TEMA 66 : DIMENSIÓN CULTURAL DE LA ANGLOFONÍA EN EL

MUNDO ACTUAL. EL INGLÉS BRITÁNICO Y EL INGLÉS

AMERICANO. PRESENCIA DE LA LENGUA INGLESA EN
ESPAÑA. LOS ANGLICISMOS.

1. ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA.

Various languages have at one time or another been used by other countries as a
lingua franca. The relationship between a language and the people who speak it is so
intimate that the two can scarcely be thought of apart. A language is important because
of the people who speak it. The choice of a lingua franca is based on political,
economic and demographic criteria. English is the world’s most important language.
An estimated 8% of the population on earth have English as a native language. All those
over 360 millions who speak English are dispersed over a wide geographical area
spreading the importance of their language even more.
There is no other international language such as English nowadays. It is
extensively used in science, culture, industry, communication, international institutions,
etc. It is probably the fastest growing language in the world. Hundreds of new terms
are created every year to face the continuous development of science, technology and
culture. Many of these words are later adopted by other languages.
The English language has been favoured by both Empires to the point of
achieving a prominent place among the languages of the world. As a result, English is
the everyday language of the majority of the inhabitants in many countries, in others if
not the native language it is the language of the officialdom. Most of the important
African states are English speaking by tradition and by choice, using English to unify
the country and serve as the principal means of communication between diverse tribes.
In Asia the English language serves the same purpose for the entire Indian continent.

2. POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH.

English at its simplest level is not limited to the English speaking countries.
Many politicians of whatever nationality find it useful to have English as a second
language. Inevitably this means that political ideas are more easily spread from the
native English speaker to the non-native English speaker. The Americans and British
have on the whole shown themselves recalcitrant when it comes to learning foreign
languages. Elsewhere in the Far East like The Philippines, English is now an essential
for local political success.
Governments themselves have not been slow to realise the importance of
English. The former Soviet Union has its English language radio programmes beamed
across the world, so does America and Britain. China has its English language daily
newspaper. All of these have an overtly political purpose. We must keep in mind that
the USA together with Britain were among the most important countries that won WWII
and therefore their influence has been present in international organizations such as the
UNO or the NATO. At other international meetings English is always one of the
languages into which all the speeches are translated.
 English is in many areas a necessary requirement of those seeking a good job
and is often the language in which much of the business of “good jobs” is conducted.
The vocabulary of economy is greatly influenced by English terms. One indicator of
why this is so, is that the US has a larger gross national product than any other country
in the world. Multinational companies are the sign of such dominance. Spanish
newspapers often publish advertisements in English for jobs in Spain or abroad. There
is an increasingly large number of young people and adults studying English during the
school year. Many of them spend their summer holidays studying in England if they can
afford it.
In the 20th century culture is no longer confined to a small class. We are living in
the era of Coca-Cola culture, that is, American popular culture is spread through the
medium of TV, films and popular songs. Television programmes like Charlie’s Angels,
Dallas or Alf have become part of the world ‘cultural’ background. This has lately been
accentuated since the boom of satellite television. Most satellite programmes are
broadcast in English even though their audience does not have English as a native
language.
There are many countries which publish daily newspapers in English.
American magazines and newspapers like The New York Times, Time’ magazine or
Reader’s Digest can be found at many newsagents throughout the world. Many of the
most important news agencies in the world are either American or British. This sort of
culture is linked to economics since television and music are vast industries.
Programmes, records and tapes are manufactured and sold in the international market.

3. ANGLICISMS.

Anglicisms affect all languages in the world, but we will deal with the
phenomenon of anglicisms affecting the Spanish language in Spain and in all Spanish
speaking countries in the American continent. The early loans were transmitted in the
18th century but it was during the last few years of the 19th century and particularly
during the 20th century that the greatest flood of anglicisms poured into the Spanish
language, mainly due to the USA influence, and words like best seller, club, cow-boy,
suéter, tenis… were absorbed. Anglicisms have been absorbed through various
channels, some of which include journalism, radio, TV, fashion, science or
technology.
As we mentioned before there are some areas in which the Anglo-American
culture influences the world, among which we should mention the multinational
companies. English has become a lingua franca within the commercial world.

3.1. ANGLICISMS IN THE FIELD OF ECONOMY.

Concerning the economic field we find that words denoting articles or

products peculiar to the new country are so assimilated that the Spanish speaker
thinks of them as Spanish.
Ex. batería, ticket, alto standing, ranking…

Together with those new products we receive advertisements and

correspondence. Mass media is a very important factor determining the dissemination
of new terms whose meaning is often not even known. This is best observed in
advertising “spots” and branded goods.
Ex. Woolite, Trident, spray, ropa sport, cheeseburger, light…
 Another crucial factor is the speaker’s self-image of the culture from whose
language is open to him to borrow. Borrowing is also due to the inferiority complex
the average Spanish feels before foreign branded goods regarding these as being of
better quality than their Spanish counterparts.
Ex. Whisky club, The Grill, Pepe’s bar, self-service, snack-bar…

3.2. ANGLICISMS IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD.

Even though computer programmes are being translated into Spanish there are
many which are still kept in English. All computer languages are variations of standard
English.
Ex. hardware, software, disquiet, byte, chequear, formatear…

Our modern homes are plagued with countless machines like Hi-Fi sets,
televisions, videos, etc. The operating instructions on their front panels are usually
printed in English and we often refer to them using the English terms.
Ex. hi-fi, play-back, compact disc, on/of…

When dealing with the technological field we have to mention the vocabulary
related to the military scope.
Ex. jet, laser, radar, missile…

3.3. ANGLICISMS IN THE SPORTS FIELD.

Together with names of modern sports Spanish has absorbed terms concerning
the rules of those sports. Some of them have been hispanized and are found in
dictionaries. Others have been re-shaped by means of derivation.
Ex. balompié, béisbol, basket, fútbol, jogging / gol, golear, goleada, goleador…

3.4. ANGLICISMS IN THE FIELDS OF TV, FILMS AND MUSIC.

Dealing with the fields of TV and films the number of incorrect translations
and calques is appalling. Sometimes titles of films are left in the original version either
because it is assumed that everyone will understand them or simply because they sound
‘foreign’ in that way. The same happens with vocabulary related to music. Some terms
are often badly translated and derivations are also possible.
Ex. ‘Pretty Woman’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘ET’, ‘Ghost Busters’…
Ex. héroe (instead of) galán
film película (also filmar, filmación…)
sketch actuación
Ex. long play, single, video clip, compact disc…

3.5. SOCIOLOGICAL LOANS.

The circumstances of borrowing can be far more complex than is commonly

supposed. The problem of anglicisms goes beyond language to the field of sociology.
There are times in which exceptional prestige is attached to loan words, and special
sympathy is felt for a foreign language. These attitudes and feelings have negative
counterparts because speakers may try to purge their speech of anglicisms and may
show antipathy to borrowings.
 Ex. the Christmas card
the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day

4. LEXICAL ANGLICISMS.

We can distinguish between necessary loans and unnecessary loans:

(a) Necessary loans:
1. Terms with no Spanish equivalent. Some borrowings are confined to technical
items for which there is no corresponding Spanish word. Ex. boicotear,
mecanizar, cóctel, taxi…
2. Terms in which the same spelling is retained. There are about 30 neologisms
that is, newly coined words with the same form and spelling in both languages.
Some of them have undergone a derivational process either by prefixation or
suffixation. Ex. cohesion, nostalgia, climax…/ antisocial, microfilm, prenatal,
educativo, individualismo…

(b) Unnecessary loans:

1. Terms with no change in meaning. Other terms that swept into the language
are synonyms of Spanish words already established in the language and are used
without any change in meaning of the existing Spanish word. Ex. romance
(instead of amoríos), rentar (instead of alquilar), reportar (instead of informar)
…
2. Terms with change of meaning. The anglicism may consist in the usage of
Spanish paronyms from English terms, that is, words sharing their pronunciation
but whose meanings differ. Ex. aplicación – application, tópico – topic, colapso
– collapse…
3. Terms with change in frequency of use. Sometimes the anglicism is detected
in the excessive frequency with which a word exists both in Spanish and English
and takes the place of functions occupied by other words. Ex. graduado
(instead of licenciado), privado (instead of particular)…

(c) Spelling of lexical anglicisms:

1. Unacceptable spelling. Those spellings which are not found in Spanish words
whatever their distribution within the word may be:
 Double vowels: boom, footing, meeting, weekend…
 Double consonants: cassette, pudding, jazz, hippy…
 Consonant clusters: bestseller, crack, hotdog, whisky…
2. Acceptable spellings. Those spellings which are acceptable because both
languages share the same Spanish orthographic structure:
 Same spelling kept: manager, jersey, radar…
 Modifications for commercial reasons: Nesquik, Baygon, Airon-fix…
 Acceptable by addition: filmar, flirtear, boicotear…
 Acceptable by elimination: estándar, bisté, crisma…

(d) Pronunciation:
We try to adapt the sounds of loan words taken from English, thus, the adaptation
of pronunciation comes before the adaptation of spelling. Sometimes the word is
pronounced the way it is written according to Spanish rules (Ex. spray = /esprai/).
Some other times Spanish imitates the English pronunciation as long as it does not
interfere with Spanish sounds (Ex. bacon = /beicon/, leader = /lider/).
 (d) Morphology:
Some borrowings substitute English morphemes for Spanish derivational
morphemes. These can be: agentive morphemes (Ex. boxeador, futbolista),
morphemes denoting activity (Ex. boxeo, filmación), morphemes of quality (Ex.
esnobismo, liderazgo).

5. NON-LEXICAL ANGLICISMS.

Within the non-lexical anglicisms we must include some high frequency

constructions like the following ones:
1. Incorrect use of the article in book titles and newspapers headings: un reparto
excepcional.
2. Placing of the direct object before an adjective with the verb “hacer”: haga su
casa acogedora.
3. Compounds: ciencia ficción, auto-stop
4. Use of the wrong preposition: no lo había visto por un año (instead of desde hace)
5. Expressions, phrases or grammatical constructions which take the word order of
English syntax: estar siendo, acción a tomar.
6. Subject at the beginning of the sentence: grupos folklóricos de Africa , Escocia y
España tambien participarán en el festival.
7. The use of the passive: los funcionarios han sido ordenados que…
8. Half-loans or calques: no seas rudo (no seas grosero), anuncios clasificados
(anuncios por palabras).
9. Question and admiration marks: novedad mundial!
10. Parts of the body: me duele mi mano (me duele la mano).

6. BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH.

The differences between American English (AE) and British English (BE) are to
be searched on historical reasons: AE shows a high degree of uniformity due to the
fact that the perpetual movement of people made American English not so liable to local
peculiarities, either in accent or morphology. In spite of all 3 main dialects can be
distinguished: Northern, Southern and West, also called “General American”.

6.1. VOCABULARY.

Written English is more or less the same in both Britain and US and in everyday
speech they can understand each other with little difficulty. The real differences
concentrate more heavily on vocabulary. Changes started very soon, mainly due to the
fact that the new objects required new words. American Indians provided a well-
known set of words referring to different aspects of American life (Ex. moccasin,
canoe…). Many words are different because they represent objects or institutions that
present variations in both cultures. (Ex. Congress (Parliament), Congressman (MP’s)
…). Americans have exported a large number of their words and phrases to Britain
through literature, films, TV, tourists… (Ex. teenager, boyfriend, (football) fan…).
When the two words seem to contend for pre-eminence, the British form
becomes gradually obsolete and tend to disappear. However, others remain unchanged
in both standards.
 Ex. buttered eggs (BE) – scrambled eggs (AE)
apothecaries (BE) – chemists (AE)

Deep rooted words in BE will not disappear easily and, as a matter of fact,
doublets, that is words with two meanings, or two different words may coexist in both
languages.
Ex. driver (BE) – engineer (AE)
luggage (BE) – baggage (AE)

There are some American words that are peculiar to the US and quite different from
their equivalences in the rest of the English speaking world, as we can see as follows.
However, it must be taken into account that some of the words marked as American
have an increasing use in British English.

AE BE
Cab Taxi
Lift Elevator
Cookie Biscuit
Can Tin
Sweater Jumper

6.2. SPELLING.

The differences in spelling are the results of an attempt to bring the written word
to a closer resemblance with the spoken word. The most important differences are as
follows.
AE BE
-or labor -our labour
-ter theater -tre theatre
-og catalog -ogue catalogue
-ize realize -ise / ize realise / realize
- final -l is not usually doubled - BE doubles the final -l in
in unstressed syllables: traveler verbs and nouns: traveller
- practice as noun and verb - practice as noun and practise as verb
- wanna - want to
- gonna - going to

6.3. GRAMMAR.

From the grammatical point of view the main differences can be summarized as
follows:
1. Americans use a simple past in some cases where British people use a
present perfect (to give news).
2. British people constantly use “got” in the sense of “have” whereas
Americans hardly ever do.
3. The American past participle of “get” is “gotten”, while in BE is “got”.
4. AE shows a strong preference than BE for the regular “d” variants of
burn, dream, learn, smell, spell, spill and spoil (like burned,
dreamed…).
5. The subjunctive is much more common in AE than in BE.
 6. Prepositions may have a different treatment in both standards, affecting
even to phrasal verbs.
Ex. different from (BE) different than (AE)
a quarter past 4 (BE) a quarter after 4 (AE)
speak to (BE) speak with (AE)
7. With regard to pronouns there is a different treatment too. AE tend to
use “he and I” but in BE they use “he and me”. AE tends to substitute
the demonstrative adjective “those” by “them”. AE sometimes use
“his” where BE would use “one’s”. The indefinite pronoun “one” is
repeated in co reference where AE uses “he”.
8. In informal speech AE sometimes uses “like” where BE would prefer
“as” or “as if”.
9. In informal speech AE sometimes use the adverb forms without –ly.
10. Dates:
AE: 4 / 12 / 81 (month first)
BE: 12 / 4 / 81 (day first)

6.4. PRONUNTIATION.

American English has kept on the whole, identical pronuntiation regarding

consonants but a slight variation concerning vowels:

A. Consonants:
 BE and AE /r/ are equal in sound, length and quality but AE /r/ appears
in positions where BE /r/ does not appear. It is pronounced before
consonants and at the end of words in AE.
 AE tends to voice the sound /t/. However this voicing does not occur in
initial position of /t/.
 In the group of sounds /n/ + /t/ or /d/ + vowel, American speakers tend to
drop the “t” or “d” sound, where a British speaker would usually
pronounce them.

B. Vowels:
 BE /a/ has come to be AE /ae/. This change affects to a reduced number
of words which being pronounced the same have different meanings in
both AE and BE.
 There is an AE diphthongizing of certain accented vowels pronounced as
/ei/ whereas in BE would be /a/. On the other hand, BE diphthongs /ai/
are more frequent in AE like /i/.
 The British speak of drawling, that is, lengthening of vowels in AE,
whereas Americans speak of clipping, that is, shortening of vowels when
referring to BE. Nasalization in AE is a prominent feature that makes
quite a clear distinction between AE and BE.