
"El contacto lingüístico en la literatura aljamiada ¿Dónde está Dios?" In Gordejuela Senosiáin, A., Izquierdo Alegría, D., Jiménez Berrio, F., De Lucas Vicente, A. y M. Casado Velarde (eds.): Lenguas, lenguaje y lingüística. Contribuciones desde la Lingüística General. Pamplona: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra. pp.551-561.
"In search of a standard: Spanish in a small, upstate NY community." In Rudolf Muhr, Dawn Marley (Eds), Pluricentric Languages: New perspectives in theory and description Frankfurt a.M. / Wien u.a.: Peter LangVerlag.
2013
"What is Utica Spanish like ?" In Département de Linguistique de l'Université de Genève (Ed). Travaux du 19ème Congrès International des Linguistes. Genève, Switzerland.
http://www.cil19.org/uploads/documents/What_is_Utica_Spanish_like.pdf
"Watching the development of US Spanish: Data from a small, upstate city in New York." In R. Muhr, C. Amorós Negre, C. Fernández Juncal, K. Zimmermann, E. Prieto and Na. Hernández (Eds), Exploring linguistic standards in non-dominant varieties of pluricentric languages/ Explorando estándardes lingüísticos en variedades no dominantes de lenguas pluricéntricas (pp 457-471). Frankfurt a.M. / Wien u.a.: Peter Lang Verlag.
Spanish in the health professions: How Spanish mediates in students' attitudes toward language study. In M. Libenson & B. O'Rourke (eds) Working papers in Spanish in society (pp. 62-71). Southhampton, U.K.: International Association for the Study of Spanish in Society
2012
"Language selection by Hispanics in a small upstate New York community." Sociolinguistic Studies 6.3, 571-593.
Una polifonía lingüística: lenguas mediterráneas en contacto en Nápoles. In E. Ridruejo Alonso, T. Solías Arís, N. Mendizábel de la Cruz & S. Alonso Calvo (eds), Tradición y progreso en la lingüística general (pp 373-392). Valladolid, Spain: Universidad de Valladolid.
Thomas, J.A. & Lotfi Sayahi. 2012. A Quantitative Analysis of Code-switching in the Arabic-Romance Kharjas. Journal of Language Contact. 5.2, 1-17.
2011
"How Neapolitan produces double consonants from Spanish singletons." Ianua: Revista Philologica Romanica. 11, 31-42.
Thomas, J.A. & Culyer, Linda. "Health Care Students' Attitudes toward Language Study: Multilingualism and Multiculturalism in a Small New York Community." Language Association Journal, 62.2, 39-61.
"
Does Mi vida loca Inspire Students to Learn Spanish?" In R. Goldberg & W. White (Eds), People, practices, and programs that inspire. Buffalo, NY: NYSAFLT.
2010
How do I satisfy the General Education Language Requirement? University Students' Attitudes Toward Language Study. Foreign Language Annals 43.3, 531- 551.
2009
Hispanisms in Neapolitan:Loanwords as Indicators of Past Social Contact. Forum Italicum 43.2, 433- 452.
2008
Introduction In Selected Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics Somerville, MA: Cascadilla. v-vii.
‘Bueno’ a Pragmatic Castilianism in GalicianIn Selected Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics Somerville, MA: Cascadilla. 131-139
"Reflexiones metalingüísticas acerca del voseo costarricense." Spanish in Context. 5:2; 182-195.
2007
Teaching Intermediate College Level Spanish in New York State High Schools: A Year of Observations. Language Association Journal. 58.3. 6-9.
Comprehension of L2 videos: Does what works for French in Action work for Destinos? Language Association Journal. 58.1. 12 –15.
"The use of gheada in three generations of women from Carballo, A Coruña." In Selected Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, ed. J. Holmquist, A. Lorenzino, and L. Sayahi, Somerville, MA: Cascadilla. 61-73.
2005
La divergencia entre actitudes y conducta lingüísticas: la gheada gallega y la formación de un registro culto oral. In Selected Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, ed. L. Sayahi and M. Westmoreland. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla. 54 – 66.
Thomas J. A., & Sayahi, L. "Morphophonological and semantic adaptation of Arabisms in Galician." Cahiers linguistiques d’Ottawa, 33, 23 –42.
Refereed Presentations:
2023
Lotfi Sayahi and Juan Thomas "Pluricentricity and Multilingualism in Tunisia: Recent Developments". Tenth World Conference on pluricentric languages (online). 23 August 2023.
Juan Thomas "Anglicismos tabúes en lenguas románicas habladas en EE.UU. (Taboo Anglicisms in Romance languages spoken in the USA)". XV Congreso Internacional de Lingüística General (XV International Conference of General Linguistics). Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. 15 June 2023
2021
"What taboo Anglicisms say about U.S. Spanish". Ninth World Conference on pluricentric languages (online). 26 August 2021.
"Anglicismos en las lenguas de migrantes en Estados Unidos: Un estudio contrastivo (Anglicisms in the languages of migrants in the U.S.: A contrastive study)." Contraste de lenguas y sus ámbitos de aplicación, XIV Congreso Internacional de Lingüística General (Language contrast and its areas of application, XIV International Conference of General Linguistics). Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain. 23 June 2021
"El español y el cambio lingüístico en una ciudad pequeña de Nueva York (Spanish and linguistic change in a small city in New York)." Migraciones en y desde Iberoamérica en el siglo XXI: un acercamiento lingüístico (Migrations in and from Ibero- America in the 2lst century: a linguistic approach). Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany. 22-23 March 2021
2019
"Contact-induced pluricentricity? The role of Anglicisms in forging a new variety of Spanish." Languages, Nations and Cultures: Pluricentric Languages in Context. Workshop: Beyond dominance and non-dominance Stockholm University. Stockholm, Sweden. 23 May 2019
2018
"Anécdotas sobre el repertorio lingüístico de una ciudad pequeña de Nueva
York [Anecdotes about the linguistic repertory of a small city in New York]" XIII
Congreso de lingüística general (CILG 13: XIII Conference on general linguistics),
Universidad de Vigo, Vigo, Spain, 13 June 2018
2017
"Anglicisms: unique to US Spanish or a worldwide phenomenon in Spanish?" Fifth World Conference on pluricentric languages and their non-dominant varieties. Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz. Mainz, Germany. 14 July 2017.
Thomas, J.A. “The function of Arabic in Aljamiado Literature”. Historical Sociolinguistics Network Conference 2017, New York University and CUNY Graduate Center, New York City, NY 7 April 2017.
2016
“Estadounidismos en el español de Utica, New York”. (U. S. English words in the Spanish of Utica, New York). XII Congreso de lingüística general (CILG 12: XII Conference on general linguistics), Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain, 24 May 2016
2015
Arabismos no galego? Gallaecia III Congresso Internacional de Lingüística Histórica (Gallaecia III Third International Conference on Historical Linguistics) Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 29 July 2015.
Queísmo in the Spanish of a small US city: pluricentric variant or common parameter? World Conference on pluricentric languages and their non-dominant varieties. University of Graz. Graz, Austria. 9 July 2015.
2014
In search of a standard: Spanish in a small, upstate NY community. Third International Conference on Non-dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Languages. University of Surrey. Guildford, England. 4 July 2014.
El contacto lingüístico en la literatura aljamiada: ¿Dónde está Dios?(Linguistic contact in aljamiada literature: Where is God?) XI Congreso Internacional de Lingüística General (XI International Conference on General Linguistics). Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. 23 May 2014.
2013
The evolution of a pluricentric language in an immigrant context. Some grammatical aspects of the Spanish in a small, upstate NY city. Congrès International des linguistes/ International Congress of Linguists. Geneva, Switzerland, 23 July 2013.
2012
The Spanish of a small, upstate NY city. 2nd International Conference on Non-Dominant Varieties of Pluricentric Languages. Salamanca, Spain, 11 July 2012.
Code-switching as a mechanism of language change: The Spanish of a small, upstate NY city. Colloque Langues et histoire. Université de Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC), Paris, France, 15 June 2012.
2011
Thomas. J.A. & Sayahi, Lotfi. Code-switching and the incorporation of Arabic loanwords in Andalusian Romance. 32nd TABU Dag: International Linguistics Conference. Groningen, Netherlands, 18 June 2011.
2010
Thomas. J.A. & Culyer, Linda. Spanish in the health professions: Should healthcare professionals study a language other than English? 5th International Conference on Hispanic Linguistics: Spanish in Society. Limerick, Ireland, 8 July 2010.
Una polifonía linguística: lenguas mediterráneas en contacto en Nápoles. IX Congreso de Linguística General. Valladolid, Spain, 22 June 2010.
Courses Taught at Utica College:
ITA 101 Elementary Italian I
ITA 102 Elementary Italian II
SPA 101 Elementary Spanish I
SPA 102 Elementary Spanish II
SPA 115 Medical Spanish
SPA 125 Medical Spanish II
SPA 201 Intermediate Spanish I
SPA 202 Intermediate Spanish II
SPA 227 Spoken Spanish I
SPA 300 Spanish for Professors
SPA 304 Spanish Pronunciation
SPA 327 Spoken Spanish II
SPA 328 Techniques for Reading Spanish Texts
SPA 337 Spanish Composition and Grammar Review
SPA 347 Spanish Culture and Civilization
SPA 404/604 Introduction to Spanish Applied Linguistics
