Posted on 02/03/2024 3:30:16 AM PST by Libloather
The fusion of Latin and Anglo-American cultures in South Florida in the latter half of the 20th century has created a new dialect, linguists say.
Known as Miami English, the increasingly popular parlance has its roots back in the 1950s, when Cubans began moving to the region en masse.
One of the country’s most bilingual cities today - and beyond that, home to many different Spanish dialects - research has shown that Miamians are finding a new way to engage with English, not unlike immigrant groups in other parts of the United States throughout modern history.
“In Miami, there are many ways of speaking English,” Phillip M. Carter, Director of the Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment at the Florida International University, told IFL Science.
“The variety we have been studying for the past 10 years or so is the main language variety of people born in South Florida in Latinx-majority communities. The variety is characterized by some unique but ultimately minor pronunciations, some minor grammatical differences, and word differences, which are influenced by the longstanding presence of Spanish in South Florida,” he said.
Miami English isn’t to be confused with Spanglish - it’s English, crammed with English phrases lifted directly from the literal Spanish, something known as a calque. And increasingly, everyone in Miami is using them - no matter where their families hail from, Indy100.com reported.
“What is remarkable about them is that we found they were not only used in the speech of immigrants - folks who are leaning on their first language Spanish as they navigate the acquisition of English - but also among their children, who learned English as their co-first language,” Carter said.
And calques are nothing new to the language...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Also, the same comment or another pointed out the rapid blurred-together character of girls' speech nowadays. One of the workers at McDonald's the other day spoke to me that way (she actually mistook me for another customer and went on about something) and I barely got one or two words from the whole thing.
A bit ago I texted my GF and asked what she was up to: "Fixing the kitchen". Then "Make ready for Mass tomorrow" (getting clothes ready).
They used to call it SpanglishYeah, what's up w/ "Miami English" - academics are beyond stoopid. I guess all my Cuban friends in Miami are racists for calling their way of speaking "Spanglish":
“One of the bigger problems with learning English is that it is actually two different languages: one as written and the other as spoken. We native speakers never notice the difference, but to others it is formidable.”
I’ve read the Gibbon, and I’ve read the Blake but I write like Twain and Hurston - in the vernacular. It doesn’t come off sometimes but I don’t really give a hoot because I don’t feel like buckling down to the grammatically correct route... then again I haven’t polished much up since my research paper writing days.
Prost!
That was a very good show.
L
I’ll give you an example of what I mean from an old joke. Have you eaten? No, have you? Then, let’s go” is spoken more like”Jeet? No, jew? Skoh!”
“Jeet? No, jew? Skoh!”
Momma used to say:
Jeet? She was an old arcadian farm girl, always had something fixed up. That brings back fond memories.
I am with you there. The older I get, the more deeply I miss my mother’s cooking.
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