The introduction of one language’s lexicon into that of another’s is nothing new. Spanglish is an extreme example, a hybridization. It is the confluence of Spanish and English. It has never been foreign to me. I couldn’t name it until well into high school, even though I had heard it most of life. You see, I was my mother’s main English tutor—as a child. Imagine a 5 year old attempting to school his 20-something mother in a foreign lengua he only recently learned. It’s a situation ripe for comedic errors. And it was. (I got away with a lot of cuss words.) It was also beautiful, a linguistic playground where one, like myself, who is fluent in both languages can engage in stretching language through code switching learning more about either tongue.
I didn’t always feel this way. My mother’s propensity for saying things like espaghetti or sangwich once disgusted me. If I had learned Inglés proprio, why hadn’t she? Age slows things down, I didn’t know. And with age, I learned the value of word play, the use of vernacular in writing.
You mean I can write in Spanglish? I asked myself after picking up
an anthology of poetry from the Nuyorican Poets Café.
Coño, that’s rad! The thing was I already knew you could sing in it (eg, the Pixies). I just didn’t make the connection.
I rarely speak Spanglish these days. And when I do, it can barely be classified as such. I speak the Puerto Rican dialect with my family. In some cases I supplement an English word when the Spanish word fails me. Other English words are commonly used in the Puerto Rican dialect. Hot dog. Brown. Other words are variations, misspellings, grammatical errors of Spanish words. Populacíon (poblacíon/population). Hamburguesa (hamburger). Supermercado (supermarket). Bloque (manzana/[street] block). Others are definitely dialect. Puerto Ricans have a propensity to drop “s” and “g” from words in Spanish. Esta (estas/state of being). Sabe (sabes/know). Whether that’s Spanglish is debatable. But not according to Ilan Stavans, the Mexican professor who is the foremost scholar on Spanglish. He states in his book
Spanglish that these transformed signs are part of “a new American language,” a language that’s been in the making since conquistadores laid claims to the New World. He includes avocado in his mini-dictionary in the book’s middle section.
(a-voo-KA-do), exp., assimilationist. Used as the equivalent of an Uncle Tom. From the orig. a pear-shaped fruit, which comes from Nahualt ahuacatl. The term dates from 1697. Also ABOCADO.
Arroyo
Loco
These are also included. However he makes the distinction that, while these words are Spanish in origin, their common usage in English merit inclusion in a Spanglish lexicon. Akin to Yiddish, he notes. Mishmash, a Yiddish term, is also commonly used in English and can define Spanglish as well, removing it from comparisons to Ebonics.
I'd describe it more as cultural irrigation than cultural imperialism. The US is a laboratory of languages which are fertilizing themselves," says Ilan, who admits he speaks Spanglish with his children. He also points out that both Borges and Julio Cortazar were blamed for "polluting" the language. [...]
We're at the early stage of the formation of a new language, not unlike the emergence of Yiddish. Masterpieces have been written in Yiddish but, like Spanglish, the intellectuals were initially hostile.
OK. I can buy the Yiddish-Spanglish connection, Stavans, but loco and arroyo? Don’t push it, broder. You're jokiando, right?
He also argues that those protecting Castellano (High Spanish) from "barbaric mutations" need not worry. Spanish will not die. Spanglish is simply another form of communication borne from the
verbal encounter between Anglo and Hispano civilizations. Playful. unique. So what if most of its vocabulary is the by-product of linguistic fuck-ups? Mistakes have a way of becoming the standard. Look at English.
How I wish I had stumbled across Stavans in high school. I would have applied to Amherst in order to study under him.
There’s even
a Spanglish dictionary.
Üepa!
