According to linguists, a new dialect is emerging in the US

Due to the recent cultural mingling of Spanish and English speakers, a distinctive new dialect has been arising in several areas of Miami.

The new vernacular, which originated from decades of immigration from Spanish-speaking nations—most notably Cuba since the revolution's end in 1959—is a Spanish-influenced dialect of English that is spoken throughout Southern Florida.

Miami is regarded as one of the most bilingual cities in the US and is possibly the most dialectally diverse Spanish-speaking metropolis in the world due to its majority Hispanic and Latino population. Spanish has a profound influence on American English, and in recent decades, it has blended with more established dialects to create new words and idioms.

Over the past ten or so years, linguists at Florida International University in Miami have been observing this linguistic evolution, and they think it provides a stunning illustration of how human languages are always changing to reflect historical and social contexts.

Professor Phillip M. Carter, the director of Florida International University's Centre for Humanities in an Urban Environment, said, "All words, dialects, and languages have a history."

"There are numerous ways to speak English in Miami. The primary linguistic variation of individuals born in South Florida in neighborhoods with a Latinx majority is the one we have been examining for the past ten years or so. The long-standing presence of Spanish in South Florida has influenced the variety's unique but ultimately insignificant pronunciations, slight grammatical variations, and word variances, according to Carter.

How does one pronounce Miami English?

Users of the new dialect will "borrow" Spanish proverbs and translate them directly into English, keeping the phrase's original Spanish structure. Linguists refer to this as a calque.

For example, in most American English dialects, "bajar del carro" means "get down from the car," not "get out of the car."

Similar to how "una empanada de carne" becomes "meat empanada" rather than the more precise "beef empanada," This is because the word "Carne" in Spanish can explicitly refer to beef or all meat, depending on the context.

Users stating something like, "Marco and I went to a bar and he invited me a beer," as opposed to, "Marco and I went to a bar and he bought me a beer," could serve as another illustration. Additionally, rather than saying, "We are going to throw a party for," people could be more likely to say, "We are going to make a party for my friend Maria."

Language evolution is seen by Miami English.

Although bilingual individuals created this Spanglish concoction first, linguists have observed that native English speakers in Miami have also started using some of the same expressions.

These are instances of literal translations or lexical calques. What makes them noteworthy is that, according to Carter, they were not only utilized in the speech of immigrants—people who are navigating the learning of English by relying on their native Spanish—but also in the speech of their offspring, who picked up English as a co-first language.

There are many calques in the English language, whether you realize you're using them or not. Carter provides an intriguing example in a piece for The Conversation, using the flower known as a "dandelion," which was derived from the French phrase "dent de lion." This can be found in Latin-language botany literature, where it was referred to as Dens lionis, or "lion's tooth."

To catalog calques of Spanish origin in the English used in South Florida, Carter conducted research in 2022 with linguist Kristen D'Allessandro Merii. First, they polled 33 Miami residents, comprising a mixed group of first- and second-generation Cuban Americans as well as non-Cuban Hispanics, to find out what they thought of over fifty sentences that exemplified the new dialect.

The sentences had to be rated as "perfect," "okay," "awkward," or "horrible." Then, a national group from outside of South Florida was given a similar assignment.

According to their research, the dialect was generally considered "natural" by Miamians, but it was far more foreign to those who didn't live there. The researchers stated that the study demonstrated how dialects develop, with minute variations and nuances building up to the point where non-speakers of the dialect see it as improper or 'foreign'.

Myths about Miami English

Regrettably, stigmatization of new dialects can occur, especially if they originate from marginalized areas. It's possible to tell someone they're speaking sloppily or mispronouncing words. Carter, however, aims to demonstrate that this is merely an incorrect understanding of how human languages develop into their amazing range of hues and tones.

Since Miami English is a variation of someone's native tongue, I want it to lose its stigma. It is the language that an individual hears in their neighborhood, uses in school, and learns from their parents. It's the range of languages in which they found love, formed friendships, and formed their identities. Carter queries, "Why should that be stigmatized?

This idea applies to all linguistic varieties. Stigmatizing any kind of human language is unnecessary. This is a reflection of our narrow view of humankind and language. The remarkable intertwining of our evolutionary potential for language with the distinct historical and cultural contexts in which that capacity finds context is reflected in all human language variants, the speaker continued.