Competing patterns of prestige in Latin American Spanish: implicit attitudes towards informal address in two Uruguayan cities

Abstract This study uses a matched-guise test to examine attitudes toward informal address in Uruguayan Spanish, which features two competing pronouns ( tú, vos ), their associated verb forms ( tienes ‘you have T ’ vs. tenés ‘id V ’), and mixed combinations (TT, VV, TV). The analysis compares perceptions in Montevideo and Rocha. Two Montevideo speakers (one male, one female) were evaluated by raters from Montevideo ( N = 82) and Rocha ( N = 75) on attributes related to status, solidarity, and perceived national and regional identity. A cumulative link mixed-effects model showed that all variants were perceived as Uruguayan. Montevideo raters judged VV as the most Uruguayan, followed by TV, whereas Rocha raters showed no significant differences among variants for the male guise, but perceived the TT female guise as most Uruguayan. In both locations, TT increased perceptions of speakers as less from Montevideo and more from Rocha. Gender effects emerged: the female speaker was perceived as less from Rocha and more from Montevideo than the male when using VV, indicating heightened sensitivity to women’s address choices. Rocha raters evaluated the female VV guise as less proper ( correcta ) than the male and the female TV guise as more disagreeable ( antipática ). These patterns suggest intersecting forms of prestige: VV and TV carry metropolitan prestige, while TT holds local covert prestige linked to authenticity, solidarity, and resistance to change. This study demonstrates the enduring role of informal address as a regional marker and the importance of speaker gender in attitudinal research.