(Gift article link, doesn’t require a subscription to view without paywall.)

This article, from a few weeks ago, describes the linguistic phenomenon where a highly bilingual community starts incorporating direct translations of phrases from Spanish, to where those non-standard phrases get adopted by English speakers who don’t even speak Spanish themselves.

I thought it was interesting, because I’ve seen this very same phenomenon play out in Chinese American communities, where certain Chinese idioms or phrases (especially of prepositions) tend to show little remnants in the English translation of that idea.

Have you seen this in your bilingual community? What are your favorite examples?

  • rothaine@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Super interesting!

    Linguistics is so cool. I only took a 101 class in college but it is really such a neat field.