What is spanglish Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What is spanglish - Case Study Example Languages are alive and they are constantly changing. Incorporating new words that are generally used is part of the logical evolution of a language. But languages are also part of the cultural heritage of a country that must be respected. Language is part of a country's identity.The use of Spanglish in formal institutions must not be allowed,much less tolerated.Its inclusion in school curriculum in the interest of studying it as a social phenomenon is acceptable but only with the purpose of understanding today’s society. The major values of a nation are expressed by its language. The first thing people identify with is the language of their country and it is the means by which they express their ideas, their values and their feelings. Language is very powerful in that sense, as well as the accents of each region, but this is a characteristic that Spanglish will never have. Spanglish first appeared near the border of America and Mexico, where both languages lived together. The term Spanglish was coined by Salvador Ti' in 1940. Although the number of people speaking Spanish in English-speaking countries is increasingly high, this does not mean that English can disappear. Learning a language must be an enriching experience, which promotes diversity as well as nationality. Both English and Spanish are languages with a historic root, but Spanglish is just a mixture of two languages, which uses both in the same sentence, combining words from one and other or creating new words from the fusion of the two. A result of the collision of two languages, Spanglish takes different forms. The most basic form is "code-switching," where words are substituted or inserted from one language into the other. For example, Spanglish might sound like "Vamos a la store para comprar milk" to mean, "Let's go to the store to buy milk." A bit more complicated form is the making up of words, or basically switching between languages within a word, by translating a word or phrase literally. In all cases, the resulting language or product does not bear the generally acceptable correctness of grammar rules and word usage. Spanglish is completely random. This will only lead to the bad use and the degradation of both languages. Moreover, countries influenced by English and Spanish have the big advantage of being bilingual, and it makes no sense renouncing it to this. Mexicans usually see Spanish as a symbol of colonization. But, does Spanglish have something to do with rejecting domination, or is it more like a trendy use of language' In some cases, Spanglish is the language of poor illiterate population trying to adapt to the changing situation. In other cases it is a matter of being part of the majority and using the same words as the major part of the population but, in fact, they are submitting to this majority instead of enriching their differences. The proliferation of a hybrid street language like Spanglish in dominantly English-speaking United States poses a serious threat not only to the socio-cultural aspect of the country's development, but also to its economic and political growth. Why is Spanglish a threat to the overall development of the U.S.' Foremost, the language of politics and commerce is English. In a highly globalized economy of nations, there is only one language used: English. It is in no way, therefore, that a mangled and fake English in the form of Spanglish can help facilitate the nation's coping and rising above the challenges brought about by globalization. Secondly, it is culturally unwell for any nation, much less the U.S., to uphold and encourage the proliferation of "languages" like Spanglish as doing so would show the people and the world as a whole a lack of healthy cultural identity. While it is understandably necessary to allow Spanglish to be used in places and in instances where it is the most convenient to use, given the growing diversity of communities in the United States, it is very important that the long-term benefits and losses from allowing it to prosper be considered over and above everything else. For instance, the use of Spanglish must be confined to the streets, where it actually originated and developed. It can also be used by people in their multicultural homes and neighborhoods