ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the term globality will be used to refer to the consequences of globalization, in the two senses explained by Blommaert, but with special interest in the consequences related to the Spanish language and its varieties and, secondarily, to other languages. It presents a general panorama of Madrid as a global city, giving special attention to the linguistic and communicative realities that characterize this urban space. The panorama begins with a description of trends in demography, economy, industry, communications technology, and culture that have given rise to Madrid’s status as global city. With the growing number of sociolinguistic studies, the 1990s gave rise to studies examining what were apparently peripheral features of Madrid speech. Madrid occupies a salient position in online communications, especially social media and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.