I think the reason the Spanish vs. English question is so interesting to me is that I have an ingrained sense of the cohesiveness of English, and of Spanish, and can't see their mixing as anything but a mess.
But another part of me knows quite well that the cohesiveness of the two languages is an illusion. ... Especially with English.
Even so, I don't know how the two languages are ever going to become comfortable enough with each other that conducting detailed business or producing works of art won't be a matter of choosing one and ignoring the other - or producing two separate (and thus arguably unequal) versions of everything. I can see English absorbing a whole pile of Spanish nouns, sure, but what about the grammar and syntax? Will adjectives casually migrate around to the other side of nouns? ¿Will punctuation change? Will the commonly spoken tongue become a mash of sentences and fragments from both languages? Or will we only keep the grammar that the languages have in common?
See, to me, it's either we merge languages (or half of us migrate to one) - or we become two separate nations, perhaps even two separate classes. I really think it's that important. And call me an uncouth American, but I'd rather not see the US fumble the whole "melting pot" phenomenon and turn into France - or Europe in general. I'm working on my Spanish because I find it very disturbing that I can't have a conversation with half my neighbors, or the people who clean my office building... But I'm worried still that somehow bilingualism isn't the answer...
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Date: 2007-09-06 07:11 am (UTC)But another part of me knows quite well that the cohesiveness of the two languages is an illusion. ... Especially with English.
Even so, I don't know how the two languages are ever going to become comfortable enough with each other that conducting detailed business or producing works of art won't be a matter of choosing one and ignoring the other - or producing two separate (and thus arguably unequal) versions of everything. I can see English absorbing a whole pile of Spanish nouns, sure, but what about the grammar and syntax? Will adjectives casually migrate around to the other side of nouns? ¿Will punctuation change? Will the commonly spoken tongue become a mash of sentences and fragments from both languages? Or will we only keep the grammar that the languages have in common?
See, to me, it's either we merge languages (or half of us migrate to one) - or we become two separate nations, perhaps even two separate classes. I really think it's that important. And call me an uncouth American, but I'd rather not see the US fumble the whole "melting pot" phenomenon and turn into France - or Europe in general. I'm working on my Spanish because I find it very disturbing that I can't have a conversation with half my neighbors, or the people who clean my office building... But I'm worried still that somehow bilingualism isn't the answer...