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Spanish/English Speech Practices: Bringing Chaos to Order 1 Spanish/English Speech Practices: Bringing Chaos to Order 1 AlmeidaJacqueline Toribio The Pennsylvania StateUniversity, Pennsylvania, USA This paperpresents a linguisticanalysis of Spanish-English bilingualspeech for scholarsand practitionersof bilingualism.More speci cally, the study surveyssev- eraloutcomes of languagecontact, among these,inter-lingual transference, code- switching,and convergence,as evidencedin thespeech practices of heritageSpanish speakersin theUnited States. The emergentassessment is linguistically informed, therebyilluminating our understanding of bilingualspeech forms, and encourages perspectivesand pedagogiesthat validate bilingual speech practices. Keywords: contact,codeswitching, convergence Introduction Iamthe sumtotal of my language. (CharlesSanders Peirce) ¿Y si soy ma´sde uno,Peirce? ¿Ysisoy dos, o tres o – como dir´Wa David – un millo´n? ¿En que´momento,en que´participiodel mundo se conviertetu suma en miresta, Peirce? (GustavoPe ´rezFirmat) The language situationand linguistic behavioursof heritage Spanish speak- ersin the United Statesare seldom regarded impassively;the ambiguity expressed in the abovetitle is intended toinvoke the contradictoryand con- ictivefervour withwhich Spanish-English bilingual speech practiceshave been addressedby scholars,educators and policymakers. On one representa- tiveposition, the bilingualism andattendant linguistic manifestations that may resultfrom the sustainedcontact of heritage anddominant language are lauded asessential to communicationin bilingual communities,where speak- ersare commonly called on to access a continuumof grammatical,discursive, andsociolinguistic competencies in one orthe otherof twolanguages (cf. Valde´s,2000). Alotof people lookat it as a disadvantage…‘Oh, you’ re Spanish’. 2 But the wayI lookat it is this: blessed, you’re blessed tospeak twodifferent languages.(quoted in Toribio,2003a) [I]t ishelpful toimagine thatwhen bilinguals code-switch,they arein factusing atwelve-stringguitar, rather than limiting themselvesto two six-stringinstruments. (Valde ´s,1988: 126) 1367-0050/04/020133-22 $20.00/ 0 Ó 2004A.J. Toribio BILINGUALEDUCATION AND BILINGUALISM Vol. 7,No. 2&3, 2004 133 134 Bilingual Education andBilingualism However,as lamented by Zentella(1998, 2000), it is also, indeed much too frequently attestedthat in the ‘linguisticlogic ’ ofUSsociety,heritage Spanish isa negative carryoverthat must be cancelled out,and the would-be bene t ofpossessingand deploying Spanish alongsideEnglish isequated withzero: Ateachercomes up toyou andtells you, ‘No,no. You know that is a lthy language, nothingbut badwords and bad thoughts in that language’.Imean,they aretelling you thatyour language isbad. (quoted in Salazar,1970, cited in Crawford,1992) Thosepoor kids come to school speaking ahodgepodge. They areall mixed up anddon ’tknowany language well. Asa result,they can ’t even think clearly.(quoted in Walsh,1991: 106) The present articleelaborates a linguisticallyinformed assessmentof the contactSpanish, contactEnglish, and Spanish-English bilingual speech ofheri- tageSpanish speakersin the United States,devoting attention to bilingual development anddeployment andto several phenomena oflanguage contact andinteraction, among others, inter-linguistic in uence ortransference, especially salientin earlystages of learning, codeswitching,the alternating use oftwo language codes,and convergence, the increasedequivalence between twolanguages or language varieties. 3 The survey will makeevident thatrather than compensating for linguistic de ciency, ‘illicitlanguage acts ’ signalthe strategicand ef cient use of linguisticand cognitive resources in the appropriationand management of twolanguage systems. The paper isorganised as follows. The discussionisdeliberate din the expositionof relevantresearch in bilingual codeswitching, English-langu- age development, heritage language decline andloss, and contact-induced convergence, togetherwith illustrative contact English, contact Spanish, and Spanish-English bilingual samplesculled fromthe literature.The workends withthe presentationof three activities,suitable for classroom use, thatmay further advanceeducators ’ appreciationof the speech practicesof Spanish- English bilinguals, andin sodoing, dispel certainmisconceptions of the linguisticabilities of heritage Spanish speakersin the United States. Bilingual Speech Practices Spanglish isthe language ofborderdiplomacy (Guillermo Go´ mez Pen˜ a) In mostbilingual communities,members nd themselvessituated along a continuumthat induces different ‘language modes ’ (Grosjean,1998) within a ‘bilingual range ’ (Valde´s, 2000).4 Forinstance, Zentella (1981, 1997), reports thatin her long-term participantstudy of the linguistic practicesof el bloque, aPuerto-Ricancommunity in el barrio of EastHarlem, children couldbe observedto speak English witheach other, while shifting toSpanish in defer- ence totheir elders,as illustrated in the recordedexchange in (1).For these children, Spanish andEnglish togetherconstitute their linguistic competence in asingularsense, and their linguistic performancewill drawprimarily upon English orSpanish, asrequired by the ‘observables ’ of the speech situation, e.g. pragmaticnorms, speci csetting,and participants. 5 Spanish/English Speech Practices 135 (1) Context:Lolita (age 8)pushes Timmy(age 5)off her bike, andTimmy tellsthe adultsnearby. L to T: Getoff, Timmy,get off. T to adults: Ellame dio!( ‘She hit me’.) L to T: Porque TUme diste!( ‘BecauseYOU hit me! ’) T to L: Liar! Adult to L: ¿Por que´? (‘why?’) L to adult: Porque e´lme dio,por eso. El siempre me esta´ dandocuando me ve. (‘Becausehe hitme, that ’s why. He’salwayshitting me whenever he sees me ’.) Itis also commonplace in suchcommunities that as bilingual speakersinteract in bilingual mode,they will extend thisability to alternating languages in unchanged speech situations – thatis, to codeswitching (Zentella, 1988). Gumperz,in hisseminal work on discursive strategies, notes the important functionsserved by codeswitching(Gumperz, 1976, 1982). 6 The premise underlying hisand many subsequent studiesis that codeswitching is a con- sciouschoice on the partof the speaker.Consider, by wayof example, the studyby Montes-Alcala´ (2001),which isdedicated to analysing bilingual email exchangesand imputing particularstylistic goals to speci ccode-alternations; sampleforms appear in (2): (2) Stylisticfeatures commonly marked by language alternations: (a) reportedspeech I think so, dijo e´l. ‘Ithink so,/ saidhe ’. (b) emphasis Mientras estara´amilesde millas awayfrom here. ‘Meanwhile he mustbe thousandsof miles/ awayfrom here ’. (c) elaboration Caminamospor Melrose ,checking outthe stores, yluegodecidimos ir a cenar. ‘We walkedon Melrose, / checking outthe stores,/and then we decided togo to dinner ’. (d) parentheticals All´W,totallyout of the blue, acabamosplaneando un viajepara la semana que viene. ‘There, /totallyout of the blue /we ended up planning atripfor the coming week’. (e) xed orformulaic phrases No ten´Wafuerzaspara nada, as ´W que lo deje´ andI calledit a day. ‘Idid nothave strength for anything, so I left him /andI calledit a day’. Asshown, the authorcarefully controlsher languages,bending them toher will ratherthan simply con ning herself tothe dictatesof their individual form(cf. Ferguson, 1982;Widdowson, 1994). Another,however markedly different, example of the ‘ownership’ of langu- 136 Bilingual Education andBilingualism age isdiscerned in the dictionariesin (3),created by the adultmigrant farm workersdepicted in Kalmar(1980, 2001). Presented withfew opportunitiesfor developing English language skills,Jacinto, Cipriano, and Alonso took hold oftheir owneducation, directing their Spanish-language abilitiesin asserting themselvesin English. (3) (a) Jacinto ’sdictionairy AVIVAC …… ‘ahoritaregreso ’ (‘I’ll be back’) LIMISI ……‘de´jame ver’ (‘Let me see’) AIDONO ……‘yo no se´’ (‘I don’t know’) LRERO ……‘poco’ (‘a little’) (b) Cipriano ’sdictionary JAMACH DUYUORN … …‘¿cua´nto ganas?’ (‘Howmuch doyou earn?’) AI NID SAM ER … …‘necesitoaire ’ (‘Ineed someair ’) AIGUENTTU TAON … …‘yofui alpueblo ’ (‘Iwentto town ’) GUIQUENGOU NAU ……‘podemosir ahora ’ (‘We can go now’) (c) Alfonso’sdictionary TU URRILLAP ……‘darse prisa’ (‘to hurry up’) RUAT AUEY ……‘en seguida’ (‘right away’) GUIOLTY …… ‘culpable’ (‘guilty’) TU RUICH …… ‘alcanzar’ (‘to reach’) Though neither English norSpanish, thisnon-native and non-target variety isnot to be characterisedin termsof acquisitionalinadequacy (cf. Brutt- Grifer,2002; Kachru, 1983; Romaine, 1992), but ratherin termsof linguistic empowerment:through these entries,migrant workers claim an ‘other’ langu- age in communicatingand recording everyday life events. 7 Tobe sure,the language samplesin the dictionairesdiffer in signi cant respectsfrom those in the emailexchanges, the latterof interesthere. Most obviously,the Spanish-English bilingual authorof the formsin (2) doesnot alternateher languagesfor lack of knowledge ofstructuresor lexicalitems in her language systems,but in ful lling ‘aconsciousdesire tojuxtaposethe two codesto achieve someliterary effect, anexercise ofself-consciousness ’ (Lipski, 1982:191). However, similar to the language formsof the dictionaries,code- switchedforms are context-bound, practiced by bilinguals, forbilinguals. Indeed, formany bilinguals, codeswitchingis an in-group orcommunitynorm (cf. Toribio,2002; Zentella, 1981, 1997). Not mixing languagesin certaincir- cumstanceswould be consideredirregular and socioculturally insensitive
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