The rhetoric was extremely familiar to native English speakers who were listening to native Spanish speakers express their concern for the purity of their language as the phenomenon called "Spanglish," an Americanized version of Spanish that is evolving as Hispanic children are blended deeper into both cultures, continues to grow more popular among their young people.
At the first-ever language summit on Saturday at Iowa Wesleyan College, older native Spanish speakers centered almost entirely on the abuses of Spanglish on their native tongue, while younger Hispanics and one author failed to be as alarmed over the growing trend.
In two separate workshops and in a panel discussion, the conversation covered the same ground several times, namely, that Spanish speakers are adapting Americanized versions of their language, especially if formal Spanish expressions are too long.
Dr. Raul Dorantes, a professor at the Instituto Cervantes in Chicago and former instructor of Spanish-American literature at Saint Augustine College in Chicago, offered a history of the Spanish language on the North American continent. But it didn't take long before the group was back on the subject of how Spanglish is taking over the formal language. There was sharp disagreement over whether it was a major concern or not.
Jose Zecharias, of West Liberty, told the group he thought "any language needs to be a living thing."
Carlota Ramirez of Columbus Junction grew up in Chicago and said her mother spoke to her in English and her father spoke to her in Spanish. "I learned the correct way [to speak] in both. But a new vocabulary is being created." She indicated the development of the new words is not a concern for her.
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