Survey says: Los Angeles area Spanish speakers proclaim they converse in the Golden State\u2019s coolest version of the language.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone associates the city\u2019s Spanish with coolness,\u201d graduate student Alejandra Rivas \u201824 said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Rivas is among the Cal State Long Beach students contributing to \u201cPerceptual Dialectology in California: Latinx Perspectives,\u201d an ongoing study revealing what Spanish speakers living in the Golden State think about regional varieties of the language and its distinctive blend with English \u2013 Spanglish.<\/p>\n
Terms like \u201cValley Girl\u201d or \u201cSurfer Dude\u201d can recall notions of how some Californians talk, or at least how listeners perceive the quirks of California-style English. A Beach student\u2019s realization that prior research into this phenomenon omitted the Latine experience inspired this study, so CSULB\u2019s work promises a more comprehensive understanding of California\u2019s linguistic culture. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Students immerse themselves in field research, interviewing Spanish speakers and gathering information for the team\u2019s geography specialists. Their goal is to use geographic information systems (GIS) software to create a map displaying how Spanish varies throughout the state.<\/p>\n
Conceptually, researchers are venturing into new territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s not widely used,\u201d said Kathy Chavarria \u201822, a graduate student seeking a Master of Science in Geographic Information Systems. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that can lead to more frequent collaboration between the Linguistics Department<\/a> and Geography Department<\/a> with GIS.\u201d<\/p>\n Maps, like this one at right, are central to CSULB students’ research assessing how Spanish is spoken in different parts of California.<\/p>\n Community conversations<\/p>\n People sharing a common language can hear more than the dictionary definitions of words when encountering dialects. Itxaso Rodriguez, associate professor of linguistics, explained how this is known to work among English speakers: Surfer-inspired vernacular lends to the impression that coastal Californians are a perpetually chilled-out populace. Bay Area residents tend to be more proper, but that leads to a reputation for being \u201chella boring.\u201d<\/p>\n CSULB researchers are similarly assessing perceptions of Spanish dialects on dimensions of coolness and correct usage, she said.<\/p>\n Students have completed some 250 interviews since spring 2024, Rodriguez said. Los Angeles-style Spanish scores highly for coolness in part because it blends influences from several Latin American countries. The top influences are Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Colombia.<\/p>\n Interviews also associate Los Angeles with Spanglish, a mix of English and Spanish that younger speakers understand as a common bond for people living in a bilingual world.<\/p>\n \u201cThey feel like Spanglish is a way for them to belong,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n