A history of the English Language

Chicano English,
the authors 
conclude: “Within the Chicano community, there is a large span of social differences 
which are correlated to differences in language acquisition patterns, language usage—
code-choice—and linguistic variables pertaining to Chicano English and other dialects. 
When considering Chicano English and patterns of language usage, it is perhaps a 
misnomer to refer to 
‘the
Chicano community’ when there is such wide variation within 
the community.”
43
Such variation contributes to the difficulty of estimating the number of 
speakers of Chicano English; within the United States a reasonable number would be 25 
to 30 million people. Whereas speakers of other varieties of English might modulate the 
degree of regionalism or ethnicity by changing the proportions of certain variable 
structures of English, speakers of Chicano English who also know Spanish might shift 
out of English altogether within a single sentence. This 
code-switching 
between English 
and Spanish is a familiar feature of Chicano English, as illustrated in the works of 
Rolando Hinojosa:
43 
Joyce Penfield and Jacob L.Ornstein-Galicia, 
Chicano English: An Ethnic Contact Dialect
(Amsterdam, 1985), p. 18. 
The english language in america 363

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Mi querido Rafa: Election Day plus two and God’s in his heaven and 
Noddy’s in 
his;
regarding each other with suspicion, one would imagine. 
Pues sí, it’s in all the papers y no te traigo noticias que tú no sepas. 
Ahora solamente es asunto de pick up the pieces and the litter. 
Our newest commissioner is more restrained, less exuberant, as it 
were—eso de ‘as it were’ es frasecita de Ira; le gusta y la usa venga o no 
al caso. Sorry, no free samples, Si no se cuida, la gente le va a poner 
Asitwere,
at the very least. 
Dear Rafe: Election Day plus two and God’s in His heaven, and Noddy’s 
in his, regarding each other with suspicion, one would imagine. 
Well, sir, it’s in all the papers, and Fm not telling you something you 
don’t already know. And now, it’s simply a matter of picking up the 
pieces and the litter. 
Our newest commissioner is more restrained, less exuberant, 
as it 
were
. This last is now a pet phrase. As such, he uses it at the drop of a 
jaw. If he’s not careful, the instructed electorate will start calling him 
Asitwere
. At the very least.
44
To the extent that dialects are defined by word choices, the lexicon of Hispanic American 
English presents a more contemporary picture than the oldfashioned rural vocabulary of 
traditional dialect studies. While fewer and fewer speakers know that a 
whiffletree
involves a harness or that a 
spider
can be a skillet, words used to trace isoglosses in Hans 
Kurath’s 
Word Geography,
a growing population in the United States and in other 
English-speaking countries knows the meaning of 
tapas, seviche,
and 
luminaria
. The 
categories of borrowed words include politics, from which we get 
Sandinista, Contra, 
Fidelist;
food and drink, represented by 
nachos, burrito, sangria, margarita;
and 
ethnicity, with 
Chicano
and 
Chicana, Latino
and 
Latina
as prominent designations.
45
In 
the past, Spanish borrowings have typically marked the regional dialects of Western and 
border states—California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado—and then some have 
gained general currency in American English. A few of these words have become part of 
world English. Contact between Spanish and English will be a continuing source for the 
introduction of new or revived Spanish words into regional varieties of English
44 
Rolando Hinojosa,