There are two articles that I recently found about billingualism and Spanglish which made me want to be part of the conversation. The first one: Intermingling languages: From conversation to literature by Francois Grosjean and the second one: Why does Spanglish get such a bad rap? by Roxana Soto from Spanglishbaby.com.
I too find the bilingual behavior fascinating and enriching. I speak Spanish. I learned English in school, in Mexico. I didn’t grow up in a bilingual home or in a community where code-switching was common. Actually, I didn’t consider myself “bilingual” until not so long ago, and sometimes it still feels like a very ambitious adjective for me to use, as someone whose adult life is now spent at Wordreference.com. Note the also very ambitious use of the term “adult”.
I tried to find a serious definition of Spanglish without success. The definitions as well as the value judgment vary depending on who you ask. For some people raised in a bicultural atmosphere, it is a normal and expected phenomenon which precisely defines their culture. Among others who may not be part of the bicultural/bilingual experience, it is more likely to be seen as a distortion of the language and even as a lack of skill and vocabulary.
Again, it can mean different things. In my opinion, switching from one phrase in English to another in Spanish is not Spanglish. I mean, if those phrases are constituted by correct grammar and real words, it is either English or Spanish. To me, Spanglish, the one I “look down upon”, if anything, refers to the sudden invention of words, unfortunate use of “false friends” (pairs of words or phrases in two languages that look or sound similar, but differ in meaning) and misguessed cognates.
While funny in most cases, nobody would want their Bachelor’s degree confused with bachillerato (high school) on a certificate or have their gringo husband telling people you are embarazada (pregnant) because you blushed. (The bump might not be helping my case here). By the way, I really am pregnant but not embarrassed about it.
The more time I spend thinking in English the easier it is to incorporate English words into my informal Spanish and vice versa when I know the recipient will clearly understand what I mean. I definitely get the recurrent argument that some concepts are better expressed in a certain language. Our inner speech is developed from external speech; the more resources we have to express our mental concepts and cognitive awareness the more efficiently we will be able to voice our thoughts. Put in the famous words of Wittgenstein: “the limits of my language are the limits of my world”.
On the other hand, as a translator, I’d better be able to deliver whatever concept is necessary in a sensible and accurate way in my target language. I am still learning English everyday as it is the language surrounding me mostly. But I do feel a responsibility towards my Spanish to somehow preserve its proper use given the language-suffocating environment. I want to be able to use it and understand it correctly when a formal context arises, when the circumstances require it and most importantly, I want to be able to pass it on as intact as it was given to me. I told you I was ambitious.
I´m happy Roxana´s post inspired you to write this. You could never tell English is not your dominant language!
I actually feel much more comfortable speaking Spanglish to another person who speaks it as well. My brain feels free and loose. It can easily switch back between the two languages that shape it with no restrictions.
I feel true Spanglish is code-switching between two languages you know really well and having the ability (and brain power!) to fluidly go back and forth between them when it´s appropriate.
Making up words and poor translation are not a substitute to learning a language well. Sad thing is that it most likely become the most widely use of Spanglish since so many children are growing up listening to that Spanglish and believing that Troca is the only word in Spanish for truck.
BTW, I´m stealing the Wittgenstein quote. It´s perfect!
Es muy interesante este artìculo, y cierto lo es vivir entre dos lenguas y culturas. Por eso te sennalo también el sitio hispanicLA.com donde hay un suplemento sobre spanglish y también http://www.hispanicla.com/viaje-a-traves-del-spanglish-%C2%BFfenomeno-util-y-creativo-2-8536
muchas gracias
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Me parece genial lo que escribes. ¿Te conté del libro de Umberto Eco que se llama “Decir casi lo mismo”? Lo quiero comprar pero sé que habla precisamente de eso, de las traducciones y de que es casi imposible traducir lo que se escribió/dijo en otro idioma sin que se pierda algo. Umberto Eco también se dedicó a la traducida.
Comparto el sentimiento de responsabilidad por preservar el idioma y hacer que se respete. También me la paso aprendiendo español e inglés. Bueno, en realidad mucho más español que inglés.
Así como dices, si hay algunas cosas que se dicen mejor en inglés y otras en español… ¡seguro hay otras ideas más que se dirán mejor en otro idioma que no conocemos!
Te adoro. Te mando muchos besos, proud to be pregnant cousin/woman, soon to bee mom of my niece or nephew.
Love u
No conozco ni a Umberto ni su libro, pero suena bastante interesante. Habrá que buscarlo. Si, seguro que hay otros conceptos que por falta de lenguaje no conocemos. Te mando muchos besos, gracias por leerme. It’s a nephew.
Love u too.
I also agree that mixing languages between sentences and phrases isn’t spanish. it’s codeswitching. I typically will do it grammatically correct like ‘ven aqui so I can tell you lo que vamos a hacer”. It’s just mixing languages. Spanglish isn’t necessarily false cognates either to me, such as embarazada, because bilingual people will know what embarazada is. To me spanglish is “watcha” when someone tells me to watch out for a car, or “parquear” instead of estacionar. I talk like this with certain people in certain contexts, but the people typically know what the academic word is. What is “true spanish” or “true english” really? Aren’t they just both bastardized languages, being mixed with, created by, influenced by other languages? At one point the word almohada could have been considered “spanarab” or something, but it’s a regular word now, que no?
Fantastic!!! You are truly an inspiration.
Thank you, Shawna!
[...] who find themselves somewhere in between. A number of posts on the topic (including this & this) got me thinking about this since falling off the OPOL bandwagon and needing to sort out how I am [...]
Found you through the blog chain, first with Bringing Up Baby Bilingual, to Multilingual Mama, to Spanglishbaby… So glad I did. Thanks for sharing. These conversations about Spanglish and language mixing/switching are unturfing a lot of insecurities and memories, but it is a good thing.
Thank you for reading! Glad it helped. Saludos