The use of Spanglish’s growing fast af
This story is part of the global megatrend Population shifts
Group of friends smiling by Scopio from Noun Project (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The mix of Spanish and English, aka Spanglish or espanglish, is the fastest growing linguistic hybrid in the world.
Quick points:
- Spanglish is spoken by about 50 million people, reports EL PAIS. Spanglish is mostly spoken in the US where 62 million Latinos live.
- Decades of migration to the US from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America is a major factor for the expansion of Spanglish.
- The global popularity of Latino artists, specially reggaetoneros, has contributed to the expansion of Spanglish beyond the Americas.
- People speak Spanglish in different ways. An example is when they switch back and forth between English and Spanish. Another is when they make up new words. For example, “planching” combines Spanish’s planchando and English’s ironing.
- Spanish is growing in both size and status as it’s more accepted as a language adaptation in everyday life.
Population shifts is a global megatrend. Migration, with more people moving to cities and to other countries, is shaping everything in society from the economy to culture.
Reference shelf:
Today, it’s all about Spanglish, the ‘language’ posing a threat to Anglocentrism in the United States (EL PAIS)
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