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This article surveys the major trends that have characterized the ®eld of Spanish-American dialectology since 1901 when the ground-breaking article of Ru®no Jose Cuervo, ``El castellano en AmeÂrica,'' was ®rst published.
The contributions of the most important twentieth-century researchers are emphasized in the light of the advancement made toward the de®nition of a paradigm that explains and illustrates the origins and evolution of New World Spanish. The notion of a New World Spanish koine is also accentuated, given the demographic, linguistic, and sociohistorical components that intervened in the con®guration of New World Spanish. A model of historical evolution is selected and re®ned to serve as the basis for the exploration and conceptualization of this Spanish variety since its beginnings to the present time in the diverse regions of the American continent where it is spoken as a majority language.
