Amglish In, Like, Ten Easy Lessons_ A Celebration of the New World Lingo - Arthur E. Rowse [74]
A version of Runglish lives in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where Russian-Americans frequently get away from either Russian or English with such terms as kool, koka-kola, and friendessi (girlfriends), words that they undoubtedly get from television and movies. Worth noting is the Runglish word for Xerox copy: kserokopirovat.
SINGLISH
Singlish, the third oldest lish, continues to thrive today but with its original British flavor increasingly spiced with American terms. Most young people in Singapore reportedly consider it their primary language, while others use it as a second language.
As described at the beginning of this chapter, Singlish is a mixture of many languages, reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of the tiny country, where public signs are often written in three or four languages. Although Singlish borrows many English terms, it is not easily understood by native English speakers because of the bizarre mixture of words and the accents given them.
In fact, there are various versions of Singlish itself. In the simplest combination of Standard English and Singlish, the sentence, “This person’s Singlish is very good” comes across as “Dis guy Singlish damn powerful one lah.” In a more colloquial version, the same sentence comes out, “Dis guy Singrish si beh powerful sia. It can be damn confusing to dis visiting guy.”
In 2000, the government started a “Speak Good English” movement in an effort to reduce the use of Singlish. But Singlish has reportedly continued to proliferate on radio and television, reflecting its increased popularity with the general public, especially comedians. Humor writer Sylvia Toh Paik Choo has written several books about it, including a glossary called Pasar Patois.
SPANGLISH
Spanglish has been spoken in the United States for centuries. But never has it had such currency as now when federal and state governments are struggling to control the persistent flow of Latinos into the country.
As a result, some American newspapers in English are starting to run sections and columns in Spanish or Spanglish. One of the latter appears in The New Mexican, a daily in Santa Fe, New Mexico, under the title Growing Up Spanglish. The author, Larry Torres, writes it in such way that a person without any knowledge of Spanish can understand it.
Spanglish comes in many forms, depending on the country of origin. It ranges from the Cubonics spoken by Cuban-Americans, to the Nuyorican spoken in New York by Puerto Ricans, to the Dominicanish from Dominican Republic and the Spanglish spoken by Mexican-Americans in East Los Angeles, or Istlos, as denizens of the area pronounce it.
Spanglish also thrives in other Spanish-speaking countries, particularly in Latin America. Even the British living in Argentina are said to speak it. American Spanglish even has its purists who claim that the Tex-Mex common in Texas is not Spanglish because it is a variety of Mexican Spanish, nor is the Ladino spoken in parts of New Mexico, for the same reason. But not to worry; they surely qualify as Amglish.
Meanwhile, American words and phrases are increasingly creeping into conversations among Spanish-Americans, while many Spanish words are becoming Americanized. Latinos often ask for a Kleenex rather than a panuelo, and they butear (boot up) their computer in order to surfear (surf) the Web. If a mistake is made, they deletear it. Typical Spanglish words include colid for caller ID, for-yun-key for a 401(k) account, and of course the famous grincar for a green card.
In Spain, the home of pure Spanish, there is broad contempt for the mixture of Spanish and English as the language of the poor. Yet Spanglish can be seen there in restaurant menus, literature, and heard in popular music lyrics, especially rock, hip-hop, and salsa groups.
SWENGLISH
English has a strong presence in Sweden, especially in the sports, computing, and business worlds. The results often are