English in New Mexico

English in New Mexico is the collective set of local varieties of Western American English spoken in the U.S. state of New Mexico.^[1] Neighboring languages in the region include New Mexican Spanish, Navajo, and numerous other Native American languages and dialects.

Regional history

After the Mexican–American War, New Mexico and all its inhabitants came under the governance of the English-speaking United States, and for the next hundred years, English speakers increased in number.^[2] The numbers increased especially thanks to the trade-routes of the Old Spanish Trail and the Santa Fe Trail. New Mexico was culturally isolated after the New Mexico Campaign during the American Civil War. Aside from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, the isolation was similar to when New Mexico was culturally isolated from the rest of Spanish America. In 1910, English became the more widely spoken language in New Mexico,^[3] however New Mexican Spanish is popular and still spoken throughout the state and, as such, is given a special status of recognition.^[4] After statehood, the Spanish dialect continued to evolve, alongside newcomers, thanks to increases in travel, for example, along U.S. Route 66.^[5] Some words, such as coyote, have become loanwords into American English after becoming so prevalent in Spanish-influenced New Mexican English.^[6]

Varieties

Several varieties of English in New Mexico have been identified, with varying degrees of documentation. A variety of Chicano English,^[7] known as Northern New Mexico Chicano English, is primarily spoken by people of Hispanic descent and is a subset in this region.^[8] This is related to a Spanish contact variety of English known as Northern New Mexican English.^[9][10] In addition, linguist Damián Wilson has described an Albuquerque ("Burqueño") variety of English.^[11] Such a Burqueño speech variety has gained wider attention by being parodied in two viral YouTube videos, "Shit Burqueños (New Mexicans) Say," produced in 2012 by the New Mexican entertainment group Blackoutdigital.^[12]

Phonological overview

The phonetics of English in New Mexico are similar to General American English. One distinctive New Mexican feature is a "sing-song" intonation pattern, which tends to have a higher voice-onset time with multilingual individuals, making the pattern more audible, though it is still present in native English speakers and not dependent on multilingualism.^[10] Also, as in most other Western American English, the vowels in words like cot and caught have fully merged; therefore, the words cot, nod, and stock, for instance, are perfect homophones of caught, gnawed, and stalk, respectively.^[13] The merged vowel sound is in the area of /ɒ/ and /ɑ/. Furthermore, in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas, instances of the full–fool merger (or near-merger), in which pool for example merges towards the sound of pull, have been reported among native English speakers.^[14]

Lexical overview

The vocabulary of the Spanish and Native American languages has intermixed with English in the state of New Mexico, leading to unique loanwords and interjections.^[1] Multiple places across New Mexico also have names originating from various language other than English, including New Mexican Spanish, Navajo, and Tiwa. Due to this, some places even have multiple names.^[15]

Words and phrases

• A la maquina [ä lä ˈmäːkinä] (literally "to the machine" in Spanish): usually used as a startled expression, sometimes shortened to a la.^[11]
• Acequia: the word for ditch in Spanish, and common within the entire Rio Grande Valley.^[16][1]
• Canales: Spanish for rain and street gutters, heard in the northern parts of the state.^[1]
• Coke: any generic carbonated soft drink, as also commonly used in Southern American English.^[17]
• Corazón: the word for heart in Spanish, can be connotative of sweetheart, dear, courage, and spirit.^[18]
• Howdy: used as a greeting in Texan English, and throughout rural regions of New Mexico. Usually used as it is in Western American English in conjunction with partner, for howdy, partner.^[19]
• Hui [ˈu:ˈi:]: a fear-based or startled interjection, similar to eek.
• Kachina: spirits from Pueblo religion^[20]
• O sí (seguro): ^[11] literally "Oh yeah (sure)" in Spanish, is used as an ironic reaction or as a sincere questioning of a statement.
• Ombers [ˈɒmbɚːz]: an interjection commonly used to express playful disapproval or shaming of another, similar to tsk tsk.^[11]
• Sick to the stomach: from Northern American English, a term to describe feeling very upset, worried, or angry.^[1]
• Vigas: the Spanish word for rafters, especially common in the northern part of the state.^[1]

Miscellaneous features

• Or what and Or no are added to end of sentences to exemplify the needed confirmation in a prior statement.^[11] Examples, "Can you see, or no?" or "Are we late, or what?"
• New Mexico chile has had a large impact on New Mexico's cultural heritage, so large in fact, that it was entered into the congressional record as being spelled 'chile', and not chili.^[21][22] In New Mexico there is a differentiation for chili, which most New Mexicans equate to chili con carne.^[23]

See also

• New Mexican Spanish

Notes

References

• "11th High Desert Linguistics Conference" (PDF). High Desert Linguistics Society. 2014. Retrieved 2015-11-05. 
• Balukas, Colleen; Koops, Christian (2014). "Spanish-English bilingual voice onset time in spontaneous code-switching". International Journal of Bilingualism. ISSN 1367-0069. doi:10.1177/1367006913516035. Retrieved 2015-05-25. 
• Gilbert, G.G.; Ornstein-Galicia, J.L. (1978). Problems in applied educational sociolinguistics: readings on language and culture problems of United States ethnic groups. Janua Linguarum: Series Minor. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Company KG. ISBN 978-90-279-7726-7. Retrieved 2015-11-04. 
• Boyle, Elizabeth; Evans, Anne-Marie (2008). Reading America: New Perspectives on the American Novel. Cambridge Scholars Pub. ISBN 978-1-84718-777-2. Retrieved 2015-11-04. 
• "Center for Applied Linguistics. Washington, DC" (PDF). Library of Congress. Retrieved August 29, 2014.  Results of the survey at "Browse by". American Memory from the Library of Congress. Retrieved August 29, 2014. 
• Domenici, Pete (2004). "Resolution to express the sense of the Senate regarding English plus other languages". Congressional Record, V. 145, Pt. 8, May 24, 1999 to June 8 1999. United States Congress. ISBN 978-0-16-073054-2. Retrieved May 27, 2015. 
• Hinckley, J. (2012). The Route 66 Encyclopedia. MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-61058-688-7. Retrieved 2015-05-27. 
• "IDEA International Dialects of English Archive". Accents and Dialects of New Mexico. May 6, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015. 
• Julyan, Bob; Till, Tom (1999). New Mexico's Wilderness Areas: The Complete Guide. Big Earth Publishing. 
• King, L.S. (2009). Frommer's Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque. Frommer's Complete Guides. Wiley. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-470-43795-7. Retrieved May 31, 2015. 
• Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006), The Atlas of North American English, Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter, pp. 187–208, ISBN 3-11-016746-8 
• "New Mexico Facts". Encyclopedia.com articles about New Mexico. June 10, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2015. 
• Madrid, A.L. (2011). Transnational Encounters: Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-987611-2. Retrieved August 3, 2015. 
• Montaño, M.C. (2001). Tradiciones Nuevomexicanas: Hispano Arts and Culture of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-8263-2137-4. Retrieved 2015-05-31. 
• * Skandera, P. (2007). Phraseology and Culture in English. Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL]. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-019786-0. Retrieved October 23, 2015. 
• Smith, A.; Kraig, B. (2013). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. OUP USA. p. 382. ISBN 978-0-19-973496-2. Retrieved 2015-05-31. 
• Weigle, M.; Levine, F.; Stiver, L. (2009). Telling New Mexico: A New History. Museum of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-89013-579-2. Retrieved November 16, 2015. 
• Edgerton, S.Y.; de Lara, J.P. (2001). Theaters of Conversion: Religious Architecture and Indian Artisans in Colonial Mexico. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-2256-2. Retrieved November 16, 2015. 
• Project, F.W. (2013). The WPA Guide to New Mexico: The Colorful State. EBL-Schweitzer. Trinity University Press. ISBN 978-1-59534-229-4. Retrieved November 16, 2015. 
• Kessell, J.L. (1995). Kiva, Cross & Crown: The Pecos Indians and New Mexico, 1540-1840. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association. ISBN 978-1-877856-56-3. 
• Valle, S.D. (2003). Language Rights and the Law in the United States: Finding Our Voices. Bilingual education and bilingualism. Multilingual Matters. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-85359-658-2. Retrieved 2015-05-27. 
• University of New Mexico (1948). The New Mexico Quarterly. Retrieved August 29, 2014. 
• Wozniak, Frank E. (1998). Irrigation in the Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico: a study and annotated bibliography of the development of irrigation systems (PDF). United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved January 8, 2015. 
• "American English Dialect Recordings: The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection" (PDF). Library of Congress. Retrieved August 29, 2014. 
• Roberto Valdez - New Mexico Historian and Living History Interpreter (2011). "Some Homelands and Place Names of New Mexico". YouTube. Retrieved May 31, 2015. 
• Wilson, Damian (2015-05-21). The Burqueno Dialect. YouTube. Retrieved 2015-05-25. Short video interview with Damian Wilson, an Assistant Professor & Coordinator of Sabine Ulibarri Spanish as a Heritage Language Program at the University of New Mexico.