Many current theories of Hispanic dialectology implicate the influence of African phonotactic patterns on the evolution of Latin American Spanish, particularly as regards the behavior of syllable-final consonants. This study offers a unique test case which permits the separation of external phonotactic influences from the original dialectal base brought from Spain to Latin America. In this fashion, it is possible to more adequately model the interaction of phonological patterns which shaped the evolution of European languages transplanted to the Americas, since the prototype situation may in principle be extended to other language-contact environments.