Thursday, May 26, 2005
Dame un hamburger plain con ketchup y papitas
Highlights from the April issue of the excellent journal English Today:
Dame un hamburger plain con ketchup y papitas
Ileana Cortés a1, Jesús Ramírez a2, María Rivera a3, Marta Viada a4 and Joan Fayer a5
English/Spanish contact in Puerto Rico.
ONE OUTCOME of language contact is lexical borrowing. Borrowing in Puerto Rico (for political, economic, and social reasons) is evident in the influence English has had on Spanish, especially in lexical terms. This paper explores the impact of American English on the lexicon of Puerto Rican Spanish, specifically on vocabulary relating to food. Data were collected through participant observation in selected fast food restaurants from different regions in P.R. An analysis of the corpus provides the basis for five categories useful in understanding the influence of English on Spanish in this domain. The study indicates that English borrowings have had a tremendous influence on the Puerto Rican lexicon, and predicts that, even though Spanish will continue to be the dominant Puerto Rican language, it will continue to change under the influence of English.
English Today (2005), 21:2:35-42 Cambridge University Press