Spanglish (a blend of the words "Spanish" and "English") is any language variety (such as a contact dialect, hybrid language, pidgin, or creole language) that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is mostly used in the United States and in Puerto Rico. It refers to a blend of the words and grammar of Spanish and English. More narrowly, Spanglish can specifically mean a variety of Spanish with heavy use of English loanwords.
Since Spanglish may arise independently in different regions with varying degrees of bilingualism, it reflects the locally spoken varieties of English and Spanish. Different forms of Spanglish are not necessarily mutually intelligible.
The term Spanglish was first recorded in 1933. It corresponds to the Spanish terms Espanglish (from Español + English, introduced by the Puerto Rican poet Salvador Tió in the late 1940s), Ingléspañol (from Inglés + Español), and Inglañol (Inglés + Español).
Definitions There is no single, universal definition of Spanglish. The term Spanglish has been used in reference to the following phenomena, all of which are distinct from each other:
The use of integrated English loanwords in Spanish Nonassimilated Anglicisms (i.e., with English phonetics) in Spanish Calques and loan translations from English Code-switching, particularly intra-sentential switches (i.e., within the same clause) Grammar mistakes in Spanish found among transitional bilingual speakers Second-language Spanish, including poor translations The appearance of English words in Spanish monolingual speakers Mock Spanish
History and distribution In the late 1940s, the Puerto Rican journalist, poet, and essayist Salvador Tió coined the terms Espanglish for Spanish spoken with some English terms, and the less commonly used Inglañol for English spoken with some Spanish terms.
After Puerto Rico became a United States territory in 1898, Spanglish became progressively more common there as the United States Army and the early colonial administration tried to impose the English language on island residents, as well as the adjustment of language upon the move of Newyorricans (New York Puerto Ricans) back to the island. Between 1902 and 1948, the main language of instruction in public schools (used for all subjects except for Spanish class) was English. Currently, Puerto Rico is nearly unique in having both English and Spanish as its official languages (see also New Mexico).
Consequently, many American English words are now found in the Puerto Rican Spanish vocabulary. Spanglish may also be known by different regional names. Spanglish does not have one unified dialect—specifically, the varieties of Spanglish spoken in New York, Florida, Texas, and California differ. Monolingual speakers of standard Spanish may have difficulty in understanding it. It is common in Panama, where the 96-year (1903–1999) U.S. control of the Panama Canal influenced much of local society, especially among the former residents of the Panama Canal Zone, the Zonians.
Many Puerto Ricans living on the island of St. Croix speak in informal situations a unique Spanglish-like combination of Puerto Rican Spanish and the local Crucian dialect of Virgin Islands Creole English, which is very different from the Spanglish spoken elsewhere. A similar situation exists in the large Puerto Rican-descended populations of New York City and Boston.
Spanglish is spoken commonly in the modern United States. According to the Pew Research Center, the population of Hispanics grew from 35.3 million to 62.1 million between 2000 and 2020. Hispanics have become the largest minority ethnic group in the US. More than 60% are of Mexican descent. Mexican Americans form one of the fastest-growing groups, increasing from 20.9 million to 37.2 million between 2000 and 2021. Around 58% of this community chose California, especially Southern California, as their new home. Spanglish is widely used throughout the heavily Mexican-American and other Hispanic communities of Southern California. The use of Spanglish has become important to Hispanic communities throughout the United States in areas such as Miami, New York City, Texas, and California. In Miami, the Afro-Cuban community makes use of a Spanglish familiarly known as "Cubonics," a portmanteau of the words Cuban and Ebonics, a slang term for African American Vernacular English that is itself a portmanteau of Ebony and phonics."
Many Mexican-Americans (Chicanos), immigrants and bilinguals express themselves in various forms of Spanglish. For many, Spanglish serves as a basis for self-identity, but others believe that it should not exist. Use of Spanglish can be an important feature of personal and communal identity; it can also be negatively perceived by speakers of Spanish.
The expanding of Spanglish within the Mexican American experience in the United States is linked to demographic changes, media expansion and different cultural identities. Following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 there was a rise of migration into the United States from Mexico. This migration allowed for bilingual communities to settle and develop their language ties that evolved greatly over the next century. This mixing became more prevalent and American society was shaped by Spanglish through this influx of mixed language.
According to the U.S Census Bureau, in 2013 close to 40% of the Hispanic/Latinx population in the United States was under the age of 21, this population reflects a young and bilingual group of Hispanics. This large population of individuals under the age of 21 contributed to the rapid formalization of Spanglish especially for the Mexican American Community of youth under 21.
With the Expansion of Spanish-language media, networks such as Univision, Telemundo, and Galavision, this allowed for more families to unite and share their bilingual nuances with other cultures/groups. As Hispanic populations migrated to different parts of the United States there was always one constant. The media was able to keep bilingual content alive and it solidified Spanglish as an important language contribution to the United States.
Other places where similar mixed codes are spoken are Gibraltar (Llanito), Belize (Kitchen Spanish), Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (along with Dutch and Papiamento).
In Australasia, forms of Spanglish are used among Spanish-speaking migrants and diasporic communities. In particular, Hispanophone Australians frequently use loanwords/phrases from Australian English, in conversations that are otherwise in Spanish; examples include "el rubbish bin", "la vacuum cleaner", "el mobile", "el toilet", "vivo en un flat pequeño", "voy a correr con mis runners", and "la librería de la city es grande". Similar phenomena occur amongst native Spanish speakers in New Zealand.
Usage
Spanglish patterns Spanglish is informal, although speakers can consistently judge the grammaticality of a phrase or sentence. From a linguistic point of view, Spanglish often is mistakenly labeled many things. Spanglish is not a creole or dialect of Spanish because, though people claim they are native Spanglish speakers, Spanglish itself is not a language on its own, but speakers speak English or Spanish with a heavy influence from the other language. The definition of Spanglish has been unclearly explained by scholars and linguists, contributing to misconceptions. Spanglish is the fluid exchange of language between English and Spanish, present in the heavy influence in the words and phrases used by the speaker. Spanglish is currently considered a hybrid language practice by linguists. Some linguists refer to Spanglish as "Spanish-English code-switching", though there is some influence of borrowing, and lexical and grammatical shifts as well.Individuals "communicate their thoughts and ideas using a combination of Spanish and English, often referring to this hybrid language practice as Spanglish".
In modern times, research has progressed from viewing Spanglish as a altogether different, less educated, form of code-switching to recognizing that it is indeed the same code-switching phenemona that occurs between bilinguals worldwide. Though code-switching can be considered a controversial issue in the discussion of Spanglish phenomena, the daily use of code-switching is highly likely for bilingual speakers.
The inception of Spanglish is due to the influx of native Spanish speaking Latin American people into North America, specifically the United States of America. As well as the interaction between Spanish and English in US colonies, like Puerto Rico. As mentioned previously, the phenomenon of Spanglish can be separated into two different categories: code-switching, and borrowing, lexical and grammatical shifts. Code-switching has sparked controversy because it is seen "as a corruption of Spanish and English, a 'linguistic pollution' or 'the language of a "raced", underclass people'".Bonnie Urciuoli, Exposing Prejudice: Puerto Rican Experiences of Language, Race, and Class (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996), p. 38, cited by Arlene Dávila, Latinos Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), p. 168, and quoted in turn by Viviana Rojas and Juan Piñón, "Spanish, English or Spanglish? Media Strategies and Corporate Struggles to Reach the Second and Later Generations of Latinos." International Journal of Hispanic Media. N.p., Aug. 2014. Web. October 4, 2015. For example, a fluent bilingual speaker addressing another bilingual speaker might engage in code-switching with the sentence, "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"—which means, "I'm sorry I cannot attend next week's meeting because I have a business obligation in Boston, but I hope to be back for the meeting the week after". However, many studies have shown that it actually takes a high level of proficiency in both languages to code-switch, so these utterances are not a corruption, but a strategic use of the high proficiency a speaker has to communicate fluidly in conversation.
Calques Calques are translations of entire words or phrases from one language into another. Seen as the literal translation of English words to Spanish with the addition of a local Spanish accent. They represent the simplest forms of Spanglish, as they undergo no lexical or grammatical structural change. The use of calques is common throughout most languages, evident in the calques of Arabic exclamations used in Spanish.
Examples: "to call back" → (llamar pa' atrás, llamar para atrás) (, ) "It's up to you." → (Está pa' arriba de ti, Está para arriba de ti) ( (You decide)) "to be up to ..." → (estar pa' arriba de ..., estar para arriba de ...) (depender de ... or X decida (X decides)) "to run for governor" → ()
A well-known calque is or in expressions such as 'to call back'. Here, reflects the particle back in various English phrasal verbs. Expressions with are found in every stable English-Spanish contact situation: the United States, including among the isolated Isleño and Sabine River communities, Gibraltar, and sporadically in Trinidad and along the Caribbean coast of Central America where the local English varieties are heavily creolized. Meanwhile, they're unattested in non-contact varieties of Spanish. expressions are unique as a calque of an English verbal particle, since other phrasal verbs and particles are almost never calqued into Spanish. Because of this, and because they're consistent with existing Spanish grammar, argues they are likely a result of a conceptual, not linguistic loan. That is, the notion of "backness" has been expanded in these contact varieties.
Semantic extensions