1st December:
"Abuela, Jesus is already in his manger"
"Yes, he was premature".
Recently, I noticed my grandmother has a tendency to sprinkle her vocabulary with magnificently butchered English words. After some time I realized it's not just abuela who has this habit but pretty much everyone around her, friends, family and employees included. No wonder some anglophones believe that English is endangered. Our conversations are always in Spanish, and my grandmother doesn't speak much English:
20th December:
"What are we going to do with the grafe?"
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"The grafe, should we peel it?" Mary points at grapefruit.
24th December:
"Abuela, what are you doing with that electric saw?"
"I'm cutting the turkey in sly"
"Sly?"
"Si, sly". Aunt Gina enlightens confused niece by indicating with a horizontal hand motion.
"Ahh, slices", and a whole conversation about sly cutting procedes to take place between Aunt Gina and Abuela.
27th December:
"Y alli concluye nuestro eevening tourr. Como te gusto el sy sitting?"
"...You mean site seeing?"
"Si! Sy sitting. See, you understand".
So as you can see, a pattern is already emerging here. I plan on investigating further and keeping an ear out for any more borrowings other than the already commonly accepted ones such as wachar (to keep a look out - observar), parquear (to park a car - estacionar), and maybe even do a very informal sociolinguistic survey based on observations. Maybe.
"Abuela, Jesus is already in his manger"
"Yes, he was premature".
Recently, I noticed my grandmother has a tendency to sprinkle her vocabulary with magnificently butchered English words. After some time I realized it's not just abuela who has this habit but pretty much everyone around her, friends, family and employees included. No wonder some anglophones believe that English is endangered. Our conversations are always in Spanish, and my grandmother doesn't speak much English:
20th December:
"What are we going to do with the grafe?"
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"The grafe, should we peel it?" Mary points at grapefruit.
24th December:
"Abuela, what are you doing with that electric saw?"
"I'm cutting the turkey in sly"
"Sly?"
"Si, sly". Aunt Gina enlightens confused niece by indicating with a horizontal hand motion.
"Ahh, slices", and a whole conversation about sly cutting procedes to take place between Aunt Gina and Abuela.
27th December:
"Y alli concluye nuestro eevening tourr. Como te gusto el sy sitting?"
"...You mean site seeing?"
"Si! Sy sitting. See, you understand".
So as you can see, a pattern is already emerging here. I plan on investigating further and keeping an ear out for any more borrowings other than the already commonly accepted ones such as wachar (to keep a look out - observar), parquear (to park a car - estacionar), and maybe even do a very informal sociolinguistic survey based on observations. Maybe.
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