Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Kateřina Součková
SPANGLISH
Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: PhDr. Kateřina Tomková
2008
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
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Author’s signature
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Kateřina Tomková for her valuable advice, help and patience.
I would also like to thank all the people who were so kind and translated a few sentences into English for my research.
“Slang is a poetry of life.”
S.I.Hayakawa, 1941
“Spanglish is not only a lexicon but a state of mind that knows no boundaries, a kind of Yiddish rephrased by Cesar Chavez1, with echoes deep into the past and ramifications everywhere in our centerless future.”
Ilan Stavans, 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS
S.I.Hayakawa, 1941 4
1. Introduction 6
2. Definition and the real meaning of Spanglish 9
2.1. Geography and history of Spanglish 11
2.1.1. Geography 11
2.1.2. History 12
2.2. Forms of Spanglish 20
2.3. Linguistic approach to Spanglish 21
2.3.1. Code switching 22
2.3.2. Code mixing 24
2.3.3. Word formation 24
2.3.4. Vocabulary - the most important words and phrases 26
3. Spanglish – slang, dialect or a future language? 27
3.1. Linguists and their opinion on Spanglish 28
3.2. Spanish people and Spanglish 29
4. Spanglish versus Czenglish 32
4.1. Grammatical mistakes 33
4.2. Problems with pronunciation 44
5. Conclusion 44
6. Bibliography 47
1.Introduction
The United States of America was formed (and still is) thanks to unceasing immigration. The most numerous group of immigrants in the U.S.A is the one of Latino-immigrants. Since there are so many Spanish-speaking people, their influence on the American culture is undeniable. “The new immigrants from Latin America never quite lose touch with their homelands; in fact, they are often actively engaged in transferring wealth to the families they have left behind.” is a statement of Ed Morales, a descendant of Latino-immigrants (Morales 2002: 20). However, if they want to live in the U.S.A., they are forced to assimilate (to use English, to obey American law etc.) This is the way how and the place where Spanglish comes into being.
The first time I came cross the term “Spanglish” was when I was on a language course in Spain, about two years ago. There was a very short article in our course books about this new ‘conceived’ phenomenon forming in the south of the United States. As I study both English and Spanish, it was very interesting finding this term exists and that the popularity of the usage of Spanglish is rising rapidly.
I had an opportunity to debate with a Texan and she mentioned there was a special kind of slang in Texas called Tex-Mex. She said it was widely used on radio stations and on some TV-channels as well. A lot of people use it in everyday life – those who know both English and Spanish (she said they are mainly bilingual people who use it, which is the majority of the population in south Texas). She described this Tex-Mex as a “weird mixture of English and Spanish” with many terms combining words of both languages into one. She talked about Spanglish, which (in Texas) region is called Tex-Mex.
The following summer I again spent in Spain and discussed Spanglish quite a lot, as the knowledge of this term had been spreading extremely fast all over the world and Spain was not an exception. However, the reaction of the Spanish people was mainly negative – they felt Spanglish had been “devastating” their language and they did not consider it to have any value (nor in the present nor in the future).
When thinking of a topic for my Bachelor’s Thesis, I was looking for a theme in which I could combine my knowledge of both English and Spanish. “Spanglish” turned out to be the best choice. Nevertheless, there were many problems to be solved before I started writing. The major one was the lack of suitable materials for the topic. Fortunately, the sources I came across contain quite a lot of important information I could use in my research. On the other hand, it gave me space for my own research.
I decided to conceive this thesis as a kind of a “Spanglish guide” for English speaking people who are interested in Spanish language, have no idea what Spanglish is and are interested in the development of languages in the current time. This kind of “guide” should help the reader understand not only the term itself, but also the social conditions which led to its creation; the language atmosphere in the south of the United States as well as it should provide basic grammar and vocabulary to understand the speech itself. That is why I included a chapter based on history of the areas were Spanish and English languages encounter in the United States, a chapter which includes opinions of both English- and Spanish-speaking people on this new phenomenon and a small vocabulary of the most important Spanglish terms and phrases.
Still, as a Czech, I felt there should be something included in my thesis what would relate my topic to the Czech people and the Czech language. Moreover, for this particular reason I included a chapter I have called “Spanglish versus Czenglish” as I wanted to find out whether there is something Spanish-English and Czech-English have in common and whether we make the same mistakes as Spanish people do when using English.