132

Today, it’s all about Spanglish, the ‘language’ posing a threat to Anglocentrism in the United States (english.elpais.com)

submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The mix of Spanish and English is the world’s fastest growing linguistic hybrid. Experts calculate that it is spoken by 50 million people

In a single sentence, Rolando Hernández moves smoothly between English and Spanish. His narration is uninterrupted through shifts from one tongue to the other. He’s not doing it to translate what he’s saying; he simply takes for granted that the person listening to him will understand. The 26-year-old Cuban American is trilingual: he doesn’t just speak English and Spanish, but also Spanglish, a hybrid speech variety that was born out of the mix of Anglo and Hispanic cultures. In his Miami neighborhood of Hialeah, where three-quarters of residents are of Cuban descent and 95% of the population is Hispanic, Spanglish (in Spanish, espanglish) rules: “It’s everywhere, from the closest McDonald’s drive-through to the galleries in Wynwood,” says Hernández.

Though it is hard to know the exact number of people who speak Spanglish, it’s estimated that there are 35 to 40 million people in the United States who, like Hernández, communicate with it, more than half of the 62 million Latinos who live in the country. It’s a number that will only grow as the Latino community expands over the coming years: by 2060, it is predicted that one in every four U.S. residents will have Latino heritage. “It is the fastest-growing hybrid language in the world,” says Ilan Stavans, professor of Latinx and Latin American studies at Massachusetts’s Amherst College.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

but the grammar has been hugely simplified over the past 1000 years.

And it still sucks...

Just look at the rules on how to pluralize something, or verb tenses.

Other languages have a few exceptions from loaner words, English is mostly exceptions because it's mostly made up not only if loaner words, but loaner words from such different languages.

We threw shit randomly for thousands of years with no rhyme or reason because it was a language solely for commoners. The British monarchy didn't even speak it for centuries...

Nobody cared what English as a language was doing.

[-] BakerBagel@midwest.social 13 points 2 years ago

English has way simpler verb tenses than other languages, and minimal verb conjugation. The lack of rules can be annoying, but it also makes it easier to use with minimal grasp of the language since it relys on context and general vibes so much.

Nobility and upper classes used French to communicate until 200 years ago, and that language is an absolute bear to try and grasp. The spellings are zany, conjugations and tenses are all over the place, and there is an unspoken tonal aspect that makes Parisians turn their nose up at people who even jave a solid grasp of the language.

The only perfect language is one that never gets used.

[-] Zahille7@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Spanish is pretty easy, but I still get confused on the gendered versions of words sometimes.

this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024

132 points (90.7% liked)

News

39180 readers

1664 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.

Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.

7. No duplicate posts.

If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.

All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world