WRE News: Linguists Identify New English Dialect Emerging from South Florida

Linguists Kristen D’Allessandro Merii and Phillip M. Carter have identified various linguistic phenomena within this new dialect, including “calques,” which are direct translations of Spanish phrases into English. For instance, phrases like “make a party” (a direct translation of the Spanish phrase “hacer una fiesta”) and “get down from the car” exemplify the influence of Spanish on the English speech of the area.

The new English dialect has emerged in and around Miami over the past six decades, attributing its linguistic evolution to the significant population of bilingual English and Spanish speakers in the region, primarily fueled by the influx of Cuban immigrants after the Cuban Revolution in 1959.