The Use of "Melitar" Instead of Militar in the Corrido La Adelita

In the study of corridos and narratives of the Mexican Revolution, it is common to find linguistic variants that do not conform to normative Spanish. One particularly characteristic case is the appearance of the word “melitar” instead of “militar” in the lyrics of the corrido La Adelita. This alteration has drawn the interest of musicologists, philologists, and historians, as it provides a clear example of how orality and popular speech influenced the written fixation of these musical pieces.

It is therefore interesting to examine this phenomenon from linguistic, cultural, and historical perspectives, in order to determine its relevance as a testimony of orality and folklore.

The Context of the Corrido

In the verse “si por tierra, en un tren melitar”[1] (“if by land, in a melitar train”), the vowel substitution is evident. Although in modern transcriptions it is usually corrected to “militar”, traditional versions maintain the original form, reflecting the way it was sung and orally transmitted among soldiers and revolutionary communities.

The corrido, as a popular genre, was conceived to be sung, memorized, and transmitted in environments where writing was not always present. This explains the persistence of variants such as “melitar”.

Linguistic Analysis

From a linguistic standpoint, the following elements can be outlined:

1. Phonetic phenomenon: The alteration from militar → melitar responds to a process of vowel opening from /i/ to /e/, very common in colloquial speech. This phenomenon is related to dialectal variation and the tendency to simplify sounds in oral contexts.

2. Perceptive metathesis[2]: More than an error, it can be considered a case of phonetic accommodation, where local pronunciation became fixed in collective memory.

3. Rhythm and rhyme: From a metrical perspective, the change does not alter the octosyllabic structure nor break the musical cadence. Therefore, the corrido preserves its musicality without being affected by the substitution.

Cultural and Social Dimension

The use of “melitar” should not be interpreted as an incorrect form, but rather as a folkloric feature. Orality in revolutionary corridos was the main medium of transmission, and linguistic variants such as this reveal:

• The actual speech of soldiers and peasants of the time.

• The fidelity of songbooks that respected the popular version instead of “correcting” it.

• The living and dynamic character of language in popular contexts.

Such variations do not diminish the value of the work; instead, they reinforce its authenticity as a product of oral culture[3].

Historiographic Value

The term “melitar” constitutes evidence of how cultural expressions reflect both wartime reality and linguistic reality. This minor detail allows us to reconstruct aspects of regional speech during the years of the Revolution and highlights the hybrid character of corridos, which are at once historical documents and poetic creations.

Conclusions

The use of “melitar” instead of “militar” in the corrido La Adelita is an oral phenomenon that goes beyond the purely linguistic. It represents a trace of the popular language of the time, preserved in a cultural testimony that has endured for more than a century.

From a technical perspective, this case demonstrates the importance of considering orality, dialect, and historical context in the analysis of musical and literary sources, avoiding reductionist interpretations that label it simply as a mistake.

_________ Foot notes

[1] Stanza of the corrido “La Adelita”, authored by Antonio Gil del Río Armeta. It is the last stanza of the refrain or verse of the corrido.

[2] Metathesis is a linguistic process through which sounds within a word are modified. Sometimes the sounds are exchanged, and in other cases, they are simply transformed. An example of this phenomenon occurs in the word neandertal, which is commonly pronounced neardental. Another very common case is the transformation of the word polvareda into polvadera.

[3] As expressed by Vicente T. Mendoza in his work El corrido mexicano (1954), the corrido, as a genre, was one of the strongest foundations of genuinely Mexican literature.