English version


The work I have carried out offers a snapshot on the world linguistic scene taking into account the events occurred in the last two hundred years of history. The subject of my study is the development of new linguistic and cultural phenomena which have aroused interest at international level for their singularity and peculiarity. In particular, I have analyzed the phenomenon of Spanglish which affects the United States and other Spanish-speaking countries, and Chinglish which has appeared and developed in the Chinese world. The meeting point of these two hybrid languages is English, a language which easily adapts to any linguistic contexts. English has experienced constant changes, and significant modifications, but it has never lost its cohesion and supremacy. Many experts have had their say on this topic, but only time will tell us if Chinglish and Spanglish are short-lived phenomena destined to disappear or two new languages of a globalized world.



The word Spanglish is told to be coined by Puerto Rican journalist Salvador Tío, who used it for the first time in the article: "Teoría del Espanglish" published on October 28, 1948.

The phenomenon of Spanglish, span (Spanish) plus glish (English), also named Espanglish or Espanglés, is therefore produced by the combination (or the clash) of two worlds, two cultures and two languages: the Hispanic one and the Anglo-Saxon one. As Lipski (2004a) explains, this phenomenon refers particularly to the linguistic and cultural experience of the Latinos who settled in the United States, but it also affects Latin America and Spain. Lipski (2004a) explains that the Hispanic communities can be found in north-eastern areas (in particular in the cities of New York and Washington D.C, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts), in southern areas (in Florida, Georgia and neighbouring states) and in east-southern areas (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, part of Colorado).




Radio, television, press, cinema, as well as literary works and Internet have contributed to the spread of Spanglish, which is no longer just an oral phenomenon.
Radio formats such as Hispanic urban, which broadcasts Latino music of the second and third generation and the most traditional Hispanic music, Internet sites and many famous singers like Ricky Martin, Shakira and Enrique Iglesias have allowed the development of a standard Spanglish which can easily adapt itself to the trends of modern society. Spanglish which can easily adapt itself to the trends of modern society.

The phenomenon of Spanglish has also affected the world of cinema, thanks to films like "Real woman have curves" ("Las mujeres de verdad tienen curvas" in the Spanish version) of Patricia Cardoso (2002) and "Spanglish" of the American film director James L.Brooks (2004); in 2003 Hollywood launched a new film "Code 46" in which actors use a particular kind of English combining Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese and Arabic words.



American television programmes such as the soap opera“Ugly Betty”, and children’s television programmes such as “ Sesame Street ” and “Dora the Explorer ” have significantly contributed to a certain acceptance of this phenomenon. Every time a Spanglish term is used in the course of these programmes, their potential impact on the audience is considerable. Words like parquear, vacunar la carpeta, muvi, guaifa are already part of everyday speech.






Advertising in the United States is marked by the use of code-switching, neologisms, loan translations and loan words. 
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The advertising campaign of the American supermarkets Wall Mark and the advertisements of the fast food restaurants Taco Bell use spanglish and English in order to address people in way they speak. 

At present time many American magazines and newspapers deal with Latino life and culture, such as Latina magazine, which portraits Latino women whio are usually bicultural and bilingual. 

Literary works recognize and legitimize the use of Spanglish. One of the most interesting works is that of the Puerto Rican writer Luz Selenia Vásquez entitled Como el cristal al romperse. The story, published in 1983, deals with the theme of alienation and , in this case, impossible integration of Latino people into the Us society. 

In 2008 Bill Santiago, actor and playwriter of Puerto Rican origins, published an hilarious guide on this matter, Pardon my spanglish, and he set a number of spaniglish grammar rules. 


See Bill Santiago's performance on Spanglish


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHjdG1KWfCo

Among all English varieties used around the world by non native english speakers , Chinglish is undoubtedly the one which has risen more interest at international level. Some experts think that Chinglish stems from pidgin English, which developed in the 80‘s as a Chinese adaptation to business English spoken in the areas of Macau and Canton. According to others, Chinglish stems from the 洋泾浜Yang jing bang, an integration of English language into Mandarin Chinese dating back to the years of Lu Xun, the 20th century greatest Chinese writer. 

There are different examples of Chinglish, funny signs, completely incorrect signs, illogical signs. In the Chinese city of Shangai there are a lot of examples. Take this, for instance, which is displayed in a metro station.




Tourists, in this city, might also have an hard time accepting that fun is banned and they to go the whole year, without a day off. Public parks also provide linguistic amusement or perhaps helpful navigational tips, and if’re going to fall in this river , be sure to do it carefully.



















Other examples of chinglish are due to incorrect translation of the Chinese expression xiao xin peng tou, which means mind your head.





The incorrect use of the English word fuck is very popular in public signs. Fuck goods is the chinglish version of dried goods. Sea fucks goods id the chinglish version of dried sea fruits. 










Here is a sign of a public toilet in China:


便bian can mean then, in that case, but in this sentence it is a short form, commonly used in everyday speech, of 大便 da bian (excrement) and 小便 xiao bian (urine). 便bian is also the short form of 方便 fang bian (convenience), which is named after a medieval Buddhist euphemism "Sanskrit UPAYA"(skifull means) used by monks and nuns when they needed to go to the toilet.




后 hou queen, empress, but here it is the homophonous character后 hou (after). Simplified characters are often source of mistakes, especially when translators are not very skilled in this field. The original version 后 hou (after) was with 9 strokes, the simplified character has only 6 strokes, 3 strokes less, however, means a loss of comprehensibility.


情qing (invite, require, ask a favor, let, hire). This character appears frequently in Chinglish sentences, since only skilled translators succeed in translating it without making any mistake; an automatic translator or an unskilled translator, for instance, are more likely to make confusion due to the several meanings of this character.


冲chong (can mean to charge; to soar; to clash; to pour; to make drinks) and other things, especially if pronounced with the forth tone.


The last two characters, 冲冼 chong xi, should go together with the meaning of to flash; to rinse, to irrigate (medical term). 


The use of the bysillabic character 以后 yi hou may help avoid this kind of mistake, by making the sentence more understandable.
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