Thread: slang vs spanglish

Originally Posted by vicente

Inevitable is right...absolutely. We can complain 'til the cows come home but the younger generation is leading the way through the Internet and there's no stopping them.

I get more upset with the deliberate mis-spelling of words in our own languages (girlz, boyz, brotha, ur and ke, kiero, kasa, etc.) than I do with Spanglish.

To misspelling I add the incorrect grammar, the lack of a vast vocabulary (I don't mean we all have to be Shakespeares or Cervantes's, but at least have some more words to use!)

In 400 years the way we speak will be, to that new generation, as Shakespeare is to us. So, in a way we are Shakespeares who aren't appreciated in our time!

El primer concepto que hay que revisar es el de "español". ¿Existe el idioma español? Es decir, un conjunto de palabras y reglas para expresar ideas y que es común a todo un grupo de hispanohablantes? La respuesta es sencilla: NO. No hay dos personas que tengan exactamente el mismo vocabulario ni sigan exactamente las mismas reglas porque esto depende de una variedad de factores muy grande: edad, región, empleo, estudios, grupo de amigos, religión, etc.

La idea de UN español como ente perfectamente delimitado igual un cuadrado y que todo lo que está dentro existe y todo lo que está afuera no existe, es, por decirlo redundantemente, una idea cuadrada, anquilosada.

El español (y todos los idiomas con más de dos hablantes) es un concepto comparable a una gelatina más que a un trozo de acero grueso e inflexible.

Con esto, no quiero decir que existan usos incorrectos del idioma. Pero estos usos incorrectos no corresponden a reglas establecidas desde arriba y que se aplican en todas las situaciones y para todas las personas. El idioma se aplica correctamente cuando se apega a las circunstancias. En el caso del Spanglish, llámenlo o no aberración del español o el inglés, se apega a las circunstancias comunicativas, por lo tanto es, y nadie podrá detenerlo, nos guste o no.

No nos rasguemos las vestiduras. Los idiomas pueden ser sublimes herramientas artísticas, pero antes que nada son herramientas de trabajo. Las piernas están "diseñadas" para caminar, si se usan para bailar ballet es otro cuento (y si nos gusta el ballet o no, otro cuento más). Así que contentémonos con la oportunidad de observar e investigar este fenómeno que se cruza ante nuestros ojos y que podría ser nada menos que el nacimiento de un nuevo idioma, proceso inevitable aunque se nos retuerza el hígado.

Aprecio mucho los comentarios de Julio Jaubert. Y estoy de acuerdo.

(Y la expresión "rasgar las vestiduras" me es nuevo y me gusta---gracias.)

Originally Posted by Fresno22

I heard a teenager tell her boyfriend this: "Hey, Dame una quebrada!"
Meaning "give me a break" !!! (accent on the "a" in Dame)
Literal Spanglish translation and sounds very funny...
But, how would you translate "give me a break" into Spanish?
Maybe: something like "Dejame en paz?" Realmente ni idea...
"Give me a break" is similar to "cut me some slack" --don't take things so seriously...pardon me..Wow!....it's my native language and I can't think of how to get the point across without using one of those 2 expressions. Perhaps, show me some consideration...as in: "Mija, you haven't cleaned your room for a week!"
"Hey mom, show me some consideration, I've been studying for finals all week."
Or, FAR more common, "Give me (Gimme) a break, I've been studying for finals all week."
Any ideas??
Thanks

Well the phrase "dame quebrada, o dame una quebrada" refers to: waiting.
For example: Hey mom, wait!

Mija= Mi hija = My daughter

I hope it could help to answer your doubts !

Originally Posted by vicente

... Spanish, for all its beauty, does not have the wide variety of words to describe things in the same detail as can be done in English, at least, not to the average speaker. Example: camioneta=small truck, suv, station wagon, pickup. van, mini-van, etc. To my knowledge, there are no specific words for these vehicles individually in Latin America. If there are, they are not well known, so if I am trying to say I own a Ford pickup I have to say "pickup" because "camioneta" does not tell you which Ford product I'm talking about.

Hi Vicente,

I apologize for coming in late to this multivariate conversation, but I couldn't help but comment on this particular post.

I once believed this, too: that English had a lot more descriptive words than Spanish. But if you truly spend time living in one (preferably more than one) Spanish-speaking country, you'll learn that Spanish is at least as colorful and descriptive as English.

There are dozens of examples like the one you gave -- for both languages. Take the word "handle"...in Spanish, you have mango (broom, knife...), puño (umbrella), asa (cup, suitcase), manilla (door), empuñadura (racket, bat), etc.... I'm sure there are more.

Another one I remember being shocked by was the word "slice" (as in a slice of something)...in Spanish, there is porción (pizza, cake), trozo (cake), tajada (beef), rodaja (cucumber, etc), rebanada (bread), loncha (cheese...), etc.

These are just two good examples I have learned about along the way. There are MANY like this. Spanish is spoken as a native language in a lot more countries than English, and its slang and vernacular are accordingly diverse. Not to mention, you forgot a few common words in your example: furgón,
furgoneta, and la furgo, all used to describe slight variations of trucks, vans, etc, depending on what region of what country you're in.

Not to mention how much more descriptive all the conjugations in Spanish are! A few of them don't even EXIST in English!

All in all, after speaking Spanish for years, I think they're probably about equal.

Matt