“Lenguaje Mezclado”

The complexity of language can be seen in the simple origin of the word; a derivation of two languages.

Originally, it came from the word “lingua” which means tongue in Latin, and later adapted to french as “langage.” The root of this word in latin, holds “tongue” as the definition in modern English.

It is true that our tongue is the principal organ that allows us to exert words through speech, yet it is also what differentiates our own language from others. As I speak to myself, I talk on a speed I am unable to understand if I record it and press play, yet somehow I can finish a mouthful sentence without stuttering or letting my mouth dry, adding sound effects within each expression and moving my hands from left to right as I flow with my words. Being someone that has come from being shy and reserved, to someone that is outgoing and communicative, my personal language is one of the most principle attributes that differentiates me from everyone else.

I do not consider language as a structurized pattern, formed with traditional rules or schemes. It's more than rules. Language, created with the purpose of communication, is expected to be something that is uniform and identical. However, language is fluid, it adapts through time and environment. One may use different words to convey the same thing, yet the way one says it, the pronunciation, tone, education and mannerisms is what makes each personal language differentiable.

Being a bilingual Latin Anerican, I have been forced to think and talk in two languages, communicating differently in both. My native language is Spanish, it is how I learned to say “buenos dias” and what I was taught to use as my primary source of communication. However, words such as “chunche” or “tuani” that cannot be translated to another language are emblematic of Nicaraguan common parlance. Living in Nicaragua, I can commonly say “pasame el chunche ese” while I raise my eyebrows, scrunch my nose and point with my lips, expecting a response in which it will be perfectly understood that I am asking “can you pass me that?”. However, saying the same sentence in a different context would make me look as if my nose itches. My trail of thought was computed to think in Spanish, respond in Spanish and communicate in Spanish, hence changing from 11 years of one language to another seemed impossible.

I found refuge in the commonalities used in the English language, the cultural and youthful slang I adopt from social media, and the different expressions. Communicating in English can be fun, yet mixing both languages creates a hilarious combination of mispronunciation, syntax errors and multicultural remarks.

“Perate, estoy printeando el assignment”, a simple phrase I have used more than one time. Translating this sentence requires understanding of two languages, and to me it seems normal, yet to others it may seem as “revoltijo”(mix) of words. It seems contradictory to my culture and nationality that when having a conversation with Spanish speakers I think in English, yet mentally process these thoughts to verbalize them to Spanish and add Latin humor..

The irony in language can be transcribed in one question: if language is influenced by the background, identity or country we live in, how can language separate us instead of uniform us? It is the specific qualities and characteristics we reflect on the way we speak that sets my language apart from your language. As I talk to myself in the mirror, I naturally speak faster than how I think, using a mix of English and Spanish to communicate in a coherent Spanglish, and move my hands to the rhythm of my tone. My language is made up not only by words, since I tend to jump from speech, to hand movements, to facial expressions. One time, when I was in Russia, I was in the line to buy KFC in the Kremlin Plaza. When I reached the cashier, evidently, he could tell I was not from there, hence he talked to me in English; asked for my order, my ID, and where I was from. When he asked my nationality for the first time, I did not hear him properly, so in an attempt to say “why”, I scrunch my nose two times, as a sign of questioning. He looked at me, confused, not aware of what I was trying to communicate. I immediately realized that our different cultures separated us, and my corporal language was far from understood. We laughed, and I repeated the same question, only this time with words.

Language may appear to be a connector of races, yet each person has a different quality that adds to make its own language different. Perhaps it is in my two-time speed voice, or my incessant hand movements, or even in the mix of multicultural slangs that my language differentiates me from others around me, yet one thing is a fact, whenever I am talking I personalize my language as an individual trait, not an arithmetic arrangement of words.