Hispanic Language
Hispanic English is a dialect of English. It is also sometimes referred to as “Chicano English.”
Emerging Hispanic English: New dialect formation in the American South
Although stable Hispanic populations have existed in some regions of the United States for centuries, other regions, including the mid-Atlantic South, are just experiencing the emergence of permanent Hispanic communities. This situation offers an ideal opportunity to examine the dynamics of new dialect formation in progress, and the extent to which speakers acquire local dialect traits as they learn English as a second language. We focus on the production of the /ai/ diphthong among adolescents in two emerging Hispanic communities, one in an urbanand one in a rural context. Though both English and Spanish have the diphthong /ai/, the Southern regional variant of the benchmark local dialect norm is unglided, thus providing a local dialect alternative. The instrumental analysis of /ai/ shows that there is not pervasive accommodation to the local norm by Hispanic speakers learning English. There is, however, gradient, incremental adjustment of the /ai/, and individual speakers who adopt local cultural values may accommodate to the local dialect pattern.
INTRODUCTION
Spanish speakers are by far the largest group of current immigrants to the United States mainland. During the 1990s, the Hispanic population increased by over 50 percent, and since the 2000 census, it has grown nearly four times faster than the overall U.S. population. In the process, Hispanics have replaced African Americans as the largest minority group in the U.S., with a population nowt otaling nearly 40 million. At the same time, people descended from the Spanish have populated the Americas since the ￠fteenth century, and are second only to Native Americans in their continuous habitation in North America. Language variation among Spanish heritage residents therefore ranges fromthe speech of long-term, regionally situated English
Emerging Hispanic English: New dialect formation in the American South
Although stable Hispanic populations have existed in some regions of the United States for centuries, other regions, including the mid-Atlantic South, are just experiencing the emergence of permanent Hispanic communities. This situation offers an ideal opportunity to examine the dynamics of new dialect formation in progress, and the extent to which speakers acquire local dialect traits as they learn English as a second language. We focus on the production of the /ai/ diphthong among adolescents in two emerging Hispanic communities, one in an urbanand one in a rural context. Though both English and Spanish have the diphthong /ai/, the Southern regional variant of the benchmark local dialect norm is unglided, thus providing a local dialect alternative. The instrumental analysis of /ai/ shows that there is not pervasive accommodation to the local norm by Hispanic speakers learning English. There is, however, gradient, incremental adjustment of the /ai/, and individual speakers who adopt local cultural values may accommodate to the local dialect pattern.
INTRODUCTION
Spanish speakers are by far the largest group of current immigrants to the United States mainland. During the 1990s, the Hispanic population increased by over 50 percent, and since the 2000 census, it has grown nearly four times faster than the overall U.S. population. In the process, Hispanics have replaced African Americans as the largest minority group in the U.S., with a population nowt otaling nearly 40 million. At the same time, people descended from the Spanish have populated the Americas since the ￠fteenth century, and are second only to Native Americans in their continuous habitation in North America. Language variation among Spanish heritage residents therefore ranges fromthe speech of long-term, regionally situated English
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