Spanglish

For the James L. Brooks motion picture, see Spanglish (film).

Spanglish — also called espanglish, espaninglish, el Spanish broken, inglañol, espan'glés or espanolo, a blend of the English-language words for "Spanish" and "English" — is a name used to refer to a range of language-contact phenomena, primarily in the speech of the Hispanic population of the United States and the population of Mexico that lives near the border with U.S.A., which are exposed to both Spanish and English. These phenomena are a product of close border contacts or large bilingual communities, such as along the United States-Mexico border and throughout California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Puerto Rico, New York City, and Chicago. It is also quite common in Panama, where the 96-year (1903-1999) U.S. control of the Panama Canal has influenced many aspects of society, especially among the former residents of the Panama Canal Zone, commonly referred to as "Zonians".

Spanglish is sometimes known by a regional name; for example, within Texas it may be called "Tex-Mex" (as distinct from the regional cuisine by the same name).

In Mexico, the term pochismo is also often applied to Spanglish words or expressions.

The term Spanglish was reportedly coined by Puerto Rican linguist Salvador Tió in the late 1940s. Tió also coined the term inglañol, a converse phenomenon in which English is affected by Spanish; the latter term did not become as popular as the former.

Spanglish has also been used for many years in the vernacular to denote a more jocular "mix-up" of Spanish and English where the speaker makes an English word "sound Spanish". Examples are not limited to but quite often are slightly on the jokingly (good natured) demeaning side: "Oh, here comes El Tubbo" (for an overweight person, and not always but generally would be someone the speaker knew and who would not be offended), expressing action or excitement "I want some snackolas!!", "Let's party-ola!" or "Here's the pizza-mundo", and innocuous such as "Take los kitties to the vet, okay?" The examples often do not gender match with the Spanish language but this is not considered an "error" or offensive. E.g. "No problem-o" (should be "problema").

There is another dialect, known as Llanito, that arose in British-controlled Gibraltar and is not a part of the "Spanglish" phenomenon.

Linguistic critique of the term "Spanglish"

The word Spanglish is a popular name for these phenomena, but not a technical one. Linguists refer to the various phenomena involved in Spanglish by a variety of terms: code mixing, code switching, loanwords, language contact, and more generally, bilingualism. Linguists do not find the term Spanglish to be useful in discussing these phenomena, because it groups together linguistic phenonema that do not necessarily belong together. Linguistically speaking, many things that get commonly labeled as "Spanglish" are very different from each other. The novel "Yo-Yo Boing!" by Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi is an example of a fully bilingual literary experience that incorporates code-switching, bilingualism and Spanish.

For example, the speech of a fully bilingual Spanish/English speaker in the USA, who switches between Spanish and English phrases spontaneously in the middle of a sentence, is linguistically something very different from the speech of a Spanish monolingual in Puerto Rico whose native vocabulary has many words and expressions that come from English.

Examples of Spanglish

Spanish and English have interpenetrated in any number of ways. For example, a bilingual fluent speaker speaking to another bilingual speaker may indulge in code switching and utter a sentence such as: "I'm sorry I cannot attend next week's meeting porque tengo una obligación de negocios en Boston, pero espero que I'll be back for the meeting the week after." (Spanish translates as "…because I have a business obligation in Boston, but I hope that…") Often, Spanglish phrases will use shorter words from both languages as in, "yo me voy a get up" (as opposed to "yo me voy a levantar" or "I'm just about to get up."). A rather common code switch in Puerto Rican Spanglish is the use of the English word "so" (as in "therefore"): "Tengo clase, so me voy" ("I have (a) class, therefore, I'm leaving"). More common than that are word borrowings from English into Spanish, using false cognates with their English sense, or calquing idiomatic English expressions. Some examples:

1. The word carpeta exists in the Spanish language, meaning "folder". In some Spanglish its meaning has changed from "folder" to "carpet" (which was replaced by a heavily Hispanicized pronunciation of "folder").
2. The word rentar meaning to rent, is used in Spanglish and also in Mexico and some parts of Central America as well. Alquilar would be the proper Spanish way of saying, to rent.
3. The word clutch (pronounced: clawch) is used in Spanglish and indeed in most of Mexico and in other parts of Latin America. The proper word in Spanish for the clutch of an automobile is embrague.
4. In Spanglish yonque is used for junkyard not the correct Spanish term desguace.
5. Trailer is used to describe a lorry (U.K.) or semi-trailer truck (U.S.). Trailer is used to describe the whole vehicle not just the trailer like in English. The correct term in Spanish for a lorry or semi-truck is camion and the trailer in Spanish is known as a remolque. Therefore truck or lorry drivers are known in Spanglish as traileros but the correct Spanish term is camioneros. These Spanglish terms are also frequently used in Mexico as well as by Spanglish speakers in the United States.
6. In Spanglish the word boiler is used for a water heater or boiler. In spanish the correct word for a boiler is caldera.
7. In the same way, in Spanish the verb "atender" means to arrange (in the sense of an unmade bed) or to service (in a restaurant, for example); however, many second-generation Spanish speakers in the Anglosphere use the verb as "to attend," instead of "asistir".
8. Similarly, the verb asistir is used to mean "to assist" rather than its correct meaning, "to attend".
9. Rin is used to refer to the rim of a wheel (i.e. an automobile wheel) in Spanglish and also in some Latin American countries. The correct Spanish word is llanta. But many Spanglish speakers incorrectly refer to the tyre (tire U.S.) as the llanta. In properly spoken Spanish the entire wheel itself is rueda, the tyre is neumatico, and the rim is llanta. Spanglish speakers refer to the entire wheel as llanta, the tyre also as llanta, and the rim as rin.
10. Chequear comes from the English verb "to check" and replaces the Spanish verbs "verificar" or "comprobar". Chequear is now an accepted Spanish word. It should be mentioned that this word, while retaining its meaning, has been reworked, in some areas, as checar.
11. Closet is used to refer to a closet for putting away clothes instead of the word ropero (ropa=clothes).
12. In Spanish aplicación means "application" in the sense of usage; the word has been used for a job or a school application, where instead the word solicitud ("request") would be used in standard Spanish. By extension, the verb aplicar has also been used in this way. The Spanish word aplicación and English "application" are false friends. Importing the meaning of a false friend is another form of Spanglish. Suceso ("event") has been used to mean "success", leading to expressions such as "fue todo un suceso", meaning that something succeeded thoroughly. However, Spanish is a very rich language and "suceso" also means "happening", so the phrase "fue todo un suceso" can be also translated as "it was a great happening" not necessarily related to a successful situation. The English word for éxito is "success" (which is itself often confused with "exit", which translates to salida).
13. Accesar is derived from "access" and is used (mostly in relation to computer systems) instead of acceder, which is the accepted form. This redundant anglicism is often denounced.
14. Lonchera is used in Spanglish for lunch box instead of the correct Spanish word fiambrera.
15. "Push" and empujar are true cognates. In Spanglish, "puchar" is sometimes used to the same effect.
16. The expression llamar para atrás is calqued literally from English "call back"; compare standard Spanish devolver la llamada ("return the call"). This is an example of calquing an idiomatic English phrase into Spanish and somewhat common in people from Puerto Rico.
17. Van (la Van) is used in Spanglish which is exactly the same as the American English word for the vehicle Van, instead of the correct Spanish term la Furgoneta.
18. The English word "footing" (as in hacer footing) is used to mean "jogging" in Spain.
19. Bye Bye (pronounced bu bye) or just bye is used in Spanglish and in fact in almost all of Mexico, as opposed to the Spanish word adios (lit. go to God or go with God).
20. The verbs bulear, janguear, parisear and vacunar come from the English verbs to bully, "to hang out", "to party" and "to vacuum", respectively. However, vacunar is also Spanish for vaccinate.
21. The verbs platicar and charlar mean "to chat", to make small-talk. However, to have an on-line conversation by means of IRC is chatear.

Some other examples of borrowings include emailiar (to email),nerdio (nerd), and laptopa (laptop computer) [1]. Additional Spanglish words can be found at http://www.courtinterpreter.net/node/29

Calques from Spanish to English also occur. The following examples are from northern New Mexico:

1. Many verbs are given indirect objects that do not have them in standard English. A notable example is "put": "She puts him breakfast on the couch!" or "Put it the juice" (turn on the power). This corresponds to the use of Spanish poner and meter with the indirect object pronoun le(s), indicating the action was done on another person's behalf.
2. One can "get down" from a car instead of "getting out" of it. This translates in Spanish to bajarse, to descend, to dismount, to get out of a vehicle.
3. In Mexico and the southwestern U.S., people who speak Spanglish are called pochos (rotten). "Broken" Spanish, heavily influenced by English, is called mocho, which literally means "mutilated" or "amputated". It is to note that many people in America and Spanish speaking countries say the verb fiestar, meaning to party, which corresponds with fiesta, which is a party. "Festejarse" is a real Spanish verb, but it means "to have fun", rather than "to party", although it is occasionally used to mean "to party," opting to use "divertirse" to mean "to have fun." Another famously used but unknow as spanglish phrase is

"HASTA LA BYE BYE" Hasta la vista means goodbye except the VISTA part is taken out and used as the english term for goodbye

The following is a code switching dialogue from the Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing! by Giannina Braschi:

Abrela tú.

¿Por qué yo? Tú tienes las keys. Yo te las entregué a ti. Además, I left mine adentro.

¿Por qué las dejaste adentro?

Porque I knew you had yours.

¿Por qué dependes de mí?

Just open it, and make it fast.

See also

• Caló (Chicano) a Mexican-American argot, similar to Spanglish.
• Chicano English
• Chinglish
• Czenglish
• Denglisch
• Dog Latin
• Engrish
• Franglais
• Globish
• Goleta English
• Greeklish
• Hinglish
• Inglés de escalerilla (Spanish Mediterranean coast)
• Konglish
• Languages in the United States
• Llanito (Gibraltar)
• Namlish
• Poglish
• Singlish
• Taglish
• Germán Valdés A Mexican comedian known as Tin Tan who made heavy use of Spanglish. He also dressed as a pachuco.
• Chicano performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña also makes heavy use of Spanglish.
• Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi wrote the Spanglish novel "Yo-Yo Boing!" (1998).
• Mexican rock band Molotov, whose members use Spanglish in their lyrics.
• American progressive rock band The Mars Volta, whose song lyrics frequently switch back and forth between English and Spanish.
• The Joys of Spanglish by Marc Alan Coen

External links

• Ilán Stavans Don Quixote de La Mancha, First Parte, Chapter Uno (Spanglish translation)
• Real Academia Española
• El Dictionario de Spanglish de Nestor Gonzalez
• Computer Spanglish, including terms like "hacer un backup" and "loopear".
• iSpeakSpanglish.com, creative and funny Spanglish gifts including apparel, stickers and more.
• [2], play in three scenes by Carlos von Son.
• "The Joys of Spanglish" por Marc Alan Coen

References

• Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language, Ilán Stavans, ISBN 0-06-008776-5
• The Dictionary of Chicano Spanish/El Diccionario del Español Chicano: The Most Practical Guide to Chicano Spanish. Roberto A. Galván. 1995. ISBN 0-8442-7967-6.
• Anglicismos hispánicos. Emilio lorenzo. 1996. Editorial Gredos, ISBN 84-249-1809-6.