From a sociolinguistic perspective, this work focuses on accounting for the written manifestations of certain words and expressions in different public opinion spaces in nineteenth-century Costa Rica. The object of the research is not to debate the presence of a term in a considered textual type closer to the “language of distance”, but to analyze the why and how of a lexical appearance in a more immediate communication channel closer to orality, due to the short time margin that separates the need for rapid distribution and representation in print. This lesser reflection that the special type of communication channel entails allows us to know in more detail the evolution of diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic elements, which, in this case, occur in nineteenth-century Costa Rica. Each of the manifestations presupposes a sociocultural and political context that, in turn, conditions the speaker’s attitude towards the language and the reason for a specific use, which is reflected in the dictionaries of provincialisms and barbarisms of the time (such as those contrasted here by Carlos Gagini 1892, 1919), which begin to use the periodical press as a source for the authority of their manifestations, both orally and in writing. Key words: historical sociolinguistics; American Spanish; linguistic attitudes; historical lexicography; Costa Rican press; 19th century Recibido: 10/12/2024 Aceptado: 29/09/2025 LOS BARBARISMO Y PROVINCIALISMO DE CARLOS… / MANUEL RIVAS ZANCARRÓN 453
Manuel Rivas Zancarrón (Mon,) studied this question.