Actually, I do this. I'm Argentinean, went to an english school, and with my brothers and friends we do this. We maybe start a sentence in spanish and then say something in english because it's more accuarate, or easy to say. Sometimes is about vocabulary, my brain finds a word in english and not in spanish, or viceversa. We also take english verbs and conjugate them in spanish ("¿Vamos a breakfastear?" "Waiteame un cacho, ya estoy.") or viceverga. Maybe just throwing in one single noun to show their mother tongue is actually spanish is a bit retarded, specially for the fact that they usually can put together very strong complexes terms but go totally amiss on something easy ("Say, vato, could you give me la botella, I have to precipitate a quad of this perhydro-iminopyrindine to react it with a synthase, and then we can go drink some café.") But that's just bad screenwriting.
I've also lived in germany, among foreigneres, and we'd always mix languages.
My take.
Spanglish is a continuation of this idea. If you like spanglish, you'd do well in Googling "In un placete de la mancha", you might find this amusing.
reply
share
mcksdratt
13 years ago
I know, I do that too. I was referring to what you say about bad screenwriting, using just one noun in Spanish in a complex sentence in English. That example you gave is perfect.
reply
share