Meaning of word "Spanglish"

Question

When I searched the forum for "Spanglish," the discussions centered around "borrowings" from one language to the other.

I found this curious, because the words "Ringlish" [Russian] and "Chinglish" [Chinese], as well as many others which I am quite familiar with have a completely different meaning.

Let's take Ringlish, for example. It refers to when you go to Russia and try to read their English version of a menu which offers "eggs under fog of fried elephants" as the most understandable item on the whole menu.

I recently had an experience with this form of Spanglish. When reading a description of a real estate property, it stated: "with a stove sliding down the front slope." This brought tears to my eyes.

Spanglish probably has a different meaning because the two languages are so similar. And, indeed, during my visits to Spanish speaking countries, I did not find unreadable menus, translations in bronze on plaques in front of historical sites which caused me pain when I doubled over in laughter. Nor were there items on the store shelves like "Barf" dish washing liquid, etc.

So my question is, "what is the word you use for such humorous miss-translations?"

Answer 1

Spanglish is when someone is speaking in mixed Spanish and English.

Examples:

"No creo que you did that!"

"¿Quien are you taking a la fiesta?"

On the radio station I listen to, I hear one of the guys speak a lot of Spanglish.

Thanks for the link to your radio station. After finding your earlier post, I too have found it valuable to listen to them. - territurtle, Jun 8, 2011

De nada - danrivera, Jun 8, 2011

Answer 2

" Spanglish" is not a recognized language. It is a form in which words are borrowed or corrupted to compose new words using Spanish and English together, or mixing the two languages in the same phrase.

Example:

Postear = to post

Parquear= to park

Rufero= roofer

Bloguear= to blog

Lonchar= to have lunch

I know there are at least a thousand more, some more humorous than others.

We do not hear these in México often with the exception of those related to the internet.

But isn´t this the normal behavior of all language evolution? Why invent a new word for it when linguists have been calling it "borrowing" for decades? - territurtle, Jun 8, 2011