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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Hello... It was a very interesting post. I knew that English was a language that people considered important in order to communicate with the rest of the world, but I didn't know that it is consider the language of business and economy in Chile . Though, it does make sense because most of the world population speak English as a tool for communication. Great post! :D
ResponderEliminarMar San! the other day I was passing by "Colloki" (children's clothing store) and I realised they had this "New arrival" sign. Then, I wondered if people who buy at that shop -or any other- actually know what it says in there, so I came up with the idea of interviewing pedestrians or people going shopping about these words you mentioned, or others that are surrounding us! I think that would be pretty interesting to see!
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