Sunday, October 28, 2007
Language Variety
I beleive that these language varieties are hybrids, not slang. These varieties come from two languages that are mixed into one. Slang words are different words that are used to describe something better or that fits in with the culture of speaker. I think that these language varieties are full language systems of Standard English. I beleive this because it comes from two lanagues that have mixed to form one languge. I mainly think that it shoudl be viewed as a full language because people understand it and it is commonly used. We learned in class that language use comes from the power of people speaking the language. These varieties have been increasingly getting bigger and are used by large amounts of people. Spanglish use has been increasing in numbers with has given the language more power. I will not be suprised if it is viewed as a full language in years to come.
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4 comments:
I could not agree more with Jordan. The use of these hybrids of language, and not slang, is increasing sharply. It is definitely related to power and number of people speaking it.
Two cultures and languages coming together through a hybridization process to generate a variety of language with its own set of rules.
Jairo Toro
I think you are very right. I believe that language use is the power behind the language. I would agree that Spanglish is increasing in it's use.
I agree that as the numbers of people speaking hybrid languages increase, the language itself will grow, expanding in its vocabulary and increasing in the complexity of its syntax. At some point we will probably stop calling it "Spanglish." We will no longer consider it a hybrid but, as you say, a "full language". The definition of of just what makes something a full language, however, is problematic.
Many people consider Spanglish and Ebonics to be "reduced" versions of English. They are smaller, to be sure, but what is the ideal size of a language? The Argentinian writer Jorge-Luis Borges confronted this problem in an essay on poetic language, noting that while his country's Royal Academy recorded 60,000 words in its dictionary, the French Academy had a dictionary registering 31,000. He asked whether this meant that a Spanish speaker had 29,000 more ideas than a French one. "Such an induction is a bit excessive," he decided. Perhaps we might conclude that the French are efficient thinkers, especially compared to Germans and English speakers, who (at least at the Borges wrote, in the late twenties) each had over 100,000 words in their dictionaries. Or maybe all of these languages are still too improverished. Later Borges speculates on a poetic vocabulary with a word denoting "the converging perception of the cowbells announcing day's end and the sunset in the distance".
I concurr with you but I guess im confused on what hybrids are. You're saying exactly what im saying except you said its more hybrids than slang. Maybe you should help me understand difference.
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