Spanglish: An Anglicized Spanish Dialect

Abstract

The blend between Spanish and English found in Hispanic or Latino communities in the United States is usually known as “Spanglish.” It is suggested that Spanglish represents the most important contemporary linguistic phenomenon in the United States that has barely been approached from a linguistic point of view. Spanglish may be interpreted in different ways: as a pidgin, a Creole language, an interlanguage, or an anglicized Spanish dialect. Regardless that Spanglish is spoken by millions of people, significant variations within the language are observed. To account for its development, two types of phenomena are proposed: superficial, including borrowing and code-switching; and deep, including lexical-semantic, grammatical, and the “equalization to English” phenomenon. An analysis of both superficial and deep Spanglish phenomena is presented. It is suggested that the future of Spanglish depends on two factors: (a) number of Spanishspeaking immigrants to the United States, and (b) U.S. policies concerning bilingualism.

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