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Is 'Spanglish' A Language?
Is 'Spanglish' A Language?
listens closely, it is English transposed, not even translated, into Spanish. Are
they listening or laughing in Mexico City and San Juan?
The same kind of surrender occurs with American companies hoping to cash in
on the Hispanic market. I cringe when I hear a clerk ask, "Cmo puedo
ayudarlo?" (a literal transposition of the English "How can I help you?"), rather
than the proper "Qu desea?" On a recent flight to Mexico, a Hispanic flight
attendant read a statement that would not have been comprehensible to a
Mexican, a Spaniard or an American Hispanic from any region other than his.
Ads on Spanish-language TV and on the New York streets are full of howlers. I
wonder if recent Latin American immigrants even can understand them.
I suppose my Medievalist colleagues will say that without the contamination of
Latin by local languages, there would be no Spanish (or French or Italian). We
are no longer in the Middle Ages, however, and it is nave to think that we could
create a new language that would be functional and culturally rich. Literature in
Spanglish can only aspire to a sort of wit based on a rebellious gesture, which
wears thin quickly. Those who practice it are doomed to writing not a minority
literature but a minor literature.
I do not apologize for my professorial biases: I think that people should learn
languages well and that learning English should be the first priority for Hispanics
if they aspire, as they should, to influential positions.
But we must remember that we are a special immigrant group. Whereas the
mother cultures of other ethnicities are far away in geography or time, ours are
very near. Immigration from Latin America keeps our community in a state of
continuous renewal. The last thing we need is to have each group carve out its
own Spanglish, creating a Babel of hybrid tongues. Spanish is our strongest
bond, and it is vital that we preserve it.
Roberto Gonzlez Echevarra is a professor of Hispanic and comparative
literatures at Yale.
Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company