Trouble learning the lingo? Linguists identify new hybrid English-Spanish dialect forming in Miami

A NEW English-Spanish hybrid has been identified as emerging in Miami by linguists. 

A result of cultural mixing, this dialect sees a Spanish-influenced dialect of English being spoken in the United States. 

Specifically this hybrid has been heard in Miami where people have immigrated to from Spanish speaking countries for decades. 

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This city in the sunshine state has a large Hispanic and Latino population. This group have caused the Spanish language to intermingle with American English, creating new expressions and phrases.

Those speaking the dialect use Spanish sayings and phrases and directly translate them into English but keep the Spanish phrase structure. 

For example rather than saying ‘get out of the car’ they translate bajar del carro to ‘’get down from the car’.

New dialects, like Miami English, are often stigmatised, especially when they stem from marginalised communities. 

All languages however evolve over time, changing in structure, vocabulary and word order.

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Studying these changes are linguists, and for Miami English a group of these academics at Florida International University in Miami have been able to witness the rise of the new dialect first hand.

Leading this group is Professor Philip M. Carter, Director of the Centre for Humanities in an Urban Environment at the Florida International University.

“I want Miami English to lose its stigma because Miami English is someone’s home language variety. It’s the language that person learned from their parents, that they used in school, that they hear in their community. It’s the language variety they developed their identity in, developed their friendships in, found love in. Why should that be stigmatised?”, Carter said in a conversation with IFL Science. 

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Carter also mentioned that his team have been studying Miami English ‘for the past 10 years’ and that it is now ‘the main language of people born in South Florida in Latinx-majority communities’. 

This new way of communicating was created by bilingual people but, according to linguists, is now being picked up by native English speakers in Miami. 

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