Lexical Peculiarities of the Modern Spanish Language of Guatemala

Despite the fact that Russian linguists are actively exploring the peculiarities of the implementation of language means in Latin American countries, the Spanish language of Guatemala has not yet been the object of analysis in terms of the variation of lexical units. This article examines the lexical units used in the Guatemalan national variety of the Spanish language through the prism of modern lexical semantics, using the current common approaches and methods of the linguistics discipline. The peculiarities of the Guatemalan national variety of the Spanish language are demonstrated, such as: high-frequency common Spanish units that have undergone semantic changes; prevailing terms and idioms that are unusual for Spain; many innovations of both Guatemalan and Mexican origin are used; a large number of loanwords from indigenous languages; and diminutives are widely used. Finally, it is concluded that the revealed and studied peculiarities of the Spanish language of Guatemala determine the need to study it not only for developing philological knowledge but also, to a large extent, for meeting the practical needs of the modern society.