The aim of this paper is to offer an interdisciplinary approach to travel writing. In this type of texts the traveller - and, consequently, the reader - situate themselves in the fascinating context of intercultural exchanges. Since culture and language are so closely intertwined, travel books could be used as a source to examine the cultural and linguistic influences experienced by writers as a result of their daily contact with the members of the communities they visit. In this perspective, we have studied eight works written by seven British authors who visited various Spanish-speaking areas at different times throughout the 20th century. All these works are travel books, since they follow the pattern which characterizes this literary genre, namely first-person narrator; detailed description of the landscapes and atmosphere of the places visited; a good account of the customs, cultural aspects and behavior of the native dwellers; a parallel exploration of the inner self; the wish to escape from the unbearable society ties in search for exotic adventure or an open-air life. In addition, as noted by Henriquez (1995:24), "this type of literature is being used today to alert to the slow and often uncontrollable deterioration of the environment."
In our view, it is possible to add a new item to this list of features: the usage of a number of words, sentences and idioms taken from the languages spoken in each area. This happens to all the travellers whose books we analyze here. Three of them belong to the impressive bibliography dealing with the Canary Islands and printed in the first decades of the present century. They are the following: In the Canaries with a Camera, published in 1909 by Margaret D'Este; Canary Islands, written by Florence Du Cane, and published in 1911; and Two Years in the Canaries, by Charles Barker, published in 1917. Two books were written by the same author, Laurie Lee, who reported two journeys to Spain at different times in his life, A Rose for Winter and As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, published in 1955 and 1969, respectively, though the latter was written twenty years before. The rest of the works are Voices of the Old Sea, published in 1984 by Norman Lewis; No Guns, Big Smile: South America by Horse, published by James Greenwood in 1992; and, finally, Spanish Pilgrimage: A Canter to St James, written by Robin Hanbury-Tenison in 1992.
After studying these works, we can come to the conclusion that to a considerable extent all these authors tend to adopt a number of foreign (in this case Spanish) elements in their English discourse. Hence, important questions for discussion may arise: Firstly, an examination of the kind of words that the authors adopt in their discourse; secondly, an exploration of the various interpretations that this assimilation of Spanish vocabulary can be given; and finally, some speculations about the possible consequences this massive adoption of Spanish terms and expressions could have for the readers and, ultimately, for the English language.
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