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In:Spanish-English Codeswitching in the Caribbean and the US
Edited by Rosa E. Guzzardo Tamargo, Catherine M. Mazak and M. Carmen Parafita Couto
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 11] 2016
► pp. 11–35

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Spanglish

Language politics vs el habla del pueblo

ORCiD logo with link | University of California, San Diego and City University of New York
Published online: 7 September 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.11.01zen
Puerto Rico has been linked to Spanglish – both the style of speaking and the label – since the term was coined by a famous island detractor in 1948. More recently, Puerto Rican poets and linguists have been in the vanguard against purported “friends” unaware of the linguistic facts, against the Real Academia Española’s definition of “espanglish”, and the damaging views of the North American Academy of the Spanish language. An anthro-political linguistic analysis explains how the racialization of Puerto Ricans and other Latin@s is at the root of these attacks, and why the Spanglish label itself must be defended; supporting data include the attitudes of 115 U.S. Spanish speakers. Implications for linguistic tolerance, language loss, and education are addressed.
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