May
8
Extranjerismos
Formula 1 auto racing is not my cup of tea and I have zero interest in it, especially after the Lewis Hamilton incident, but there was something very amusing that popped up on my computer screen today.
La Fundación del Español Urgente (Fundéu BBVA, for short) put out a report stating that extranjerismos, [words and phrases from foreign languages but we know that in this case that the burr in the saddle is English], are taking over auto racing. Why is this amusing? Because some people in Spain marvel at the amount of “Spanglish” that is spoken in the U.S. and many like to believe that “real Spanish” (i.e. Spanish from the Iberian peninsula) is somehow immune to succumbing to the same malady, thanks to the Atlantic Ocean. Get real. Chalk it up to globalization but the use of English words in Spanish is a fact of life.
English is overrun with extranjerismos like trek (Afrikaans), algebra (Arabic), typhoon (Chinese), boutique (French), karaoke (Japanese) Schadenfreude (German), pundit (Hindi), smorgasbord (Swedish), pasta (Italian), etc. The list goes on and on. But the English language doesn’t get bent out of shape over it. In fact, due to its turbulent jam-packed history filled with wars, conquests and coloniziation, the English language has a tradition of taking and using words from other languages. No need to reinvent the wheel if somebody else has already built it and named it. I read somewhere that there were at least 80,000 extranjerismos in the English language, and for all we know that may be a conservative estimate!
Spanish, however, is different. Although there are many words in Spanish that come from other languages, like Arabic, there are Spanish purists who feel uncomfortable about the incursion that English, the 21st century’s lingua franca, is making on its turf. What is disturbing to Fundéu is the growing use of English words for words and phrases that already exist in Spanish. In other words, Spanish is being supplanted by English for no good reason, from the purists’ perspective.
Here’s a sample passage from an auto racing report: «Barrichello, que entró a repostar con el safety car en pista y el pit lane cerrado, fue sancionado con un stop and go que le obligó a pasar por boxes y detenerse durante 10 segundos».
All of the terms in bold have Spanish equivalents but just like technology and business terms in English that have been adopted wholesale by Spanish speakers (Internet, blog, router, web, email, project manager, marketing, etc.), it just somehow seemed easier to the reporter filing this account to use the English words.
¿Qué opinas? Is using Spanish words when the English equivalent is more widely used a cause worth fighting for or just a losing battle?
Well, yes, we use too many “estranjerismos”. But this isn’t new and it is not even restricted to English. We have loans from Greek, Arab, French, Basque, Nahuatl, Quechua,etc. Many, many words that today are standard Spanish once were “estranjerismos”.
Anyway, I hate them, really, really hate them. Probably because I’m an Old Castillian who was told to try to speak “con propiedad”. I try to avoid them as much as I can.
And yes, the Spanish spoken (and written) by many Hispanics in the US is appalling. There are many words that really get on my nerves: checar y accesar, for instance…me ponen malo.
Well, I can’t really criticise as I am English lol However, I think it does sound ’strange’, especially as I work in I.T, to hear so many English terms. I personally don’t see the need: “application server”…”servidor de aplicaciones”. I think it’s because they’re quite new. Most of the borrowed words in English are pretty accepted and normal.
I also notice alot of managers like to slip in some English to sound ‘cool’, “ok”, “thanks”, “whats up”, “see you”.
Hell why not..
“Hey Joe. ¿Wie geht’s? Do you have that report? Bueno, merci. We’ll have lunch Monday. Hasta luego”
“stating that extranjerismos, (words and phrases from English)”
extranjerismo (words and phrases from “any” foreign language ).
Sorry I could not avoid it :).
There is not a “battle” because it has been a very commom phenomenon for some centuries.The only difference now, is English´s turn.
When are they going to do something about sorting out all those weird words they’ve stuck in between the proper ones that you highlighted in bold in that passage?
Forgot to say: I certainly think English should be kept pure, too. Let’s start by getting rid of any words
derived from Latin, Greek and French…
@Roberto, cuate, no te pongas así. I promise never to say nor write “Voy a llamarte atrás.”
@Álvaro: Yep, thanks, I knew that, but I was trying to make a point. I went back and made the change to the original text. But I honestly don’t think that Fundéu would have devoted any time or ink to a report about French words entering the world of Spanish cuisine, just to give an example.
@Andrew: It throws me for a loop sometimes because if I pronounce the English word correctly while mixing it in with Spanish, Spaniards don’t understand. So you have to mangle the pronunciation of the English word in order for it to be understood, which to me just totally defeats the whole purpose!
@Graham 1: jejeje
@Graham 2: Yes, exactly. Where would English be today if it hadn’t been built on the backs of other languages?