Spanglish

Today in my Spanish class a reading we had sparked a conversation on Spanglish, and if its use is proper or not. My argument was that it was, simply because communication is communication, and if it works, let it be becuase it is doing what it should be doing.

Later on in the day I was doing some more thinking and thought of this. A communication system is like a gene. If it works it will stick around, get passed on from generation from generation, proliferate horizontally, and become well known. If a communication system is not practical, expect the "mutation" to die out in a generation or two.

An example: Esperanto. Esperanto wasn't understandable to people. Most people could already communicate, so Esperanto never had a chance to become a competitive language gene, because it wasn't practical. Now it only lives on the Google language option toolbar. Spanglish on the other hand has some practical use. Predominant English speakers can use it, and so can predominant Spanish speakers. Therefore, it is useful for transcultural communication between the two groups, and has some staying power as a good langauge gene. We'll only see with time.