Anglicisms in the Chilean sporting press.

This entry has been dedicated to Anglicisms used in the sporting language. As we already known, in technology, economy and modern life in general it can be found many loanwords coming from the English language. However, sports is the one which has called the attention to many linguists who are interested in this phenomenon. In 2008 for example, Kmotrikova carried out a research about the presence of Anglicisms in the Spanish sport. In this study, he points out that one the most remarkable features of the sporting language is the presence of foreign words. Virtually, most of them come from English language (adrenalina,ace, bádminton, birdie, club, coach, chut, derbi, dopar, fairplay, fan,gol, handicap, jockey, líder, open, penalty, polo, rally, ring, rugby, sponsor, sprint, team,tenis, tie break, water polo, etc). He also mentions that the high prevalence has several reason. Firstly, England was the cradle of many modern sports; therefore, they established the rules and create the first sporting organizations. Secondly, the supremacy of the English language facilitates the spread of those words in the sporting field, which are rapidly adopted by recipient languages like Spanish. Accordingly, the results showed that the sports with the highest level of Anglicicims were Football, Golf and Tennis, all of them invented in England.

In our country, no one has carried out yet any study related to Anglicisms in the sporting language. However, it is known that the presence of English words in sports is highly prevalent, especially in Football, Basketball,Tennis and Boxing. As evidence of that, I have conducted a little research about Anglicisms in the sporting Chilean press on Internet. The findings are surprising!

Please, take a look and leave your comments.

The presence of English in our modern life.

As it was already mentioned, the presence of English in Chile is very noticeable, an evidence of that is the growing number of Anglicisms that Chilean Spanish has adopted in the last decades. In comparison to the case of Spain and many other Latin American varieties of Spanish, the Chilean one is even more open towards these English words (Glass, 2006); in many cases, trying to conserve their original pronunciation. For example, the word surf is pronounced /surf/ in Spain, but /sɜʳf/ in Chile; also, in Spain, it is common to hear the word "ordenador" for computer, while in Chile it is said "Computador". In this sense, according to Saez Godoy, that reflects how this influx of foreign words can be linked to the “American Way of Life”, which seems to be seen as a desirable model for many young Chileans who are immersed in this modern world. Thus, In technology, many words such as pen drive, CD, DVD are also pronounced in the original way (/si:di:/ and /dividi:/), as opposed to the Iberian Spanish pronunciation, which adapts the letters to the Spanish alphabet. Saez also made a connection between the way in which language change (in terms of new lexical items) and the cultural change. He provided examples such as cinemas in shopping malls, Halloween celebrations, park cemeteries, donuts and jeans, the different music styles of English-speaking origin, such as Hip Hop, Rock, Grunge and Funk, and other observations that prove how strong and significant English is in the commercial and technological side of the Chilean modernity.
Other studies have shown that in certain Chilean business and academic circles, there is a tendency towards an increasing "intra-national use of English" (Larraín, 2009), especially in Economics and Business Studies where it seems that the title in English gives a "Scientific aura" that is necessary to communicate certain topics. In a nutshell, the presence of English language has become so strong that many economists and scholars consider that the language of business and economy in Chile is English.




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Common Anglicisms used in the jargon of the young Chilean people.

Hi there! this post is aimed to present you the most common Anglicisms used by the young Chilean people. This list contains the most recurrent Anglicisms according to a research carried out in Santiago in 2011.

Brother: Expression denoting a friend
Bye: "good bye"
Cachai: (catch) to understand.
Chance: luck, opportunity, probability
Chequear: to check out
Cool: expression used to denote something entertaining
Comfort: comfort
Crazy: Loco
Curso: course, evolution.
Deleción:deletion
Enfatizar: to emphasize to highlight
Feedback: feedback
Feeling: Feelings
Flash: fast
Bye: Good bye
Hello: Hi
Hipy:  A person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair and wearing beads, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values
Hobby: Recreational activity
Junior: Young person
Lider: Leader
Man: Man
Miss: Miss
Money: Dough
O.k.: O' kay
Party: Party
Randomizar:To randomize
Status: Status
Water: toilet, john, head
Estrés: Stress

Do you know some other ones? Sure you do!... Share them with us

Anglicisms in the Chilean Spanish: Permeability or lack of lexical equivalents

This entry is aimed to discuss about the permeability of the language argued by some Chilean Linguists. Saíz, Lopez among others agree with the fact that our Chilean Spanish is pervious to foreign influences, especially to those coming from Anglo-saxon countries. In this sense, it is argued that in many fields such as economy, fashion, technology and science the English influence is so strong that most of the lexical terms are adopted as part of the lexical repertoire without any morphological or phonological adaptation, and  become widely used by Chilean people in their daily conversations  For example in economy it is common to hear words such as retail, redbank, holding, leasing, cash, ticket, etc, The same happens in technology with words such as software, hardware, mail, link, smartphone, smart tv, etc. It seems to be that the global market provides too much services and products that do not find a lexical equivalents in the recipient language. Although it can be also possible that there is an intention to use these Anglicisms as a economic strategy to sell these products and services. In sum, what it is true is the great impact that  Anglicisms have on the renewal of the lexicon; due to the rapid acquisition and use of the words by all the people, no matter the economical or social status that they belong to.

However, it is important to mention that little has been written about the functionality of the Anglicisms. in this sense, it can not be denied that Anglicisms play a significant role by filling lexical gaps that our language is not able to fill. The dynamisch of this modern globalized society is faster than languages dynamasch; things changes so rapid that languages can not react  on time to create new lexical terms to describe or name the new developments in all the fields. Less probably is then, that language can prevent these chages. Therefore, Chilian linguists should see this issue from a different prespective based on the dynamisch of the language. Some words desappiar, others become less common, and of course, new words are created and adopted, this is the way how languages work. Languages are not ecstatic, they are dynamic, and therefore, changes according to the ages.

Anglicisms in the Chilean press.

The adoption of English loan-words is evident in the journalistic language of the Chilen press. This has been demonstrated by studies carried out in Chile in the lexical neology field (Dieguez, 2004), reflecting the willingness of the Chilean press to incorporate English lexical terms; for example, when new realities appear, the press is an "Extraordinary observatory"  and a source of collection and dissemination of Neologism and Anglicisms (Perdiguero, 2003), especially in areas of knowledge, such as economy, technology, fashion, advertising, etc. Mainly because journalists use them for various reasons: lexical gaps, new writing styles, the prestige attributed and even, the laziness incurred privileging the transfer instead of translation.

Thus, readers tend to assign much value to the foreign words reported in the press that they finally store them and make them part of their own lexicon. A Chilean study (Dieguez, 2004) shows that sometimes are experts who encourage the incorporation of Anglicisms to the language in the media lexicon, but most of the time are the journalists who decide to adopt words and expressions from English language. Therefore, the press can be considered as the main mean of spread of this type of neologisms causing an accelerated process of renewal and increase of our lexicon" (Godoy Sáez, 2005).

The media in general, but especially the written press plays an important role as a means of pouring the Spanish Anglicisms. In fact, the journalistic language is not only a source of lexical creativity, but also a mirror that reflects the linguistic changes of the Chilean society.

The first reseach about Anglicisms carried out in Chile.

Did you know that the first research about Anglicisms in Chile was in 1942? Gabriele Schwarzhaupt's thesis called “Die englischen Fremd- und Lehnwˆrter im chilenischen Spanisch” carried out in 1942, was the first study regarding the Anglicisms in Chile. It begins with a chapter about cultural relations between England and the US with Chile. Then, it provides a phonetic analysis of the loan words.  But, the core of the thesis is formed by conceptual and alphabetical sorts of lexical terms found in Chile. Interestingly, this study distinguishes the Anglicisms that come directly from English and also those that come from other languages and were adopted by English before they were incorporated into the Chilean Spanish (guatapercha, pijama).

The sources were newspapers (El Mercurio, Santiago, El Correo de Valdivia, retrieved between 1939 and 1940), literary works and Chilenism dictionaries (Roman, Medina, Echeverria and Kings).

The results showed significant data, according to Schwarzhaupt, the British influence was in fields related to sports, navigation and costumes. While, the most significant influence of the US was on technology, industry and increasingly in the spiritual life of Chilean people, especially the youth: parties, dances, fashion and cinema.

Another important inference is that the US linguistic influence was increasing as much as its economic influence; which could be proved by the amount of Anglicisms related to industry, trade, shipping lines, mobile, news agencies, newspapers and radio stations.

In short, this is the first comprehensive collection of Anglicisms in the Chilean Spanish, made by a German researcher in Germany. The material collected is abundant: more than seven hundred entries with phonetic and semantic indications that can still be useful, not only for historical purposes, but also for socio-cultural purposes, since the evidence that the growing influence of the US was already observed before the economic policies established  in Chile in the 1980s.

Are we becoming bilinguals in an overlapped way?

It is well known that the Globalization process, largely is an Americanization of the world, which has received a considerable boost with the undeniable fact that, today, the US is the only global superpower. In this sense, Leopoldo Saez points out that  the American way of life has become a very desirable model; all young people wear jeans and T-shirts with slogans in English. Mostly, they are rockers, rappers, punkies and techno lovers. Moreover, they  eat "sandwiches ", "hot dogs" and "hamburgers".
All this influence has had a profound impact on the lexicon of music, sports,
economy, computing and technology in general. Even, our alcohol culture has been radically transformed. English has reshaped our traditional habits, cornering increasingly "the chicha", the wine and  "the pipeño" widely tasted in "cantinas". But, we no longer drink in "cantinas", they have been replaced by "pubs" and "bars", in which "the barmans" delight with their "Piscos sour" that are usually drunk during the  "happy hours" when those are cheaper. We can also taste "cocktails" or "combined", long drinks such as "gin" or" "tonic with gin" and "Manhattans". There are varieties for everyone; "Tom Collins" , "Whiskey", "brandy" or "rum" for gentlemen; "cherry" and "sours", for ladies.

In another field, we got used to the idea that "Lady Gaga", the new "queen of
pop", famous for her daring music and her "sexy" and glamorous "look", has reached the "top" of the "rankings" with her latest "hits", which sound in every "discotheque" where "Djs" make "remixes" of her "CDs" and "DVDs" to please the energic "fans" who dance lively "on the floor"

English is producing an accelerated process of renewal and growth of our lexicon in both the surface plane of linguistic forms and the deepest of content. Science and technology are increasingly being developed in English and our culture is not prepared to adapt or create new lexical terms for those new words. Hence, in many cases, Chilean people incorporate Anglicisms because of the lack of equivalent to express this "new way of life". They use them because they need them.

I've share a song by El cuarteto de nos, which illustrates how anglicisms are inserted in our Latin American Spanish.  See you next week!!