The language, a true reflection of society: the case of a transformation of the lexicon of the city of Málaga in the 19th century through the local press

Abstract

Malaga's development in the 19th century was characterised by industrial growth, trade, urban modernisation and progress in education and culture. However, the beginning of the century was not easy (political instability, natural disasters, pandemics...). But society was able to react to these vicissitudes and saw in them a reason to improve: it took advantage of the low cost of raw materials, attracted investment, maritime trade grew, supported the liberal movement and initiated a technological transformation. All this brought with it an increase in population and an unparalleled movement of people, which also favoured the spread of previously unknown diseases: the movement of people brought new customs, new products began to arrive in shops and the vicissitudes of epidemiology changed habits. All this meant that society needed to name these new realities and language used the resources at its disposal (graphic adaptation of foreign words, neologisms, semantic calques...) to signify the new linguistic facts.  The aim of this article is to describe this situation.