Language Choice in El Paso, Texas

Abstract

A complex language pattern exists in El Paso Texas: bilingual residents are capable of manipulating Spanish and English and a combination of the two, a code known as Spanglish. Attitudes to these different codes vary widely in the community. The present study compares men and women, two different age groups (18-25 and 55-87), and the working and middle classes by means of a questionnaire that included 21 scenarios identifying interlocutor identity and asked the respondents to select English, Spanish, or Spanglish or any combination of these three for the language they would choose for each scenario. The results show that, although English is dominant, many participants selected the combination of English and Spanish (in twenty scenarios). The Spanish only option was selected in eighteen of the scenarios, and Spanglish was selected, although very infrequently, in seventeen. Overall, the participants demonstrated that they use both Spanish and English only in some scenarios but a combination of both languages equally in others. The details of language choices for specific scenarios and for the demographic groups are considered in detail.