Stephanie Natolo

Does Spanglish Exist in Australia? a Pilot Study: a Linguistic Analysis of Spanglish and the Linguistic Behaviours of Native Spanish Speakers in Australia Stephanie Natolo

The Spanish language, like others, comes into contact with other languages, and Spanglish takes place among a plethora of language contact blends. Spanglish has not been formally recognised as a language, nor has it been classified as a particular linguistic phenomenon. This inter-language is more of a continuum alternation of Spanish and English within the same discourse. While extensively researched in the United States of America, little is known about this contemporary language contact in countries, such as Australia. This book explores the first and only Australian study on Spanglish, and the bilingual language contact amongst 50 Hispanic-Australians in Australia. It examines their demographic background, linguistic elements and other factors thereby illuminating our understanding of their chosen speech forms. This book proffers that rather than compensating for linguistic deficiency, the prevalence of this linguistic construct is a natural consequence of language shift and language loss, a trajectory of most immigrant speech communities worldwide. It also provides an insight into the recognition and acceptance of Spanglish, and its legitimacy at linguistic and social levels.