University:
Boston University
Course:
CAS LX 110 | Say What? Accents, Dialects, and Society
Academic year:

2024
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294

Pages:

16
Author:

karencillaki50

Any other justification for the term Spanglish? • Popular Spanish in the U.S. shows local syntactic features. • But local syntax is like local vocabulary. • Other popular varieties of Spanish also differ from one another in terms of syntax. Local syntax: Dative gender Datives have no feminine in standard Spanish but do have gender in local popular Spanish in Spain. • Local popular Spanish in Spain La dije que viniera ‘I told her to come’ • Standard Spanish and popular Latin American Spanish: Le dije que viniera ‘I told her to come’ Local syntax: Inversion in wh-questions Wh-questions have overt pronouns and unmarked order in local popular Caribbean, but not elsewhere: • Local popular Caribbean: ¿Qué tú buscas? ‘What are you looking for?’ • Elsewhere: ¿Qué buscas tú? or ¿Qué buscas? Generalization about local popular syntax • Local areas of Spain and Latin America have many syntactic peculiarities in addition to lexical ones. • This means that they indeed show not only different usages, but different grammars. • Despite the differences in grammar, no one has thought of giving each a different name. • Why do we need a different name for local popular Spanish in the U.S.? A second-generation informant Después de trabajar en la conferencia y ayudando con la gente y las recepciones, y presentándome para ayudar a las personas que están allí ... encontré con mucha gente que conozco ahora … muchos amigos … you know I met a lot of new people. Despues íbamos a salir … vamos a los discos a beber … (401P) Pero que ahí también conocí mucha gente y salí con un muchacho ahí que se enamoró conmigo pero que … bueno … yo no estaba enamorada con él [Risa] pero que todavía él me llama también. Todavía me llama a ver cómo estoy, y le digo, de lo más bien y como tú estás, y bien, y quiere ir para Nueva York a visitarme, y le dije bueno, yo no sé, porque yo voy para [Risa] California … pero que allá los discos allá, ay tan tan chévere, que están allá. Que la gente tienen … they’re so free. They’re having a good time. (401P) Local syntactic features Non-simultaneous gerund, despúes de ayudando en la conferencia cf. ayudar elsewhere Local categorization frames, enamorarse conmigo, cf. enamorarse de mí elsewhere Elements of English syntax • Usages like ayudando, enamorarse conmigo do show elements of English syntax • These are a very small proportion of the speaker’s output. Spanish syntax contra English Null subjects que conozco ahora, íbamos a salir, vamos a salir Preposed objects todavía me llama, le digo In-situ pronouns with wh-questions ¿Cómo tú estás? But the term is an affirmation of pride and identity! • But this confuses ethnicity with language • A U.S. Latino identity, distinct from a Latin American or Iberian identity, can be healthy and productive. • But a separate, U.S. Latino mixed language does not exist, and it is a mistake to try to make one up. Ilan Stavans, The making of a new American language • According to the introduction, Spanglish does not refer to anything linguistic. • The word Spanglish, and the topic of the book, have to do with ‘the encounter between two cultures.’ • A large proportion of words in the dictionary are simple Spanish words. A sample of words in Stavans' Spanglish dictionary aficionado, adió, ándale, apartamento, archivo, arroyo, arroz, bochinche, boicotear, cuarta, corona, chico, feria, guerrilla, gringo, • None of these words is unique to Latinos in the U.S. • Most of them are found in all the standard Spanish dictionaries. The name of the language and the educational enterprise • Extending Spanish fluency and literacy in U.S. Latinos is a worthwhile goal. • For that goal, the term Spanglish is counterproductive. • So the term is both objectively inaccurate and educationally pernicious. How to conceive of a minority language There is an important difference between: • 'I don't speak Spanish, I speak Spanglish' • 'I speak Spanish at home and in the neighborhood. I need to learn more formal and academic registers.’ Connection between Spanish ability and social and psychological indices connection among second generation Americans between mastery of their parents' language and: • • • • • • • high educational aspirations high occupational aspirations high self-esteem low incidence of depression positive view of parents good relations with parents Cf. Portes & Rumbaut 2001, Legacies, pp. 131-134 The term Spanglish • Incorrectly makes Spanish in the U.S. appear unique, when it in fact shares many features with local dialects of Spanish everywhere. • As Spanish dialects everywhere, Spanish in the U.S. has peculiar words and peculiar constructions. • As is usual, many of the peculiar words are loans from the neighboring language. • So the term appears wholly unjustified on technical linguistic grounds, and it is counterproductive on social grounds.

On So-called Spanglish Lecture 3