3 ms·

Spanglish is the world’s fastest growing linguistic hybrid

23 points by geox 2y ago

deleted 2y ago
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SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
Does the author not know of the terms “creole” and “pidgin”? Seems like it would be valuable to contrast what they call “language hybrid” with these two already existing linguistics terms that share a lot of overlap with their inventions, especially when the author just seems to be inventing terms out of thin air like translanguaging and Nuyurico. Honestly the piece reads like some ethnoculturologist is trying to reinvent linguistics concepts that have been common knowledge in that field for decades.
- zamadatix 2y ago
  On the chance I'm not missing a pun/sarcasm: hybrid language, translanguaging, and Nuyorico are all also existing linguistics terms in academia the same as creole and pidgin. Comparisons are helpful though so a hybrid language is different than a creole/pidgin in that it skips the pidgin stage and the speakers know both languages rather than it being a new primary language grown out of a pidgin as seen in a creole. For a news piece rather than an academic journal I thought the author did alright.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
    I did not know this and this is great info that should have been included in the article IMO
- WrongAssumption 2y ago
  Hybrid language is an existing linguistic term.
pavel_lishin 2y ago
> For Medina, people who speak Spanglish have a “superpower”: translanguaging, or the ability to move fluidly between several languages. That's common in people who are fluent in two or more languages, even when they don't speak some sort of creole. My mother and I speak English and Russian, and will frequently swap out words mid-sentence, or do the other thing the article mentions as an example, starting in one language, and finishing in another. She and her Russian&English speaking friends do the same. But we're not speaking Rusglish, or Engrussian, or whatever. It's just a common facet of being multi-lingual.
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  but see also https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/5301753/National-Security-Agency-Cryptolog-Vol-1-No-4.pdf#page=14 https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/5301... (1974, pp12-14) I was amused to learn that email may get lost in the «спам» folder...
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aamoyg 2y ago
I have a large doubt regarding this-- what about Hindi-English hybrid? Spanglish has been around for a long time, so while it may have the most number of potential speakers at almost half a billion Hispanophones, there are about a quarter billion Hindi speakers, and even more than that when you include the variants and offshoots of it which are linguistically compatible which have English hybrids. As more people are exposed to English media in countries that speak those languages I can see it being a "faster growing linguistic hybrid". Places that already have a lot of exposure to English media would already likely have English language hybrids.

23 points by geox 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

Does the author not know of the terms “creole” and “pidgin”? Seems like it would be valuable to contrast what they call “language hybrid” with these two already existing linguistics terms that share a lot of overlap with their inventions, especially when the author just seems to be inventing terms out of thin air like translanguaging and Nuyurico. Honestly the piece reads like some ethnoculturologist is trying to reinvent linguistics concepts that have been common knowledge in that field for decades.

zamadatix 2y ago
On the chance I'm not missing a pun/sarcasm: hybrid language, translanguaging, and Nuyorico are all also existing linguistics terms in academia the same as creole and pidgin. Comparisons are helpful though so a hybrid language is different than a creole/pidgin in that it skips the pidgin stage and the speakers know both languages rather than it being a new primary language grown out of a pidgin as seen in a creole. For a news piece rather than an academic journal I thought the author did alright.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  I did not know this and this is great info that should have been included in the article IMO
WrongAssumption 2y ago
Hybrid language is an existing linguistic term.

pavel_lishin 2y ago

> For Medina, people who speak Spanglish have a “superpower”: translanguaging, or the ability to move fluidly between several languages. That's common in people who are fluent in two or more languages, even when they don't speak some sort of creole. My mother and I speak English and Russian, and will frequently swap out words mid-sentence, or do the other thing the article mentions as an example, starting in one language, and finishing in another. She and her Russian&English speaking friends do the same. But we're not speaking Rusglish, or Engrussian, or whatever. It's just a common facet of being multi-lingual.

082349872349872 2y ago
but see also https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/5301753/National-Security-Agency-Cryptolog-Vol-1-No-4.pdf#page=14 https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/5301... (1974, pp12-14) I was amused to learn that email may get lost in the «спам» folder...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

aamoyg 2y ago

I have a large doubt regarding this-- what about Hindi-English hybrid? Spanglish has been around for a long time, so while it may have the most number of potential speakers at almost half a billion Hispanophones, there are about a quarter billion Hindi speakers, and even more than that when you include the variants and offshoots of it which are linguistically compatible which have English hybrids. As more people are exposed to English media in countries that speak those languages I can see it being a "faster growing linguistic hybrid". Places that already have a lot of exposure to English media would already likely have English language hybrids.