Spanglish: The Dissertation

Many of us at Guanabee grew up speaking Spanglish. In fact the name Guanabee itself is a form of the dialect. So we were intrigued when this essay by Eduardo González entitled Spanglish: To Ser or Not to Be? That is la cuestión! ended up in our mailbox:

This is a modest attempt to illustrate what is really pasando en many communities of the USA, Latin America (and Spain!) now en la actualidad. A definition of Spanglish will not be attempted here, since it is a process, a dynamic force, a developing trend, “the verbal encounter between Anglo and Hispano civilizations.” (Stavans, Ilan 2004, “Spanglish: A User’s Manifesto.”) Of course, there are many against and very few for…Spanglish, but this is only from an academic punto de vista. La realidad on the street is that Spanglish is here to stay.

Oh hell, sí. After the jump, our favorite words from a special glossary of terms provided by the author:

aiscrim - Ice cream. Helado
bipear - To call on a beeper/to beep. Llamar al bíper
bróder - Brother, “my man.” Hermano
landear - To land, to obtain. Conseguir, obtener
migra- [ed. Note: we didn’t even know this was slang!] Immigration (offices, agents, etc.)
tranporteichon - From transportation, meaning an old car to go to work, to “move”
uerkaut - Workout and to work out. El ejercicio/entrenamiento físico. Hacer ejercicios físicos
yoni - From Johnie: American, usually Anglo. Americana/o (used by Cubans)