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.