The Influence of English on U.S. Spanish: Introduction

Authors

  • Mark Waltermire New Mexico State University Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v8i1.1

Keywords:

SPANISH IN THE U.S., LANGUAGE CONTACT, BILINGUALISM, SPANGLISH, LANGUAGE MIXING, CODE-SWITCHING

Abstract

Situations of sustained language contact between Spanish and English have existed in the United States since the early nineteenth century. Initial contact between these two languages in what is now the U.S. Southwest was the result of territorial expansion by English-speaking settlers. Later contact situations in New York and Florida were caused by economic and political circumstances facing Spanish speaking caribeños. As a result of this contact, English has exerted some degree of influence on the bilingual Spanish spoken in the United States. The structural results of contact range from subtle changes in articulation to broad changes in the lexicon, all of which have been studied to greater and lesser extents by linguists over the past century. This introduction provides a point of reference for these studies. The accumulation of structural influences from English, regardless of geographical location, is leading to a transformation in the linguistic structure of U.S. Spanish, thereby making it distinct from other varieties of this language.

Author Biography

  • Mark Waltermire, New Mexico State University
    Dr. Waltermire is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at New Mexico State University. His main research areas are language contact, particularly regarding the linguistic results of Spanish in contact with Portuguese along the Uruguayan- Brazilian border, and sociolinguistic variation. He has published original research findings in these areas in the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Journal of Language Contact, Sociolinguistic Studies, Southwest Journal of Linguistics, and Spanish in Context as well as the edited collections Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology and Language, Borders and Identity.

Published

2014-07-21

How to Cite

Waltermire, M. (2014). The Influence of English on U.S. Spanish: Introduction. Sociolinguistic Studies, 8(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v8i1.1