Spanglish, or “the act of combining words and idioms from both Spanish and English” is a term that almost every Spanish or English speaker is familiar with. We hear it on the street, at the malls and we may even use it in our everyday conversations. It is also when the word we are looking for is on the tip of our tongue, but in a different language!
Spanglish has become so common throughout the years. Now, it’s almost impossible to spend a day without hearing a phrase that combines both English and Spanish words. Some of the examples that might pop up are:
- Signs on the street that read “Prohibido hacer Parking”
- Hundreds of people “Yendo de shopping al mall”
- Thousands of Hispanic products with Spanglish slogans
While Spanglish is something that we have to “accept” in spoken language, is it something that professional translators should allow?
Before we go any further with this, it is important to mention that writing and speaking Spanglish are very different from adapting a word from English to Spanish or vice versa. There are two different processes to do so:
- Calco, which is the process of adding the English meaning into a word that already exists in Spanish. It’s like using the word “endorsar” the same way the word “endorse” is used in English.
- Anglicisms, which are words that Spanish has taken, and sometimes modified, from English to be used in Spanish. For example words like “chance”, “click”, “closet”, etc.
These processes are not examples of Spanglish, and are accepted and used by many translators.
Spanish vs English?
Spanglish, on the other hand, can be both helpful and harmful for our translations. It will mostly depend on our target audience and the field we are translating for. Spanglish is mostly used as a tool for translators of the technological industry, since some of the terms used in English do not exist (yet) in Spanish, or the general public is not familiarized with it.
A very good example of this is when we translate technical manuals for devices from the US. All the buttons and parts are labeled with the English word, therefore, it will be easier for the reader to “Encontrar y presionar el botón reset” than to find the non-existing button “resetear”. In several occasions, it will be easier for the reader to understand a commonly used word in another language, than a strange word that only experts and translators know about.
The use will also depend on the request of the client and the target reader of the document when translating. For example, if you are translating a document into Spanish for a Latin American country and you are required—or decide—to use a little Spanglish, odds are, people are going to accept it since Spanglish is something that they are used to hearing and reading. But, if your target reader is a middle-aged man from Zaragoza, you might want to stay as far away as you can from Spanglish.
According to polls and Spanish translators, people think Spanglish is an “abomination” and a way of “disrespecting the language”. Also, it is easier for younger readers to accept Spanglish than for older readers. This is due as they are more exposed to English terms in their everyday life.
Should a translator use Spanglish?
Since there is no written rule that bans Spanglish from professional translations, its use will depend on your own criteria and analysis of the content and, of course, your final client. To help you decide if using Spanglish is a good or a bad idea, here are some questions you can ask yourself:
- Is there a better term for this word in the target language?
- Is this term often used and easy for the reader to understand?
- Does the client often use Spanglish in their material (propaganda, older documents, etc.)?
- Who are my target readers? (Where are they from? How old are they?)
- How formal is my translation?
Once you have your answers, it will be easier for you to decide if Spanglish is good, or not!