Spanglish Origin and Continued Use

     Spanish and English have been used together in both conversation and literature since colonial times. The result of this language mingle is the creation of "Spanglish",  a curious dialect which consists of both Spanish and English used in the same sentence. While Spanglish does not combine Spanish and English words to form new ones, the dialect is primarily powered by the substitution of words. Rather than a dialect, therefore, it is also recognizable as an interlanguage.

     Words are interchangeable in Spanglish. The substitution plays a role when a Spanish speaker prefers to use a word in Spanish rather than its English counterpart, or vice versa. Florida and Texas were once Spanish-speaking colonies (owned by Spain and Mexico respectively) before they were acquired by the United States, an English-speaking country. Once English was introduced to these territories, the duel language was born from the migration of Spanish speakers into the growing United States. 

     Whether or not a person uses Spanish words more than English ones depends on how comfortable they are speaking both languages. However, Spanglish usually involves taking a base, familiar language and inserting a foreign word into a sentence spoken in the more familiar language. This process is known as code-switching. 

     Writer Junot Díaz, a Dominican-American writer for the New Yorker, has published short stories that demonstrate the continued use of Spanglish. One of his most notable short stories is called "This Is How You Lose Her", a breakdown of what happened to Díaz before and after he cheated on his girlfriend. He demonstrates his skill of blending English and Spanish grammar into sentences that craft a compelling story anyone can relate to. 

      "Her father, who used to treat me like his hijo, calls me an asshole on the phone,..." is a line in the story that shows how Spanish words can easily replace the most common ones in English. "Hijo" is given enough context clues for a reader to define it as a familial term: "son", in this case. One part of the text labels the protagonist a "sucio", which is slang on the word "dirty" but meant to indirectly translate as "a bit of dirt". This translation is a bit harder to decipher into English, but the word is given more meaning when the protagonist calls himself an "asshole" in order to provide context that "sucio" is being used an insult. 

Photo from Sideplayer

     The above conversation is an observation of how word choice effects the sentence. Díaz uses less Spanish while communicating his story, while Anita and Mark demonstrate more comfortability in describing a parking scenario in Spanish. This links back to the idea of who prefers to write in one language more than the other.

     While some Spanish speakers mix the two languages for the sake of communication, they also do so out of preserving identity. Mexican individuals who wanted to ensure the survival of their language discovered a way to live in the United States through a loophole in the Immigration Reform and Control Act. The result was a halfway assimilation into US society via a new dialect that was a mix of their language and the one requested of them to be learned by the US government. 

Lumbee English

Lumbee English as an Equal Alternative

The Lumbee tribe, a Native American group located in North Carolina, is unique in terms of dialectology. It is generally believed that the Lumbee have been speaking English for centuries now. At some point the Lumbee lost their language and adopted their own unique brand of English. It seems as though the Lumbee were forced to adapt to colonization. In doing so they lost touch with their original language and, as a result, other Native American groups along with the federal government tend to devalue the credibility of the Lumbee as an indigenous tribe.

http://slideplayer.com/slide/1641706/

The above image is a screenshot of a slide from a presentation concerning Lumbee English. It effectively summarizes the chronic misunderstandings that the Lumbee population deals with daily. The ridicule bestowed upon the Lumbee people seems to stem from the uniqueness of their dialect. Lumbee English is divergent from mainstream U.S. English in terms of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.  For example, a member of the Lumbee tribe might say, "It bes really crowded." So, "be(s)" is often utilized in Lumbee English as a term similar to standard English's "is." Similarly, the use of "I'm" is altogether different in Lumbee English. One who uses the Lumbee English dialect might say, "I'm told you all that I know." This is recognizable as the Lumbee equivalent to "I've told you all that I know." In terms of pronunciation, the Lumbee dialect sounds somewhat like a cross between African American English and Southern U.S. English. However, there are a few distinct features of Lumbee English pronunciation that separate it from other local dialects. A "high" tide might be called a "hoi" tide according to Lumbee English. Such pronunciation harkens back to the influence of the British, the Highland Scots, and the Scots-Irish upon the Lumbee dialect. Also, the Lumbee people employ certain terms that are not widely known by those who speak standard American English. The term "júvimber," for example, refers to a sling shot. Similarly, the term "mommuck" is a verb that refers to messing something up. "Weren't" is also commonly used within the Lumbee community. A Lumbee person might say, "It weren't me." So, "weren't" seems to be interchangeable with "wasn't." 

These differences, although relatively slight, have alienated the Lumbee people as a tribe without a true identity. The Lumbee do not have their own unique indigenous language. Furthermore, their use of English is generally considered improper by those who promote mainstream U.S. English. This catch-22 situation makes the Lumbee population an altogether unique group. They are, of course, an authentic culture, and those who would deny the Lumbee of their indigenous history are simply unreasonable.