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| Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado: Spanish | 
 enlarge | Author: Ruben Cobos
Publisher: Museum of New Mexico Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $13.44
You Save: $6.51 (33%)
Buy New/Used from $10.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (3 reviews)
Sales Rank: 551806
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Bilingual
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 278
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0890134537
Dewey Decimal Number: 467.978903
EAN: 9780890134535
ASIN: 0890134537
Publication Date: July 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This book, continuously in print since 1983, has become a classic Spanish reference book, widely used in classrooms across the USA. Linguist and folklorist Ruben Cobos, now in his nineties, has been diligently working on revisions for the past decade. Much expanded -- the number of pages has increased by 70 -- this revised edition will assume its place as the most authoritative reference on the archaic dialect of Spanish spoken in this region.
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| Customer Reviews:
An important read if you want to converse with Northern New Mexico Spanish speakers August 23, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
For years, my wife and I had heard people in northern New Mexico speaking Spanish as described in this book, and we believed they were just not educated properly in correct Spanish grammar and vocabulary. Then I found this book. All the sudden, all the odd pronunciations, verb conjugations and vocabulary made sense. This Spanish evolved almost on its own since the 1500's!
My wife, who is from Oaxaca, Mexico, constantly looks to me to interpret for her when we do business with Northern New Mexicans (who refer to themselves as "Espanoles", not Hispanics)who speak this dialect of Spanish. Some time ago, we bought furniture from a sales-lady who referred to herself as an "Espanola". My wife was happy to be attended to in her native tongue, but when the sales lady asked for my wife's "licencia para arrear", I could tell she didn't have a clue. Thanks to this book, I was able to properly interpret it as "drivers license" (not "marriage license" as my wife was inclined to believe).
From a practical standpoint, it's probably not of much use anywhere else in the world, but if you come to northern New Mexico, and you want to converse with the native Spanish-speakers, you'd better come armed with this book!
An invaluable reference tool for any Southwestern writer or student February 21, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I recently wrote a book about the history of the towns of New Mexico's Sandia Mountains, and during that time I probably picked this book up two or three times every day.
It is invaluable--loaded with obscure words that no normal Spanish-English dictionary would ever have. It's well-structured, nicely organized, clearly printed, thorough, and as complete as you would ever need it to be.
In its way, it's a sort of linguistic and cultural history of New Mexico and southern Colorado, disguised as a dictionary. Leaf through it and glance at a few words and definitions, and you can't help but learn fascinating things about the people and the places that produced these terms.
If you are a New Mexico student or scholar or writer, you really NEED to have this book. Your work will be incomplete without it.
An indespensible tool to studying the dialect June 3, 2001
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Ruben Cobos' short but monumental "Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish" (1983) was a classic the day it was printed. If you have any interest in the Spanish-speaking cultures of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, this book is a great way to learn something about the dialect without plunging into a difficult linguistic study.Like Samuel Johnson's dictionary, Cobos's is a book you can sit down and read enjoyably. The entries are not just translations of Spanish words into English. Cobos traces their origin and (in most cases) illustrates their meaning by including them in sample sentences. For instance, "murre" (in standard Spanish, "muy"): "Esta muchita es murre gente" ('This child is very friendly'). Additionally, many words are also explained by the use of proverbs and folk-poems. Cobos also explains the cultural signficance of about a third of the words in the dictionary. For example, "pitarrilla": "Pitarrilla, f. [Obviously, the dictionary has great value not only (nor even primarily) for the linguist, but for the anthropologist and historian, as well. It is completely free of technical linguistic terminology and accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of standard Spanish. (I might emphasize that the book is a guide to local usage only and does not include standard Spanish words.) Although the pronunciation of the New Mexico/southern Colorado dialect is relatively standard, Cobos has taken care to indicate divergences where they exist (e.g., "raices" is pronounced "rai-ces", not "ra-ices"). He includes a short historical and linguistic introduction, tracing the four-hundred year evolution of the dialect. Finally, for a kick, at the start of each alphabetical section you'll find a short proverb -- "P. 'Pa pendejo no se necesita mestro' (To be a fool one needs no school)."A valuable book that sells for a good price. Five stars.
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