文摘
Parodi (2010, 2011) has evidenced a Spanish variety unique to Los Angeles, which she names Los Angeles Vernacular Spanish (LAVS). The present study focuses on active and passive knowledge of loanwords that incorporate linguistic elements of English into LAVS (such as: tí;quete (<ticket), chores (<shorts), marqueta (<market), troca (<truck), etc.) As a native speaker of LAVS, I have chosen the thirty-eight (n=38) lexemes for the study based on my personal experience with the community. The study analyzes responses given by thirty-five (n=35) first generation immigrant monolingual Spanish-speaking contributors in a sociolinguistic interview and questionnaire. The results indicate that they have extensive knowledge of these items, many of which are unique to this variety of Spanish. Nevertheless, this reality is confronted with linguistic ideologies that stigmatize the variety, since such loanwords in US Spanish are often rejected; they are considered pochismos, and not Spanish.