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Mexican American English Dialect a.k.a. “Chicano” English

Mexican American English Dialect a.k.a. “Chicano” English. Jesse Fox Claudia Giangrande. What is Chicano English?. American English Dialect Used by Mexican-Americans (Chicanos) Spoken mostly in California and the Southwest Chicano English may be: - learned as a second language

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Mexican American English Dialect a.k.a. “Chicano” English

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  1. Mexican American English Dialecta.k.a. “Chicano” English Jesse Fox Claudia Giangrande

  2. What is Chicano English? • American English Dialect • Used by Mexican-Americans (Chicanos) • Spoken mostly in California and the Southwest • Chicano English may be: • - learned as a second language • the native English of Mexican-Americans • spoken by bilingual people • spoken without knowing any Spanish

  3. Origins Immigration from Mexico to California and other parts of the Southwest Communities developed of Spanish speakers many began to learn English Spoke a non-native variety (common for learners of a language) included sounds and grammatical constructions from their native Spanish Children of immigrants grew up speaking both languages Communities stabilized  new dialect of English emerged

  4. Differences from Other English Dialects • Four factors occurring over several generations: • Spanish influences • Some learning errors become established • Influence from other English dialects • Independent developments • Challenges in identifying Chicano English: • Difficult to differentiate contemporary and historical Spanish influences among: • 1st generation learners • Bilinguals of varying competence • Near-monolingual English-speaking Mexican-Americans

  5. Distinguishing Chicano English • Common misconceptions: • It is “learner English”, imperfect and non-native • It is the accent of a native Spanish speaker • Chicano English is a stable and fully formed dialect • Linguistically & structurally equivalent to other English dialects • Many Speakers of Chicano English are not bilingual and may not know any Spanish at all • Mexican-American speakers are native and fluent English speakers • Some happened to learn a non-standard variant with clear traces of Spanish influence

  6. Distinguishing Chicano English (cont.) • Some features cannot be definitively attributed to Spanish • Ex: multiple negation: • She didn’t tell me nothing about that • Ella no me dijo nada sobre eso • Could come from either Spanish or other non-standard dialects • Chicano English may also be influenced by other American • dialects • Local influence  California variety (a.k.a. “Valley Girl” dialect) • Other influence  African-American English

  7. Speaking Chicano English • No knowledge of Spanish is necessary • Ex: Students listened to sound clips of bilingual and monolingual speakers of Chicano English  were unable to distinguish between the two types of speakers • Not everyone from Mexican-American communities speaks Chicano English • Wide range of styles within Chicano English i.e. some middle class Mexican-Americans may speak a variety more grammatically similar to standard dialects, others may not speak Chicano English at all • The variety spoken by young gang members incorporates additional vocabulary not used by other members of the community

  8. Characteristics of Chicano English • Replace [v] with [b] • [lib] for “live” • [inbait] for “invite” • Pronounce [th] as [d], [t], [s], or [f] • [dɛt] for “that” • [tink], [fink], or [sink] for “think” • May use [y] for j[ʤ] and [j] for [y] • [yoʊkin] for “joking” • [yɛt] for “jet” • [yʌs] for “just” • [dʒu] for “you” • [dʒɛt] for “yet” • Consonant variations: • Devoicing of [z] [isi] for “easy” [wʌs] for “was” [s] of “present” sounds like [c] of “decent” • Devoicing of word-final [v] [lʌf] for “love” [hɛf] for “have” [waifs] for “wives” [laifs] for “lives” • Devoicing of final [d] [hit] for “hid”

  9. /tʃ/ merges with /ʃ/ • [ʃip] for “cheap” & “sheep” • R pronounced as flap • [ɾɛɾi] for “ready” • Consonant variations: (cont.) • Word-final M becomes [n] or [ŋ] [wɛlcʌn] or [wɛlcʌŋ] for “welcome” • G sound [dʒ] becomes [ʒ] [ʃeinʒ] for “change” “shicken” for “chicken” • Final Consonant Deletion: In Spanish, the only consonants that may occur in word-final position are [n], [l], [s], [r], and [y] • other word-final single consonants would therefore be unfamiliar to some Chicano English speakers • “most”  “mos” • “felt”  “fell” • “start”  “star”

  10. Vowel Variations • Merge æ and ɛ • “man” and “men” both sound like “men” • I and i merge into [i] • “ship” and “sheep” both sound like “sheep”

  11. Other Variations • Stress and intonation changes • anticipáte instead of antícipàte • rising sentence-final intonation for statements • Confusion between mass nouns and count nouns • “Next week we have vacations” • “until” sometimes used as a negative • “Is Bob here?” —”until 3:00” (=not until 3:00) • Word “barely” is used to mean “recently” • “Don’t leave; you barely got here!”

  12. Other Variations (cont.) • Code-switching: common among speakers highly fluent in both languages (Spanglish) • “Esun little boy” (it’s a little boy) • Does Chicano English influence other American English dialects? • Changes in pronounciation allude to possible Chicano English influences but this cannot be confirmed • i.e. “going” changing to “go-ween” among Californian students • Use of Spanish lexicon  even in speakers who do not speak Spanish • ándale; hasta la vista • Type of identity marker

  13. RESOURCES http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/chicano/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicano_English http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-CHICANOENGLISH.html

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