5 ms·

This is my family. Sadly, the language dies with my generation. My father speaks this dialect of Spanish... or at least, he used to. We moved to Northern Califo

This is my family. Sadly, the language dies with my generation. My father speaks this dialect of Spanish... or at least, he used to. We moved to Northern California when I was very little. But, if we had stayed in New Mexico, my cousins don't speak it either. I asked Dad why he didn't teach me. "What would I do? Speak it to myself?" I took Spanish in high school. My father really couldn't help me, some of the basic phrases were different. As more immigrants moved into our area, Dad connected with them and started to learned the more modern Spanish to communicate with them. I mean, this dialect formed because Northern New Mexico was so isolated. The Manhattan Project changed a lot of that. Suddenly, Los Alamos labs and Sandia labs connected New Mexico with the rest of the world. It wasn't as isolated anymore. People have told me I could learn it, but I've tried. It's hard when I talk with my family, I'd rather have an adult conversation now rather than basically a preschool level one to learn the language. They say to really learn it, you have to immerse yourself. I lived with my grandmother for several months once while working at Sandia Labs. She insisted on speaking English with me, she was stubborn about it, and I was having a hard enough time understanding her in English. Let me leave you with a funny story. My uncle had hired a contractor to help with his house. The contractor spoke common Spanish. And he angrily confronted my uncle in Spanish: "You stole my belt!" or at least that's what my uncle heard. "[You stole] mi cinta!" However, in New Mexico "cinta" means belt, but in Mexico it's short for "cinta métrica" or tape measure. (or so I'm told, I don't speak Spanish!) My uncle assured him he did not steal it and went ahead and gave him one of his own.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
> My father speaks this dialect of Spanish... or at least, he used to. We moved to Northern California when I was very little. But, if we had stayed in New Mexico, my cousins don't speak it either. I asked Dad why he didn't teach me. "What would I do? Speak it to myself?" I have the same reasoning. I speak a language that is not necessary anymore even in the place my parents came from, since the national language and English are what official business is done in. My grandparents taught me the language, but none of my cousins have a similar grasp of the language. I still speak it with the older generations in my family, but they do not live near me to interact often enough with my kids, so I would effectively be teaching them a language they will have no use for by the time they are adults.
mgarfias 4y ago
While we probably lost the New Mexican Spanish after the civil war when the family moved to arizona fr nm, I have the same thing going on. Dad wouldn’t talk to me in Spanish when I was little - I only heard him speaking it when talking to family on the phone. Add that to the fact that until I was 9 we were away from the family and I don’t have much At least my grandparents would talk to me in Spanish so what’s in there is all because of them. And same experience with HS Spanish - they talk funny this doesn’t sound like anything I know.
kodah 4y ago
Really cool story to be a part of. Reminds me of how Creole formed.
thequadehunter 4y ago
Sadly all too common even with popular languages. I ask my dad why he never taught me Spanish and he just "didn't really think about it". Such a wasted opportunity for free goods.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
  I was having a related discussion with my wife about why our nephews weren’t taught Spanish as a first language (we live in Texas, their dad is bilingual). Frankly, having English as your first language gives you a much higher advantage in life in the current zeitgeist. There’s no incentive to learn RandomLanguage first, but there is every incentive to learn English first.
  - denimnerd42 4y ago
    I'm not really sure that's how it ends up working in reality though if you have exposure to English through school or childcare. We taught our kid Chinese first. He's now 2, almost 3, but he's equally good in both languages, maybe a little better in English at this point since he goes to school every day. So by 3 years old he's just as good or better than his peers in English but also is a native speaker in another language. I can see how a parent might think they are putting their kid at a disadvantage by not concentrating on English but language just comes so naturally to these young children.
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    Nope, learning multiple languages from the beginning has been shown to have many benefits. I speak both my native language and English at native levels, simply because I learned my language at home and English in school. Only teaching English is really a waste when you live in an English speaking country, as the child will automatically pick up English through school and friends.
    - Dalewyn 4y ago
      >Nope, learning multiple languages from the beginning has been shown to have many benefits. More to the point: Speaking multiple languages expands your ability to express and describe everything, which leads to having more variety in your lines of thought. Different languages have different ways of thinking, thus speaking multiple languages nurtures an open mind. Source: Me, native English and Japanese speaker.
marc_abonce 4y ago
Disclaimer: I only learned about the New Mexico Spanish variant today and my experience is limited to OP's article plus 2 YouTube videos. That being said: I think that if you want to, you could learn "standard" Spanish and still have an understandable conversation with you family. At least for me (I'm Mexican) the people in those videos were easier to understand compared to the average Cuban Spanish, for example, which is one of hardest variants for me. And the differences in vocabulary is something you'd have to face regardless of the language variant. For example, I usually call a belt "cinturón" except for martial arts belts which I always call "cinta", but right now I just searched for "cinta negra" images and all the results were black adhesive tapes and black ribbons. But yeah, doing so would take many years of "talking like a preschooler", there's no escape from that. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEq9OhbbDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEq9OhbbDQ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdAGJz4NvAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdAGJz4NvAg
- jjav 4y ago
  > [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEq9OhbbDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEq9OhbbDQ > [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdAGJz4NvAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdAGJz4NvAg As a native spanish speaker these are completely understandable, I wouldn't even call them a "different form of Spanish". Sure, they occasionally use a word or structure I wouldn't, but it's all very clear. No more different to my ears than variations in the language from country to country. > average Cuban Spanish, for example, which is one of hardest variants for me Interesting. Do you have some sample videos of what's difficult? I don't find Cuban Spanish at all different, but I did have a few Cuban friends growing up so perhaps my ear is used to it from that.
  - neodypsis 4y ago
    I also understood everything. Reminds me of how some people talk in rural parts of Costa Rica.
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    As a non-native spanish speaker I find it quite easy to understand, no more difficult than my mexican gf grandfather, and much much easier than spanish people from andalusia. Some examples: from Granada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvpHcX2Ksac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvpHcX2Ksac from Cadiz (which they really pronounce Ca'i): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRh9OjCW6Y8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRh9OjCW6Y8

lotsofpulp 4y ago

> My father speaks this dialect of Spanish... or at least, he used to. We moved to Northern California when I was very little. But, if we had stayed in New Mexico, my cousins don't speak it either. I asked Dad why he didn't teach me. "What would I do? Speak it to myself?" I have the same reasoning. I speak a language that is not necessary anymore even in the place my parents came from, since the national language and English are what official business is done in. My grandparents taught me the language, but none of my cousins have a similar grasp of the language. I still speak it with the older generations in my family, but they do not live near me to interact often enough with my kids, so I would effectively be teaching them a language they will have no use for by the time they are adults.

mgarfias 4y ago

While we probably lost the New Mexican Spanish after the civil war when the family moved to arizona fr nm, I have the same thing going on. Dad wouldn’t talk to me in Spanish when I was little - I only heard him speaking it when talking to family on the phone. Add that to the fact that until I was 9 we were away from the family and I don’t have much At least my grandparents would talk to me in Spanish so what’s in there is all because of them. And same experience with HS Spanish - they talk funny this doesn’t sound like anything I know.

kodah 4y ago

Really cool story to be a part of. Reminds me of how Creole formed.

thequadehunter 4y ago

Sadly all too common even with popular languages. I ask my dad why he never taught me Spanish and he just "didn't really think about it". Such a wasted opportunity for free goods.

SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
I was having a related discussion with my wife about why our nephews weren’t taught Spanish as a first language (we live in Texas, their dad is bilingual). Frankly, having English as your first language gives you a much higher advantage in life in the current zeitgeist. There’s no incentive to learn RandomLanguage first, but there is every incentive to learn English first.
- denimnerd42 4y ago
  I'm not really sure that's how it ends up working in reality though if you have exposure to English through school or childcare. We taught our kid Chinese first. He's now 2, almost 3, but he's equally good in both languages, maybe a little better in English at this point since he goes to school every day. So by 3 years old he's just as good or better than his peers in English but also is a native speaker in another language. I can see how a parent might think they are putting their kid at a disadvantage by not concentrating on English but language just comes so naturally to these young children.
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  Nope, learning multiple languages from the beginning has been shown to have many benefits. I speak both my native language and English at native levels, simply because I learned my language at home and English in school. Only teaching English is really a waste when you live in an English speaking country, as the child will automatically pick up English through school and friends.
  - Dalewyn 4y ago
    >Nope, learning multiple languages from the beginning has been shown to have many benefits. More to the point: Speaking multiple languages expands your ability to express and describe everything, which leads to having more variety in your lines of thought. Different languages have different ways of thinking, thus speaking multiple languages nurtures an open mind. Source: Me, native English and Japanese speaker.

marc_abonce 4y ago

Disclaimer: I only learned about the New Mexico Spanish variant today and my experience is limited to OP's article plus 2 YouTube videos. That being said: I think that if you want to, you could learn "standard" Spanish and still have an understandable conversation with you family. At least for me (I'm Mexican) the people in those videos were easier to understand compared to the average Cuban Spanish, for example, which is one of hardest variants for me. And the differences in vocabulary is something you'd have to face regardless of the language variant. For example, I usually call a belt "cinturón" except for martial arts belts which I always call "cinta", but right now I just searched for "cinta negra" images and all the results were black adhesive tapes and black ribbons. But yeah, doing so would take many years of "talking like a preschooler", there's no escape from that. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEq9OhbbDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEq9OhbbDQ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdAGJz4NvAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdAGJz4NvAg

jjav 4y ago
> [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEq9OhbbDQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkEq9OhbbDQ > [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdAGJz4NvAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdAGJz4NvAg As a native spanish speaker these are completely understandable, I wouldn't even call them a "different form of Spanish". Sure, they occasionally use a word or structure I wouldn't, but it's all very clear. No more different to my ears than variations in the language from country to country. > average Cuban Spanish, for example, which is one of hardest variants for me Interesting. Do you have some sample videos of what's difficult? I don't find Cuban Spanish at all different, but I did have a few Cuban friends growing up so perhaps my ear is used to it from that.
- neodypsis 4y ago
  I also understood everything. Reminds me of how some people talk in rural parts of Costa Rica.
- prmoustache 4y ago
  As a non-native spanish speaker I find it quite easy to understand, no more difficult than my mexican gf grandfather, and much much easier than spanish people from andalusia. Some examples: from Granada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvpHcX2Ksac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvpHcX2Ksac from Cadiz (which they really pronounce Ca'i): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRh9OjCW6Y8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRh9OjCW6Y8