| Summary: | The studies focusing on the use of ¿cierto? and ¿no es cierto? generally classify them as pragmatic markers used in current American Spanish. This paper advances the hypothesis that it is an hispanicamericanism. To this end, it analyses diachronic data from the Corpus del Nuevo diccionario histórico (CDH), which includes both European and American texts. In particular, it studies six interrogative constructions present from the 12th century onwards which revolve around the use of the word cierto. This analysis shows that the diachronic evolution of ¿no es cierto? and ¿cierto? differ: the explicit form, which is ¿no es cierto?, occurs for the first time in Spain and becomes established as a peninsular tradition approximately during the 17th century. From Spain it spreads to the Hispanic American countries, where it develops into the short form ¿cierto? in the 19th century. Therefore, the abbreviated form is indeed an hispanicamericanism.
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