Examines the reduction of syntactic options in South Texas Spanish narrative discourse during the nineteenth century. Argues that nineteenth century Texas Spanish made ample use of the absolute construction as an orientation strategy in narrative discourse. (Author/VWL)

Texas migration patterns have split the Anglo population into rural and metropolitan dialects. Evidence from a random-sample survey of Texas and state survey of high schools show young rural Anglos preserve two stereotypical features not found in urban Anglo speech. The difference, absent among adults, suggests in-migration from other parts of the…