The Influence of Spanish On American English

The influence of Spanish
on American English
The influence of Spanish on American
English
Spanish has influenced on American English almost
since the first British settlements on the Eastern
Coast of the nowadays United States. Even the first
european man to be at the nowadays territory of
USA was Juan Ponce de Len who discovered
Florida in 1513 almost 100 years before Jamestown
(1607). The first longlasting settlement was San
Agustin, also in Florida, founded by Pedro
Menndez de Avils in 1565.
The influence on the language was at the beginning
limited to the new crops the Spanish conquerors
discovered in the New World.
English
As for the ONLINE ETIMOLOGY DICTIONARY,
words such as: Tomato, Potato, Chile, Maize,
Tobacco or Pimento go back to as early date as
middle XVIIth century and first reference to
chocolate is of 1600.
Those crops were new for Europeans and they
adopted the Spanish version of their original
names in Nahuatl or Quechua.

The in fluence of Spanish on American
English
We should not forget that
Spain was the superpower for
almost two centuries, those
that go from the beginning of
XVIth to the end of XVIIth.
The attempt of Spanish King,
and former King consort of
England, Philip II to invade
the British Islands during the
reign of his sister in law
Elizabeth I produced the
entrance into English of
sailing related words such as:
Armada, breeze, comrade or
galleon.
English
From the British Isles,
these words passed to
the American Colonies
since the settlers
needed to cross sailing
the Ocean to the New
Continent. The Pilgrim
Fathers arrived into
Plymouth,
Massachussets, in 1621.

English
There they found a land of wonders full of unknown
plants and animals such as: Puma, Condor, Mosquito,
Llama, Iguana, Coyote, Zorro, Barracuda or
Cockroach from Spanish Cucaracha, quoted by
Captain John Smith as early as in 1624, while he was
in Virginia.

English
Let us read what the Online Etymology Dictionary
says about the word: Cannibal
1550s, from Sp. canibal "a savage, cannibal," from
Caniba, Christopher Columbus' rendition of the
Caribs' name for themselves (see Caribbean). The
natives were believed to be anthropophagites.
Columbus, seeking evidence that he was in Asia,
thought the name meant the natives were subjects of
the Great Khan. Shakespeare's Caliban (in "The
Tempest") is a version of this word, with -n- and -l-
interchanged, found in Hakluyt's "Voyages" (1599).
The Spanish word had reached French by 1515.
English
According to Aleksander Chubarov, American and
British had been diverging from the moment the
first English-speaking settlers arrived in North
America
There were variations in American English which
were unknown in Britain, and variations in British
English which were unknown in America
Maybe it was because of Spanish, French and Native
American Languages influence as well as the huge
distance between both of them.

English
As the West was hung, many words of Spanish
origin enhanced American English, since those
lands had belonged during centuries to the Spanish
Crown.
We can see the Spanish colonial origin in many
toponyms throughout southern and western States,
from Florida to California, and from Texas to
Colorado. Notice that even Alaska has some enclaves
with Spanish toponyms such as Valdez or
Malaspina, after the seamen that discovered those
lands.
English
English
English
At this time, many words from rural life and
cattle raising got into American English. Words
such as: Burro, Mustang, Caballero, Arroyo,
Canyon, Chaparral, Commando, Desperado,
Tornado, Fiesta, Guerrilla, Hackamore, Hombre,
Lariat, Lasso, Peon, Plaza, Ranch, Silo,
Patio,Stampede or Temblor for Earthquake or
the gallant Senorita for Young Lady.
English
English
The last important source of Spanish vocabulary
into the USA has been the work of Nobel Price of
Literature, Ernest Hemingway since it is well
known his possition on defending Spanish
culture. The online Etymology Dictionary proves
as his the introduction of words and expressions
such as : Fifth column, salud, nada, cojones or
Margarita (for the famous cocktail after Rita
Hayworth).
English
English
But since a Language is a living entity, this is not
the end.
There are many words of Spanish origin that are
progressively infiltrating in American ordinary
life, maybe because of Latin immigration into
the USA. Other words related to ethnical dishes
which are popular are: cerveza, quesadilla, salsa
(for both: sauce and Latin Jazz), burrito,
chimichanga, fajita, jalapeo, guacamole.
English
Here we should add those related to cultural
expressions, dance and music.
Words such as: Mambo, Bolero, Salsa,
Flamenco, Fiesta, Matador, Macho and
Machismo have become popular in nowadays
conversations.
Let us see what the Online English Etymology
Dictionary says about Lolita, which is diminutive
for Spanish christian name Dolores (Lola).
English
Lolita
fem. proper name, dim. of Lola. Title and name
of character in the 1958 novel by Vladimir
Nabokov (1899-1977) about a precocious
schoolgirl seduced by an older man; by 1960 the
name was in widespread fig. use.

English
English
This influence is not only limited to Lexic, but it
is also spread to grammar constructions.
Nowadays is becoming more and more usual to
hear double negatives in American English, like:
I dont want nothing, what is a loan translation
of Spanish expression: No quiero nada.

English
According to Wolfram and Schilling-Estes, in
Chicano English, the reduction of consonant clusters
at the end of words is more than in other vernacular
dialects which can partly explain the amplitude of
this feature in the text of Of Mice and Men, that
Nobel Prize John Steinbeck situated in Southern
California, where the Spanish influence has always
been strong.
http//www.uta.fi/-johanna.e.seppala/steinbeck.htm
English
Vernacular language has a tendency to use
regularized forms instead of irregular forms as
shown before with regularized past tense form
knowed. Same phenomen can be seen with reflexive
pronouns (Marckwardt 152, Wolfram and Schilling-
Estes 189). Myself, yourself and ourselves begin with
the genitive pronouns my, your and our, whereas
himself and themselves begin with the object forms
him and them (Marckwardt 152). Vernacular
English can insert the genitive form also into third
person as in the following sentence from Of Mice
and Men.
This ol dog jus suffers hisself all the time. (49)
English
According as well to the same authors, Many
vernacular dialects in the United States use a
structure called double negative -or multiple
negation or negative concord (Wolfram and
Schilling-Estes 52). Of Mice and Men too has
several examples of having two negative markers in
one sentence. These double negatives are used by all
the characters in the book, even the boss at the
ranch.
Well, we aint got no ketchup. (8) Bien, no nos
queda nada de ketchup
They dont belong no place. (15) No pertenecen a
ningn lugar
It wasnt nothing. (42) No fue nada or No pas
nada

English
To all this we should add the increasing income
of regional Latin expressions, specially in some
suburbs of New York, Miami or Los Angeles, and
that have, mainly, Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico
or the Dominican Republic) or Mexican origin.
It is quite common there to hear expressions
quite difficult to translate such as: Pana that
would be similar to friend, comrade or buddy (a
Northamerican word)/mate (a British word)
English
According to Robert Manzanares, Councelor for
the American Embassy in Spain, The Spanish
language in the United States is not only a
language of immigrants, it is also the mother
tongue of the Puerto Ricans, who are USA
citizens...It is estimated that for 2050 the
hispanic population in the USA will be of 100
million, about the fourth of the total.
http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/
2006/05/el_futuro_del_e.html
English
According to Atanasio Herranz, from the
Honduran Academy, The Spanish in the USA
acquires the characteristics of total, global,
neutral language; a standard dialect, a unique
variety of sinthesis, not of control of a dialect
over another and that tends to understanting
and negotiation.

English
Nowadays, the USA have got the second most
important Spanish speaking community in the
world after Mexico, and before Spain, Colombia
and Argentina.
It is also the second most spoken language in the
city of New York, the most studied foreign
language and the mother tongue for more than
two million of its inhabitants.
English
It is also the second most spoken language in 43
states of the USA as well as the District of
Columbia.
Besides, many of the USA institutions apply
bilinguism as a rule on their web-sites, such as
The Government, The White House or the
National Medicine Library.

English

New Mexico is one of the few states where there
are non-immigrant population whose mother
tongue is Spanish, however, the Spanish is not
one of the official languages of that state.

Josep Antoni Bravo i Sbies
English
List of references:
http://www.codex99.com/list/images/hemingw
ay_sm.jpg
http://www.uta.fi/~johanna.e.seppala/steinbec
k.htm
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
http://etymonline.com
http://1066andallthat.com/english_modern/am
erican_story_01.asp

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