By\u00a0Roy Bragg,\u00a0August 5, 2012<\/p>\n
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God bless the USA and God bless mangled languages and heavily accented\u00a0speech.<\/p>\n
I occasionally encounter people who correct my mispronunciation of Spanish words. I figure they’re either anal retentive or they’re trying to preserve the language’s integrity. I respect the latter, although I will goof on the former by mispronouncing\u00a0intentionally.<\/p>\n
And then there are people who have difficulty pronouncing English words such as \u201csandwich,\u201d \u201cyes,\u201d and \u201cshoes.\u201d Again, speaking for myself, I use \u201csangwish\u201d exclusively because I happen to think it’s cool. And I want to fit\u00a0in.<\/p>\n
The English-only people would have none of this. They want to make English the official language. They lost that fight in Texas years ago, but they’re still pushing it on the national level. Mauro E. Mujica<\/a>, chairman of a group called U.S. English, testified before Congress last month in support of \u201cThe English Language Unity\u00a0Act.\u201d<\/p>\n Unity? Please. Even native English speakers can’t speak the same language. There are regional quirks and colloquialisms that make it impossible to standardize the language. I’m looking at you, Louisiana and New\u00a0England.<\/p>\n We get quirks here, too. I once worked with a woman who swore that Saspamco \u2014 a rural Bexar County community named after the now-defunct San Antonio Sewer Pipe Manufacturing<\/a> Co. factory \u2014 was pronounced \u201cSauce-pom-co.\u201d I told her it was an acronym of English words, but she would have none of it. We argued about it a bit, then we dropped the subject and went out for a sangwish with co-workers.<\/p>\n Native English speakers use lots of Spanish, such as \u201cnada,\u201d \u201cadios,\u201d \u201chola,\u201d \u201cmi casa es su casa,\u201d etc. And then there’s the variant of a Spanish obscenity used by legions of English-first people as a substitute for \u201cwidget.\u201d Good luck weeding that one out of our\u00a0language.<\/p>\n And you’ve got to love Splangish, full of Mex-ized variations of English words, such as \u201chonrun\u201d for \u201chome run,\u201d and \u201cla troca\u201d for \u201cpickup truck.\u201d I saw a blurb on the Web that claims in Nicaragua, manhole covers are called \u201cman-hole-less.\u201d That’s\u00a0outstanding.<\/p>\n The point is that cross-breeding \u2014 among people, cultures and languages \u2014 is good because it destroys stereotypes. When you do that, you get Latino families who don’t speak Spanish and Anglo families enrolling their kids in schools with bilingual curriculums. You get quincea\u00f1eras with Anglo and black girls among the court of honor and pi\u00f1atas at the birthday parties of English-first\u00a0kids.<\/p>\n I’ve just described San Antonio. No place is perfect, but San Antonio does a better job at getting along than any other major city. Lots of cities talk a big game, but there’s an NPR crowd in every town. People actually embrace each other’s cultures \u2014 and more important, each other \u2014 here. And this is true all over the\u00a0city.<\/p>\n And mangled English and botched Spanish is proof of that. We still have plenty of economic hurdles to confront, but when it comes to face-to-face interactions with each other, we’re hitting a honrun. As long as we’re screwing up each other’s languages because we’re trying to speak with each other, we’re heading in the right\u00a0direction.<\/p>\n It’s a lesson that the rest of the state and the rest of the country should learn. If they did, they wouldn’t discuss people as if they were cattle that need to be herded up and moved out. Or\u00a0fenced.<\/p>\n If we’re doing it right, we will continue to see ourselves in others. And at that point, we’ll understand that we’re all walking in the same\u00a0choos.<\/p>\n rbragg@express-news.net. Read Bragg’s blog at http:\/\/blog.mysanantonio.com\/atlarge.<\/a> Follow @roybragg on Twitter<\/p>\n