Betty Vasquez

Is Spanglish a Language?

As a person who deals with immigrants on a daily basis, I often consider the objectives posed in the syllabus for this class and try to determine how I can apply them to ease my frustrations at work. One of the questions that I often repeat to myself is one from objective six: “How do immigrants change America?” (White) It was in this manner that I stumbled across an immigrant practice that had become a workplace frustration for me—the use of the vernacular termed “spanglish.” Yet this made up language is not isolated to the workplace, it is continually used by many bilingual people. My frustration with the use of the vernacular is not that words from both languages are used in the same sentence, but that some of the words deemed as “spanglish” are grammatically incorrect in either language. Some words are not even words, but mispronunciations with accents of actual words, for example “chopin” and “deiof” (for “shopping” and “day off”). (Stavans) This forced me to ask the question: Is this combination of real English words, Spanish words and made up words formulated by the meshing of the two considered a real language?

Considering my question, it became necessary to first establish a definition for “spanglish.” I began my research on the internet, and I quickly found that I was not prepared for the amount of information that existed on the subject. And while there were various words to define the term “spanglish,” most of the academic definitions could be broken down to the same essential words: a code switch, a claque between the Spanish and English languages which most frequently occurs in bordering cities. However, in my findings, other definitions with additional details began to immerge from linguists. Their definition addressed the fact that the phenomenon that has been clustered into the definition of “spanglish” is not always applicable “because it groups together things that don't necessarily belong together. Linguistically speaking, many things that get commonly labeled as "Spanglish" are very different from each other.” (“Spanlish”) The explanation of the term goes on to make distinctions between the people who speak both languages with code switches and the Spanish monolinguals that use English expressions without knowing how to speak English or vice versa. It argues that both of these types of speakers are labeled “spanglish,” and that this is a problem when defining the term.

Because of the variables surrounding the definition of “spanglish,” I was forced to embellish my question: Can “spanglish” legitimately be classified as a language? What then became consistent, were the many opposing views as to the actual classification of “spanglish.” My research then took a difficult turn because of the opposition I found classifying “spanglish” as a jargon, a language, an assimilation, a resistance, and a transitional phase all battling each other. After taking a step back, and with a bit of help, I managed to organize all of the material into two focal points. The first of which was given by Ilian Stavans. Stavans is a professor at Amherst University who has had a long standing view that “spanglish” is a rising and prominent language. Not only does he teach a class on “spanglish,” but he has written a lexicon where he also translates the first part of Don Quixote into “spanglish.” To prove his point, Stavans argues that “Spanglish is New World tongue concocted from two old world languages, [just as] much as Yiddish was the result of tenacious Hebrew and medieval German.” Stavans considers himself an “obersever” rather than a promoter of “spanglish.” He says that “spanglish” is a way of assimilation and that it does not discourage immigrants from learning English, but it serves as a statement of style and a retaining of culture. He also recognizes that fact that many linguists have classified “spanglish” as a transitory phase of learning English, to which he argues that it has gone on too long and that it is growing too rapidly to be a mere phase.(Stavans)

The second of the focal points was derived from linguists. And while there are those scholars who agree with Stavans, linguists are not as receptive to his attitude.  Linguist John M. Lipski sets more defined constraints to the definition of “spanglish” and then proceeds to test the vernacular against the conditions that make a language. In the first part of his paper Lipski explores several definitions and reasons as to the nature of the phenomenon. Perhaps his most influential citing was that of Od n Bentanzos Palacios, president of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language, who agrees with the notion that “spanglish” is a “transitory jargon” in the Latin culture.(Lipski) After Lipski presents all of his sources, their respected definitions, and the differing viewpoints themselves, he proceeds to dissect the linguistic make up of those that use “spanglish.” He, like the definition cited in the second paragraph, also separates the fluently bilingual from those who cannot independently speak English or Spanish on a fluent level. This distinction soon becomes the focus of his argument, as he explains that someone who knows the two languages proficiently would not make up or invent words that do not already exist. In this manner he isolates the problem of calling fictitious words “spanglish.” He further adds that while it is common for any person who speaks two languages to code switch,  once words are concocted out of thin air, it ceases to be code switching.

By camparison, Stavans explores a scholarly view point while Lipski explores a linguistic one where the destinations they have reached place them at polar opposites. In the end Stavans fails to address all of the structural problems with “spanglish,” and does not address the fact that there are distinctions to be made within the realm of what is categorized as “spanglish.” Even if it could be denied that no one is better qualified to make an assessment on language than a specialist, it cannot be denied that Lipski’s assessment of “spanglish” considered all questions as to what constitutes a language. Lipski gives a direct answer to my query when he concludes that code switching is a natural occurrence with any two given languages, but that “knowing how to switch languages does not constitute knowing a third language, any more than being ambidextrous when playing, e.g. tennis constitutes playing a new sport.” (Lipski) It is in the midst of this metaphor and in the depth of Lipski’s research that I find both my answer and a smidge of patience when I hear the phenomenon of the “spaniglish” jargon being spoken by those around me.

Now that is has been as established that “spanglish” is not classified as a language, instead of finding frustration, I analyze the jargon as I am having a conversation and further explore the linguistic skills of the speaker. This immigrant practice not only changes me as an individual and how I converse, but more importantly, it has made a strong impact on the country. In the end, it is yet another immigrant trend that has changed America, in this case—its tongue. I found this research to be very interesting and (as usually is the case) I found more and more debatable information that ultimately leads to other questions. Questions that are not within the scope of this research post, but more along the lines of a dissertation given the wealth of information (my thesis has already been determined). For that reason, this post has become an integral cog and a very well planted first step into a subject matter that will supply an ample amount of research for years to come.

Bibliography

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