We lidderally all know that we speak suuuper differently here in Miami, but we might not realize just how much of our words only sound normal to us until we leave the city. According to linguists, a distinct dialect has been found to be emerging in the city that’s heavily influenced by Spanish.
The dialect, Miami English, “borrows” Spanish expressions and directly translates them into English. This is known as calques and is far different from Spanglish, as we only retain the existing Spanish phrase structure. Think about how we say, “Get down from the car” — a literal translation of “bajarse del carro” — as opposed to “get out of the car.” Or we might say we “make the line” at Publix (“hacer la fila”) instead of “get in line.”
Linguists at Florida International University have studied this evolving dialect for the past decade, noting how natural it comes across to local speakers, but how peculiar it sounds to outsiders. And it’s not exactly limited to bilingual speakers either; many native English speakers have picked up the phrases.
“In Miami, there are many ways of speaking English,” Phillip M. Carter, a professor of linguistics and director of Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment at FIU, said in an interview with IFL Science.
“The variety we have been studying for the past 10 years or so is the main language variety of people born in South Florida in Latinx-majority communities. The variety is characterized by some unique but ultimately minor pronunciations, some minor grammatical differences, and word differences, which are influenced by the longstanding presence of Spanish in South Florida,” he added.
In a city known for its bilingualism and major Hispanic population, none of this should come as a surprise to us. The development of this dialect stems from decades of immigration to South Florida from Spanish-speaking countries, in particular Cuba after the end of the revolution in 1959.
While we’d like to sit here and say we’re sooo different and Miami English sets us apart from the rest, it’s important to note that the English language is full of calques. For example, a “dandelion” was borrowed from the French words for lion’s tooth, “dent de lion.”
Writing in Scientific American, Carter gave other examples of our ever-evolving Miami dialect, such as:
- Saying “married with,” based on the Spanish “casarse con,” instead of “married to.”
- Or “make a party,” a literal translation of the Spanish “hacer una fiesta,” instead of “throw a party.”
- In Spanish, “carne” translates to “meat” and can refer to all meat or specifically just to beef. Locals will order a “meat empanada,” a.k.a. an “empanada de carne.”
- The addition of an “s” in “thanks God,” taken from the Spanish “gracias a Dios.”