ABSTRACT
The Hispanic community in the USA, while classified by the US Government under a single denomination for statistical purposes, is far from homogenous. The rich cultural and language backgrounds that its constituents bring to the host country evolve in the process of integration, and often incorporate forms of non-standard language. For the purpose of this study, ‘non-standard’ language will include any linguistic phenomena that are consistent with cultures and languages in contact such as code-switching, i.e. borrowing in all its forms: pure loanwords, calques, loan blends, semantic extensions, hybrid creations (Mendieta, 1999). The general population does not make a distinction between different linguistic classifications and extends the label of ‘Spanglish’, or other terms often used synonymously such as ‘pidgin’ and ‘pochismo’ (which address specific linguistic adaptations) to any form of speech that deviates from the standard forms they know. Lipski (2008) notes that, ‘Much of the discourse surrounding Spanglish is in effect a discussion of language switching’ (p. 55). However, this study casts a wider net, more consistent with popular perceptions, to include any form of speech that characterizes Spanish in the USA.
