Chicana/Chicano English Speakers
Some Mexican Americans and other Latinas/Latinos who live
in predominantly bilingual social settings may speak Chicana/
Chicano English. Chicana/Chicano English (CE) has been
described as a nonstandard variety of English, influenced by
contact with Spanish, and spoken as a native dialect of English
(Fought 2003). Linguists describe CE as a contact dialect
because it developed independently after a period of time and
distinguished itself from the interlanguage of ELs. In many
ways, CE represents the linguistic history of Mexican American
and other Latina/Latino people as the dialect emerged from a
linguistic setting in which Spanish and English were in contact.
It is important to underscore language varieties (e.g., varieties of English) as a common phenomenon
that naturally occurs when languages come into contact with one another over a long period of time.
Fought (2003, 14) describes how the interlanguage of ELs acted as a precursor to the generational
development of CE:
However, particularly within the phonological component, the various non-native English
patterns of the immigrants were inherited by their children, modified somewhat, and can
still be seen in the new (native) dialect. To a lesser degree, there may be syntactic and
semantic elements that also reflect the influence of Spanish. Chicano English now has
independent phonological and syntactic norms of its own. It is important to reiterate the
inaccuracy of the idea that Chicano English is simply English influenced by Spanish.Chicana/Chicano English is sometimes erroneously considered ungrammatical, an accent, or simply
English influenced by Spanish. However, as is the case with AAE, CE is an independent, systematic,
and rule-governed language variety that bilingual and/or bidialectal people choose to use based on the
context in which they find themselves (LAUSD EL Master Plan 2012). Santa Ana (1991, 15) discusses
the importance of utilizing the term Chicano to refer to this language variety:
Chicano English is an ethnic dialect that children acquire as they acquire English in the
barrio or other ethnic social setting during their language acquisition period. Chicano
English is to be distinguished from the English of second-language learners... Thus
defined, Chicano English is spoken only by native English speakers.
Some CE speakers may have a high level of
language proficiency in Spanish, depending on their
family and life history. However, many CE speakers in
California are monolingual English speakers, and CE may
be the first and only variety of English they are exposed
to in childhood. Some bilingual speakers of CE may have
limited proficiency in Spanish and be English-dominant.
They may be able to understand some spoken Spanish,
and they may also have some Spanish language skills
such as commands, certain vocabulary terms (especially
“taboo” terms), and basic social Spanish (Fought 2003).
Other speakers of CE are fully bilingual or multilingual.
Chicana/Chicano English is a sociolinguistic asset
and not something in need of eliminating or fixing. It
should be noted that Chicana/Chicano literature for
children and youth—in both English and Spanish—has
Linguists describe CE as a
contact dialect because it
developed independently
after a period of time and
began to distinguish itself
from the interlanguage of
ELs.Chicana/Chicano English is
sometimes erroneously considered
ungrammatical, an accent, or
simply English influenced by
Spanish. However, as is the case
with AAE, CE is an independent,
systematic, and rule-governed
language variety that bilingual
and/or bidialectal people choose
to use, based on the context in
which they find themselves.886 | Chapter 9 Access and Equity