Linguistic History: Puerto Rican Spanish

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Linguistic History The history of languages or dialects that are spoken in my family is Puerto Rican Spanish which can be traced back to at least six generations. Since the 1920’s America has been seen as a land of opportunity. For centuries, families like mine have migrated to America from all over the world to gain economic success. Once in America, migrants look for acceptance from native speakers in social interactions. According to Baker (2001), “social structures in the target language community are an important component in the extent to which a second language learner will be accepted as a speaker of that language (p. 134).The main factors that have affected my family’s linguistic history are socioeconomic status and societal factors. …show more content…
Since the recession in 2005, the number of Puerto Ricans making the US their home has risen. According to Krogstad (2015), there are more Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. (5.1 million) than on the island itself (3.5 million). Their motivation being the numerous opportunities the US has for them to succeed. To many Puerto Ricans, English is seen as a prestigious language and therefore, embodies economic and educational success. To many being bilingual is an asset because you can communicate with people who speak both of the languages and this was one of the reasons my mother and aunts maintained both …show more content…
As mentioned above, some family members are still able to understand Spanish, but many no longer need and/or use it because they are culturally and socially surrounded by English. This leads to a decline in the minority language. In order to find a job, my mother needed to learn English. Her children felt pressured to learn English in order to be accepted into society. As we could see, the three-generation shift is in full effect in my nephew and niece because unlike my siblings, their first language is English and/or they prefer communicating in English. Puerto Ricans have the lowest levels of Spanish-language retention. It is also common for parents to communicate with their children in their native language while the children respond in English, which happens in both mine and my cousins household (Kasinitz, 2009). According to Kasinitz (2009), “parents who understood English inadvertently hastened the child’s path to monolingual English” (p. 248). My family’s rapid switch to English when we came to NY resulted in the decline of Spanish in my generation and
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