spanglish

Spanglish is a term used to describe a continuum of Spanish-English language contact phenomena found among bilingual speakers, especially in the United States. It is not a single language, but a range of practices that mix elements of Spanish and English in discourse, including codeswitching, calques, and lexical borrowings.

Spanglish arose from contact between Spanish- and English-speaking communities in North America, especially among Mexican American and Puerto Rican populations and other Latinx groups. It is prominent in informal speech, media, and pop culture, with a long-standing presence in border regions and immigrant communities. Scholars describe Spanglish as a sociolinguistic resource signaling identity and belonging.

Linguistically, Spanglish features codeswitching—alternating languages within utterances—and the integration of English vocabulary into Spanish syntax, and vice versa. It includes calques and semantic shifts, plus phonological adaptations. Common forms include “I need to estudiar para el examen” and “parquear el carro.” Vocabulary frequently borrows terms for modern concepts that lack an easy Spanish equivalent.

Spanglish shows regional and social variation. Some speakers use light mixing with mostly Spanish grammar and a few English words; others mix more, affecting word order. It is tied to identity, with younger speakers often using it to signal bicultural belonging, while some communities view it as natural and others as stigmatized.

Scholarly work in sociolinguistics treats Spanglish as a legitimate language-contact phenomenon. Debates persist about its status and pedagogy, but it is widely acknowledged as a productive form of multilingual communication.