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Spanglish, a Portmanteau of the words '''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 , which is 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 Southern California , northern New Mexico , Texas , Florida (especially Miami ), and in New York City . 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 " Zonian s"), and in Puerto Rico , which has been a United States territory since 1898 , and in which English was used as the primary language of school instruction to the Spanish-speaking population until the 1940s . A "Spanglish" also arose in the speech of Gibraltar . One of the biggest misconceptions about Spanglish is that it can also refer to the typical errors made by native speakers of one language learning the other. However, linguists have proved otherwise. Spanglish can also exist in areas far from borders, where English phrases caught in movies, television or music become mingled in regular speech. The term ''Spanglish'' was reportedly coined by Puerto Rican linguist Salvador Tió in the late 1940's. 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. LINGUISTIC CRITIQUE OF THE TERM "SPANGLISH" The word ''Spanglish'' is a popular name for these phenomena, but not a technical one. , Code Switching , Loanword s, Language Contact , and more generally, Bilingual ism. Linguists don't find the term ''Spanglish'' to be useful in discussing these phenomena, because it groups together things that don't necessarily belong together. Linguistically speaking, many things that get commonly labeled as "Spanglish" are very different from each other. 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. Despite this, both are commonly labeled as "Spanglish." Other common misconceptions about "Spanglish" are:
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'' (because I have a business obligation in Boston, but I hope that) I'll be back for the meeting the week after." Often, Spanglish phrases will use shorter words from both languages as in, "ya me voy a get up" (as opposed to "ya me voy a levantar" or "I'm just about to get up.") 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: #The word ''carpeta'' exists in the Spanish language, meaning "folder." In some Spanglish it has changed its original meaning from "folder" to carpet. #Another example of word borrowing is ''chequear'' that indeed 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''. #In Spanish ''aplicación'' means "use of" or "appliance" (as in "apply to", not as in hardware); the word has been now used for a job or a school application, where instead the word ''solicitud'' should be used. --The Spanish word ''aplicación'' and English "application" are False Friends . Using false friends in their English sense, like using Spanish ''aplicación'' in the sense of English "application", is another form of Spanglish. #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 very common in people from Puerto Rico. Calque s from Spanish to English also occur. The following examples are from northern New Mexico : #Many verbs are given Indirect Object s that don't 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 pronoun ''le(s)''. #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. #In Mexico and the southwestern U.S., people who speak Spanglish are called ''pochos''. "Broken" Spanish, heavily influenced by English, is called ''mocho'', which literally means "mutilated" or "amputated". A short Spanglish conversation:
Translation to English:
Translation to Spanish:
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