Chicano English

E9143

Chicano English is a distinct, rule-governed variety of American English commonly spoken by Mexican Americans, characterized by unique phonological and syntactic features influenced by Spanish and regional dialects.

Aliases (1)

Statements (54)
Predicate Object
instanceOf English language variety
dialect
ethnolect
variety of American English
associatedWithIdentity Chicano identity
Mexican American identity
canBeSpokenBy monolingual English speakers of Mexican American background
hasAlternativeName Mexican American English
hasFeatureType lexical features
phonological features
prosodic features
syntactic features
hasKeyResearcher Carmen Fought
John R. Rickford
Walt Wolfram
hasLexicalFeature borrowing of Spanish-origin words
code-switching with Spanish for some bilingual speakers
hasPhonologicalFeature influence of Spanish vowel system on English vowels
monophthongization of /eɪ/ in some contexts
possible devoicing or weakening of final consonants in some varieties
reduced distinction between /ɪ/ and /iː/ for some speakers
rhotic pronunciation (pronounced /r/ in all positions) for many speakers
hasSyntacticFeature occasional calques from Spanish structures
variable use of past tense and participle morphology in some speakers
variable use of prepositions influenced by Spanish patterns
influencedBy Mexican Spanish
Spanish
regional American English dialects
isMutuallyIntelligibleWith General American English
isNot broken English
interlanguage
learner English
isRecognizedAs legitimate dialect of English
isRuleGoverned true
isSociallyStigmatized often
languageBranch Germanic languages
languageFamily Indo-European languages
languageGroup English language
languageSubbranch West Germanic languages
primarilySpokenBy Mexican Americans
spokenByGeneration later-generation Mexican Americans
second-generation Mexican Americans
third-generation Mexican Americans
spokenIn United States
studiedInField applied linguistics
sociolinguistics
variationist linguistics
typicalRegion American Southwest
California
Chicago metropolitan area
Colorado
New Mexico
Texas
other urban centers with large Mexican American populations

Referenced by (2)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Chicano English ("Mexican American English")
hasAlternativeName
American English
hasVariant

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