Spanglish: Current Issues, Future Perspectives, and Linguistic Insights

This chapter studies a series of important issues concerning Spanglish as a hybrid language. It discusses why Spanglish has constituted a growing topic of interest ever since it first attracted the attention of specialists, be it from a linguistic, literary, or social- cultural perspective. The study also discusses the main challenges Spanglish is expected to be confronted with in the (near) future given that, more than ever, the identity of its speakers is at stake. A final part argues in favor of the maintenance of Spanglish as a unique form of bilingualism. By adopting a cognitive and functional viewpoint on language, it is shown that the analysis of Spanglish grammar offers insights into the main characteristics of human language, including basic principles such as iconicity, economy, creativity, and productivity.