Southern Cone Under the

British

People

     Today, in Auchmuty-Whitelocke World (AWW), Argentina and Uruguay are each countries that are both Spanish- and English-speaking, locally known in English as hispanoparlant and angloparlant, respectively.  (Since 'Spanish' is locally known as 'Castilian', hispanoparlants are also known as castellanoparlants.)  In addition, those people whose mother tongue is neither English nor Spanish are known there as alloparlants.  On an informal basis, Argentines are known in English as Argies (and sometimes in Spanish as porteños or ches).  Uruguayans are sometimes known in English as East Bank people, East Bankers, Easterners, or Orientals (and in Spanish as orientales); Uruguay is often called the East Bank in English and the Banda Oriental in Spanish.  This is much like Aussies for Australians or Kiwis for New Zealanders.  

     The total population of Argentina is 35,812,938, according to the 2001 Census; that of Uruguay is 5,380,203, according to estimates from 2004.  These are up from 32,386,128 in the 1991 Argentine census and 4,940,603 according to Uruguayan estimates from 1996, respectively.  Both countries have the best demographic and socio-economic indicators by far in Latin America, as shown in the table below.

Selected Demographic Data (1995-2000)

     All of the above figures are comparable to what can be found in our world or AWW in North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia, and are better than our world’s Argentina and Uruguay – though even in our world, the two countries perform quite well in literacy and have the same crude death rates as in AWW.

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Linguistic Distribution

     Argentina is about 47.5% angloparlant, just under 38% hispanoparlant, and just under 15% alloparlant; Uruguay is 70.5%, 20%, and 10%, respectively.  (Think of how white South Africa speaks both Afrikaans and English, or how Canada [where I am from] speaks both French and English.  The British conquered both the Afrikaner homeland and French Canada.)  In fact, Argentina and Uruguay serve as a bridge between the developed Western world and Latin America, much as South Africa serves as a link between the West and Africa.  In Argentina, among the hispanoparlant population, 89% are white (Spanish-Argentines, Spaniards, and a few Italians, plus a large Irish admixture), 9% are mestizo (white and Indian mixture), and the rest is other races, notably Afro-Argentines from the pre-1806 slave days.  Within Argentina’s angloparlant population, 60% are of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, or other British descent, 15% are of Italian descent, and 25% are other ethnicities (largely Germans and other Western Europeans); all but 2% is white.  As for alloparlants in Argentina, 79% are white, black, or Asian, and the rest are mestizos or Aboriginals; many of the alloparlants are immigrants or their descendants, and the others are native-born mestizos or Aboriginals.                              

     Uruguay’s hispanoparlant population is just under 75% white (Spanish-Uruguayans, Spaniards, and a few Italians along with Irish infusions), 16% mestizo, and 7-8% Afro-Uruguayans from the days of slavery.  Its angloparlant population figures at 63% of British Isles descent, under 12% of Italian descent, and 23% of other ethnicities; more than 98% of the angloparlants are white.  Finally, the alloparlants are racially diverse, with 62% being white, 20% black, 10% mestizo, and 8% Asian or other races.  But all these figures, for both countries, should not necessarily be taken at face value, since there is much intermarriage between the ethnic groups, and many people are fluent in both English and Spanish.

Plate English and Plate Spanish

     In the River Plate region, English is spoken with heavy Spanish influences (particularly from River Plate dialect of Spanish, which is distinctive), as well as Aboriginal and immigrant influences to some extent.  Known as Plate English, it is spoken in a British accent with Spanish inflections, just like the English dialect in South Africa has a British accent with Afrikaans/Dutch influences.  While a lot of the vocabulary is either standard English or of Spanish origin, quite a few of the words are also used in the British, North American, Australasian, or South African dialects.  Below are some words in Plate English:

     The Spanish as spoken in Argentina and Uruguay (also known as Plate Spanish or Plate Castillian) is very different from many other dialects of Spanish.  It preserves a lot of archaic forms not seen in standard Spanish, such as the very widespread use of 'vos' instead of 'tu' for second-person singular.  The 'y' and 'll' are both pronounced as 'zh' (as in 'measure'), 'dj' (as in 'edge'), or 'y' (as in 'year'), depending on the place.  While the dialect originally comes from Andalusian Spanish for the most part, it has been influenced by English and, to some extent, Aboriginal and immigrant influences.  Examples of words found in no other Spanish dialects include pororó ('popcorn'), valija ('suitcase'), moño ('bowtie'), baúl ('car trunk'/'boot'), and pulóver ('sweater'/'pullover').

     Major variants of Plate Spanish include the variant spoken from Cordova and Mendoza to Salta and Jujuy (the west and northwest) - often with Chilean or Bolivian influences, depending on the place; the variant in places in the northeast like Corrientes (with Paraguayan influences); and the variant in the Pampas and Uruguay.  Of these major linguistic groups, the Spanish-speakers in the Pampas (including Uruguay) are descended from hispanoparlant migrants who came to the Pampas in the late 1800s-early 1900s from further north and west in the Southern Cone and from Spain as well as from more established hispanoparlant populations.  The other major groups are mostly descended from well-established local hispanoparlant populations. 
 

     It is not always the case that the linguistic division between English and Spanish is a neat one.  For one thing, where angloparlants and hispanoparlants interact a lot, such as in Cordova or Buenos Aires, there are different varieties of Spanglish (i.e. English-Spanish pidgins) – the AWW analogue to our world’s cocoliche.  Just like in certain parts of the United States and in Gibraltar (a British colony next to Spain), Spanglish is every bit as active as standard English or Spanish.  Furthermore, among lower-class hispanoparlants, especially in urban areas along and near the River Plate (like Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Montevideo), there is a Spanish-based slang called lunfardo.  It is derived from English, immigrant languages like Italian, and Afro-Argentine speech, much like tango originated among the lower classes from diverse cultural influences.  (In our world, Italian, not English, is the primary ingredient [along with Spanish] of these slangs.)

Ethno-Linguistic Labels
 

     There are many labels by which angloparlants and hispanoparlants are known.  In the first group, they could be known as English Argentines/Argentinians or English Uruguayans, or simply the English.  Alternatively, they can be called Anglo Argentines/Argentinians or Anglo Uruguayans, or more pejoratively, Anglos. 

     Among the hispanoparlants, it is more complicated.  In the older days, they were known as Spanish Argentines/Argentinians or Spanish Uruguayans, or simply the Spanish.  Lately, though, they have a choice of some other labels.  They can use Hispano-Argentines/Argentinians or Hispano-Uruguayans, or Hispanics (in Spanish, hispanos).  Another way is Latinos; that and Hispanic are also most often used in the United States to describe its Spanish-speaking population.  A third way, which is just as common, is to use Ibero-Argentines/Argentinians or Ibero-Uruguayans, or Iberos.    

     Radical hispanoparlant nationalists in both countries prefer regional terms; they think of each regional group as representing a distinct branch of hispanoparlants in Argentina.  In western Argentina (from Cordova westwards and northwards), which has the largest concentration of hispanoparlants, they use occidentales or andinos.  In the northeast (near Paraguay), further up the Parana River from the River Plate, they use altoparanienses or nordestinos; in the Pampas (Plate Province, New Lancashire, South Mesopotamia, and southern Uruguay for the most part), they use pampeanos, rioplatenses, or platenses; and in northern Uruguay (the biggest hispanoparlant concentration in that country), it’s alturuguayos, with norteños being used seldom.  Sometimes, they also use provincial terms - e.g. hispano- or ibero-sudmesopotamianos for hispanoparlants in South Mesopotamia.  

     The most commonly used monikers, aside from angloparlant and hispanoparlant, are Anglo-Argentine or Anglo-Uruguayan, and Hispano-Argentine or Hispano-Uruguayan (or Ibero-Argentine or Ibero-Uruguayan).  To describe different linguistic parts of each country, one uses English Argentina or English Uruguay (or Anglo-Argentina or Anglo-Uruguay), and Spanish Argentina or Spanish Uruguay (or Hispano-Argentina or Hispano-Uruguay, or Ibero-Argentina or Ibero-Uruguay).

     Many deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the Southern Cone of AWW use any one of various sign languages.  Argentina and Uruguay each have an Anglo sign language and a Hispanic one: The Anglo sign languages are based on British Sign Language, much like Australian, New Zealand, or South African Sign Languages; the Hispanic sign languages are related to other Latin American sign languages, and are related to American and French sign languages.

     For more specific information on the foreign-birth and language data, please see the provincial data, the foreign-birth table for cities, and the linguistic table for cities.

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Ethnicity and Religion

     While some ethnic groups live across both countries (or much of each), others congregate in certain areas.  Aside from the Spanish-Argentine heartland ranging from Cordova northward and westward (and in some other areas) and the strong angloparlant concentrations in Patagonia and much of the Pampas and Uruguay, one could talk first and foremost about the Welsh area in northern Chubut province.  Even though they can be classified as Anglo-Argentine, they are nationalistic in their Welshness, setting them apart from the rest of the angloparlants.  Elsewhere in Patagonia and in the Fireland territory (in Spanish: Tierra del Fuego; including the Falklands), there is an overwhelming portion that is Scottish and Irish as well as English.  People of Irish, English, and Scottish descent can be found in the other angloparlant areas too, as well as some in the Cordova-Mendoza corridor and, to a lesser extent, further north to the Bolivian line (both of which are predominantly hispanoparlant). 

     The hispanoparlant population in each country has a lot of people of at least partly Irish ancestry, since the Irish and the Spaniards have both been Catholic, so there has been much more assimilation of the Irish into the Spanish-speaking population than, say, that of English or Scottish people (who are Protestant).  Prominent hispanoparlant names of Irish origin include Lynch (as in Benito Lynch). 

     Also in the angloparlant areas, one finds the overwhelming preponderance of Germans, French, Swiss, Austrians, Dutch, Scandinavians, Slavs, Eastern European Jews, most other groups, and alloparlant immigrants like Asians, blacks from Africa, and Middle Easterners.  Groups like the Jews (which will be discussed later in more detail), Greeks, Arabs, Armenians, Asians, and black Africans are found overwhelmingly in the cities; other ethnic groups are also found in the cities, but are also in rural areas, especially in the angloparlant regions.  

     There are some indigenous peoples left in Argentina (but hardly in Uruguay anymore).  Numbering just over 500,000 in total, they are now generally known as Aboriginals in English and Indígenas in Spanish.  In the past, they were known as Indians.  Together with the mestizos (aboriginal-white mixtures), they are generally called Amerindians.  During the Spanish colonial era, the Aboriginals were subject to enslavement, and their numbers from then on got reduced through disease, loss of land, and conflict with Europeans.  The largest Argentine Aboriginal people, not including people of Indian descent from Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and other countries, is the Mapuche, numbering 115,000 in 2005.  The next biggest Argentine Aboriginal peoples are the Kolla, Toba, Wichi, Diaguita Calchaqui, and various Guarani peoples.  In Uruguay, there are 2000 pure Charrua left, as well as several thousand members of the Guarani peoples in the north.  Most Aboriginals live either on reserves or in urban areas.
 

     As for a small Afrikaner colony that migrated from South Africa to South America in the aftermath of the Boer War in the early 1900s, in AWW, they went to the Lake District just north of Chilean Patagonia, and not in southern Chubut province of Argentina like in our world.  This is because these Afrikaners wanted to no longer live in any formal part of the British Empire (Argentina, but not Chile, had been part of the British Empire).
  
     The Gypsy (or Roma) population composition is much the same in the Argentina and Uruguay of AWW as in our world, but there are some differences.  The biggest one is that there are fewer Calo (Spanish Gypsies) and many more Romanichal (English Gypsies).

     In Argentina and Uruguay as a whole, the population is split (though not evenly) between Roman Catholics and Protestants, with other religions thrown in for good measure.  Since Argentina has a larger proportion of Spanish-speaking people in the population, there are a lot more Catholics than Protestants in Argentina.  Catholics (mainly Spanish, Italian, and Irish) account for just under two-thirds of the population, and Protestants (mainly British but also some Germans, Scandinavians, and others) amount to just under one-third.  Most of the rest are Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, and atheist.  In Uruguay, the picture is different; being secular since Joseph Batshaw’s days (the AWW equivalent of Jose Batlle y Ordóñez), there is an unusually high proportion of atheists (25%).  Of the rest, a slight majority is Protestant, given that there is a bigger portion of British-descent people in the population than in Argentina, and then there are Roman Catholics, Jews, and other groups.

     Given the sheer ethnic diversity of both countries, there is also a high religious diversity.  Firstly, among the Protestant denominations, there are Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals, and other groups.  Besides Roman Catholics and Protestants, there are Ukrainian Catholics, Greek Catholics, Maronites (a Lebanese Christian sect), various types of Eastern Orthodox (Armenian and Greek being the biggest), Jews, Muslims, and others.  There are 26 Catholic basilicas in Argentina, including 8 in Buenos Aires, and 4 in Uruguay.  This is just over half as many basilicas as in those countries in our world. 

     Of the Protestant groups, the Anglicans are the largest.  The Anglican Church of Argentina is divided into three ecclesiastical provinces - Argentina, River Plate, and Patagonia.  The first one covers 10 secular provinces in the centre and north; River Plate corresponds with Plate Province; and Patagonia extends over the Patagonian region from Neuken and Pampa provinces southwards, including the Falklands.  In total, there are 24 dioceses in the country.  The Anglican Churches of Uruguay and Chile are each their own province, with 7 and 5 dioceses respectively.  That of Brazil, just like in our world, is also its own province with 9 dioceses and a missionary district.  The Anglican dioceses of Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru joined forces with the 2 dioceses in Ecuador and those of Colombia and Venezuela to form the Province of Northern South America in 1981.  In recent years, some conservative Anglican/Episcopal clergy in North America have started to affiliate themselves with the latter province over the issues of ordaining gays and women, and same-sex unions. 
 
     There is a small colony of followers of the New Israel sect (an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church) in Halliburton, Uruguay (along the Uruguay River between Bevis and Paysandu, across from Argentina).

     The two River Plate countries attract many immigrants (a lot of those being illegal) from countries like Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and (to a lesser extent) Chile.  This is comparable to Mexicans, Central Americans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Haitians coming over to the United States, or to sub-Saharan Africans pouring into relatively prosperous South Africa.  In our world, there is considerable such immigration to Argentina especially, but in AWW, there are simply a lot more such migrants.  Both Argentina and Uruguay face lots of problems in how to deal with the illegal migrants, and at times have to take drastic measures to seal their land borders (Uruguay with Brazil, and Argentina with Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia, though not nearly as much with Chile).  At the same time, there is much legal migration from Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil – and South and Central America in general.  All of these immigrants are an addition to the hispanoparlant population in Argentina and Uruguay.  Seasonal migratory workers also come to Argentina and Uruguay from the surrounding countries to serve as farm hands (e.g. during fruit-picking season).  Besides the usual people of Western European or American Indian descent, they include Jews, Japanese, and other ethnic groups with populations in these source countries, and they add to their counterparts in the River Plate countries.

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Populations of Selected Ethnic and Religious Groups