English influence in a unilingual culture...coined anglicisms
Chirimoya,
No surprise that you are seeing these anglicisms used in Spanish but it does surprise me that they are being used so extensively in the DR. Yes, I know English has penetrated into many of the popular spoken languages worldwide to a higher or lesser degree but there is no reason that I could think of for the DR to adopt anglicisms over the standard variant. Like I mentioned in many other threads one expects crossover words and expressions in two scenarios: 1) cultures/ countries where the two languages coexist but the DR is questionable 2) education (lack of knowledge of Spanish vocabulary) is also a key reason for the usage of anglicisms.
You say any others, Chiri I could give you a whole book full and the irony is every time I hear an anglicism it's a NEW word for me and sometimes the meaning is not easy to decipher in the cross over usage because it's so incorrect. I have not fallen into the trap of using anglicisms. For example the three words you mentioned I have never heard used here (yet) which is where I anticipate hearing language mixing, anglicisms and neologisms etc. and coincidentally these are new words (per se) for me. Words like the aforementioned do throw me off at first when I see them being used in the nontraditional context. Spanish speakers who do not speak English struggle with the semantic context of these words.
A few years ago I had to do an analysis and presentation on anglicisms etc. in the Spanish language and it was quite enlightening but anyway here is a summary of the words you mentioned:
1) presente: used in US Spanish to mean gift (regalo). This usage has been sanctioned by the RAE.
2) confrontación - I could not find an analysis on this word. I am hard pressed to believe it's an official word.
3) exhibición- Same as above. I could not find an analysis on this word. I am hard pressed to believe it's an official word.
Your examples 2 and 3 may be newly coined anglicisms thus not yet analyzed by the RAE.
There is a wealth of resources available on anglicisms and their 'coined usage' that are very insightful. It's an exhausted topic for me however two words I recently heard that was surprising was 'populación' instead of 'población' and 'parragrafo' instead of 'párrafo'. The usage of the internet has contributed significantly to the creation of new anglicisms and neologisms.
You asked about other LA countries. Basically, the infiltration in some countries is taking longer but Latin America is facing a crisis in coping with the influx of these nonofficial words. When analyzing the level of concentration of anglicisms you have to break it down into sectors. For example on a colloquial level, commercial level, ads, television, music, literature etc. As mentioned in previous discussions proximity to US culture is the key factor in linguistic drift. Any Latin country I visit I do pay close attention to the usage of anglicisms for analytical and documentation purposes later on. If you visit large US cities like Miami, NYC, LA etc. you will see the inevitable cross linguistic influence.
Saludos,
LDG.
Last edited by Lesley D; 12-22-2005 at 12:24 AM.
Reason: grammar & edited one word
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Anglicismos?
