Running Head: MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Spanglish Slang Morphological Analysis

ENGL 1200-002
Nayelli Bautista
May 5, 2015

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Abstract
The research conducted examines the dialect of a Spanglish speaker, which is a
combination of English and Spanish used in their speech. Classifying the distinctive
phrases and words used in the dialect of the speaker was the top priority of this project.
Unfortunately, though there were some intriguing phrases none would be unique to a
Spanglish speaker.

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Introduction and Review of Literature

In California, speaking English is honestly not required to survive, especially in
the city of Los Angeles. A resident of California can easily find a place of employment
speaking only Spanish. However, in Utah the culture is completely different speaking
English is a must to seek employment. Although, speaking Spanish is an advantage here
and there is even a higher pay available to bilingual speakers. Its interesting to see the
different versions of the English language spoken all over the states. I decided to do my
study on the words created combining these to languages together.
Depending on the region you reside, your dialect will be different from those of
other areas of the country even though its the same language. There are not many
regional variances in morphology however residents new to the area will catch the

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differences (Grady, 2010). The primary distinction is the use of plural and singular in
certain states (Grady, 2010). Also, code switch and borrowing are methods of speech
used in several zones. For example, Spanglish is considered both code switch and
borrowing as individuals converse back and forwards in both languages. Yet, they also
create words by borrowing from both languages such as the word lizard which
originated from the Spanish word el lagarto(Grady, 2010).
Methodology
The participant I chose for this study was a 25-year-old female
from Los Angeles, CA named Kathleen Gomez. She has resided in Los Angeles all her
life and is a bilingual speaker who uses Spanglish in her daily conversations. Since the
participant lives in California the call was recorded via smart phone. In order to obtain
her permission to record, I emailed her a copy of the consent form and had her sign it and
email it back. The purpose of this call is to identify ten distinctive phrases or words from
Kathleens speech.

initiated the conversation by asking questions related to her hobbies and her daily routine.
At first the conversation seemed awkward since we both knew the call was being
recorded. However I continued to question Kathleen of her interests and a couple of
minutes in the conversation became natural. The call lasted approximately 20 minutes. I
listened to the recording several times and selected the phrases I would use for this

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research.
Results
The results of the study conducted were not as projected. I found
very few unique phrases in Kathleens dialect. Also, I did not capture many Spanglish
words in the recording. Though she did switch back and forth from Spanish to English
throughout the call. All of the words are examples of borrowing and code switch. It
seemed most of the words came from the Latin origin though there were same from
different origins such as Spanish, Portuguese, French and English.

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Implications
The results can be helpful towards future research conducted on the Spanglish
language. Even though someone may live in a region where this dialect is used often
does not mean they will use the merged language. I believe a limitation of this study was
the number of participants and length of the call conducted. For anyone wishing to
further this study I would recommend considering at least 2 participants from the same
are and making the calls at least 35 minutes long. This will give them a larger
terminology to work with and the possibility of uncovering unique phrases. Overall
examination helped me comprehend one must conduct an experiment to test their
hypothesis and not assume the outcome of a study.

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References
Grady, W. (2010). Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction (6th ed.). New York: St.
Martins Press.

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Appendix

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11

Audio