Contact Information
Building, M/C 176; OFFICE: 4156 Foreign Languages Bldg.
Research Interests
Language Variation and Change
Contact Linguistics and Bilingualism
Morphology
Grammaticalization and Semantic Change
Spanish Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
Spanish-Quechua contact
Andean Sociolinguistics
Spanish Linguistics
Research Description
My academic pursuits focus primarily on offering a new interpretation of the history of Andean Spanish by initiating innovative social and linguistic analyses of colonial documents and modern varieties of Andean Peruvian Spanish, where the majority of Andean Spanish speakers reside. Although my research has focused primarily on the socio-historical and linguistic study of the development of Andean Spanish, the wider aim has been to understand the diversity of human verbal behavior in plurilingual societies, and how it influences change in language generally. As evidenced by my publications, this intellectual journey has evolved as it is informed by the latest theories on how languages change in contexts of language contact and social competition; by research in general theoretical linguistics, including cross-linguistic studies focused on grammatical change; and by my reading and learning from the work of scholars in other disciplines who focus on sociocultural history, especially in Latin America and other ex-colonial regions.
Education
Université de Grenoble III, France, Licence de Linguistique
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Bachiller
State University of New York at Buffalo, Ph.D. in Linguistics
Awards and Honors
LAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2001-2002
Courses Taught
Reading Group: Social Dynamics of Language Variation and Change
Spanish Morphology
Hispanic Sociolinguistics
Contact Linguistics Seminar
Dynamics of Language Variation and Change Seminar
Grammaticalization Seminar
Oral Varieties of Spanish
Spanish in the U.S.
Structure of Spanish
Introduction to Spanish Linguistics
Practical Review of Spanish Grammar
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor Emerita, Spanish and Portuguese
Professor Emerita, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Professor Emerita, Center for Global Studies
External Links
Recent Publications
Escobar, A. M. (2025). Contact between Indigenous languages of the Central Andes and Spanish: Linguistic outcomes as cases of contra-hierarchical diffusion. In The oxford guide to the languages of the central andes (pp. 783-797). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849926.003.0027
Escobar, A. M. (2023). Ethnocultural Languages in the Study of Language Contact: The Case of Amazonian Spanish. In M. Jara, R. Zariquiey, P. Valenzuela, & A. M. Escobar (Eds.), Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (pp. 20-46). (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; Vol. 18). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004514645_003
Jara, M., & Escobar, A. M. (2023). Introduction. In M. Jara, R. Zariquiey, P. Valenzuela, & A. M. Escobar (Eds.), Spanish Diversity in the Amazon: Dialect and Language Contact Perspectives (pp. 3-19). (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; Vol. 18). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004514645_002
Jara, M., Zariquiey, R., Valenzuela, P., & Escobar, A. M. (2023). Spanish Diversity in the Amazon: Dialect and Language Contact Perspectives. (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; Vol. 18). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004514645
Escobar, A. M., & Roy, J. (2022). Grammaticalization in the Evidential pathway of the Andean Spanish Present Perfect: Language contact as a trigger for language change. Isogloss, 8(4), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/isogloss.184