![]() ![]() These translations are a type of borrowing that linguists call “ calques.”Ĭalques are all over the English language. Second, as people learned English, they tended to translate directly from Spanish. This set the stage for the enduring presence of Spanish vocabulary in South Florida, as well as the emergence of what some people refer to as “ Spanglish.” When the first large group of Cubans came to Miami in the wake of the revolution, they did precisely this, in two ways.įirst, people alternated between Spanish and English, sometimes within the same sentence or clause. Together, they navigate the sociolinguistic landscape of South Florida in complex ways, knowing when and with whom to use which language – and when it’s OK to mix them. Some are more proficient in Spanish, and others are more skilled English speakers. But the point is that there is a lot of Spanish – and a lot of English – being spoken in Miami.Īmong this mix are bilinguals. Of course, identifying as Latina/o is not synonymous with speaking Spanish, and language loss has occurred among second- and third-generation Cuban Americans. In 2010, more than 65% of the population of Miami-Dade County identified as Hispanic or Latina/o, and in the large municipalities of Doral and Hialeah, the figure is 80% and 95%, respectively. Today, the vast majority of the population is bilingual. In the years following the revolution, hundreds of thousands of Cubans left the island nation for South Florida, setting the stage for what would become one of the most important linguistic convergences in all of the Americas. Spanish meets English in Miamiįast forward to today, where a similar form of language contact involving Spanish and English has been going on in Miami since the end of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. ![]() Words that today seem basic, even fundamental, to English vocabulary were, just 800 years ago, borrowed from French: prince, government, administer, liberty, court, prayer, judge, justice, literature, music, poetry, to name just a few. Soon thereafter, a French-speaking ruling class replaced the English-speaking aristocracy, and for roughly 200 years, the elites of England – including the kings – did their business in French.Įnglish never really caught on with the aristocracy, but since servants and the middle classes needed to communicate with aristocrats – and with people of different classes intermarrying – French words trickled down the class hierarchy and into the language.ĭuring this period, more than 10,000 loanwords from French entered the English language, mostly in domains where the aristocracy held sway: the arts, military, medicine, law and religion. In 1066, the Norman French, led by William the Conqueror, invaded England in an event now known as “ the Norman Conquest.” One bilingual confluence famously changed the trajectory of the English language. When the contact takes place over an extended period of time – decades, generations or longer – the structures of the languages in question may begin to influence one another, and the speakers can begin to share each other’s vocabulary. This can happen when certain events – war, colonialism, political exile, immigration and climate change – put speakers of different language groups into contact with one another. They’re all over English vocabulary: “ pajamas” from Hindi “ gazelle” from Arabic, via French and “ tsunami” from Japanese.īorrowed words usually come from the minds and mouths of bilingual speakers who end up moving between different cultures and places. But borrowed words are far more pervasive than you might think. You’re probably aware that a limited number of words – usually foods, such as “sriracha” or “croissant” – are borrowed from other languages. Whether you’re an English speaker living in Miami or elsewhere, chances are you don’t know where the words you know and use come from. This language variety came about through sustained contact between Spanish and English speakers, particularly when speakers translated directly from Spanish. In Miami, however, they’ve become part of the local parlance.Īccording to my recently published research, these expressions – along with a host of others – form part of a new dialect taking shape in South Florida. These phrases might sound off to the ears of most English-speaking Americans “He made a party to celebrate his son’s birthday.” “We got down from the car and went inside.” ![]()
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