{"id":47535,"date":"2025-11-15T07:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T07:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/47535\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T07:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T07:09:09","slug":"linguists-have-discovered-an-emerging-english-dialect-in-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/47535\/","title":{"rendered":"Linguists Have Discovered An Emerging English Dialect In Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Visitors\"Visitors
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Pero, like, we all know that Miami has its own slang<\/a>. But we might not even realize how much of our words only sound normal to us until we leave the 305. According to linguists, a distinct new dialect known as Miami English is emerging in the city, and you better believe it\u2019s heavily influenced by Spanish.<\/p>\n

What makes Miami English different? <\/p>\n

Not exactly Spanglish, the dialect \u201cborrows\u201d Spanish expressions and then directly translates them into English. This is known as calques, as it keeps the existing Spanish grammatical structure.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

We say, \u201cGet down from the car,\u201d a literal translation of \u201cbajarse del carro,\u201d as opposed to \u201cget out of the car.\u201d We \u201cmake the line\u201d at Publix (\u201chacer la fila\u201d) instead of \u201cget in line.\u201d We ask to \u201cput me the light\u201d (\u201cponer la luz\u201d) and not \u201cturn on the light.\u201d <\/p>\n

Linguists at Florida International University have been studying this evolving dialect for the past decade, noticing how natural it is to local speakers, but how peculiar it sounds to outsiders. And interestingly, it\u2019s not confined to bilingual speakers! Many native English speakers have picked up the phrases as well.<\/p>\n

Phillip M. Carter, a professor of linguistics and director of Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment at FIU, told IFL Science<\/a>: \u201cIn Miami, there are many ways of speaking English. The variety we have been studying for the past 10 years or so is the main language variety of people born in South Florida in Latinx-majority communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe variety is characterized by some unique but ultimately minor pronunciations, some minor grammatical differences, and word differences, which are influenced by the longstanding presence of Spanish in South Florida,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A reflection of the city\u2019s identity <\/p>\n

Given that we\u2019re a city known for its multiculturalism and a major Hispanic population, none of this should come as a surprise to us. This dialect stems from decades of immigration from Spanish-speaking countries, notably with Cuba after the end of the revolution in 1959.<\/p>\n

While we\u2019d like to sit here and claim we\u2019re so different and that Miami English sets us apart from the rest, it\u2019s important to remember that the English language is also full of calques. For example, the word \u201cdandelion\u201d was borrowed from the French \u201cdent de lion,\u201d meaning \u201clion\u2019s tooth.\u201d So we\u2019re not totally alone!<\/p>\n

In Scientific American<\/a>, Carter gave us even more examples of our ever-evolving Miami speech:<\/p>\n

Saying \u201cmarried with,\u201d based on the Spanish \u201ccasarse con,\u201d instead of \u201cmarried to.\u201d Or \u201cmake a party,\u201d a literal translation of \u201chacer una fiesta,\u201d instead of \u201cthrow a party.\u201d Ordering a \u201cmeat empanada\u201d (\u201cempanada de carne\u201d), where \u201cmeat\u201d literally translates to \u201ccarne\u201d and can mean any beef. Adding an \u201cs\u201d to say \u201cthanks God,\u201d taken from the Spanish \u201cgracias a Dios.\u201d <\/p>\n

What other Miami English phrases do you think should be added to the list?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images Save Pero, like, we all know that Miami has its own slang. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-47535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}