¿Hablas CyberSpanglish?
You might find that you already do!
By Yolanda M. Rivas

It began on the computer desktops of Spanish-speaking people and continues to spread across the globe as a growing number of Hispanics tap into the Internet. As the world grows more computer-connected, Spanish-speaking users of computers and the global computer matrix have had to come up with inventive ways to explain what they do: 

Voy a emailearlo ahorita; zoomea más para verlo más grande; necesito rebutear la computadora otra vez.

 It is a Spanglish for computers -- a CyberSpanglish. It's a hybrid, distinct from the street Spanglish of U.S. cities, that was created to solve perplexing problems such as how to say "click on a hypertext link or an icon": ¡Cliquéalo, pues! Latino users on-line unconsciously have revolted against their language's old rules and traditions and have created a communal identity for the Information Age. Thus, CyberSpanglish is not only a sign of the evolution of a language, but of its people-those who are bound through computer networks and who create their own set of codes to communicate efficiently about the new technology. 

Consequently, many hybrid terms have become acceptable forms of speech. Some English jargon doesn't have equivalents in Spanish. In these cases, users are familiar with emailear (to e-mail) instead of enviar por correo electrónico, or linkear (to link) instead of enlazar, or el Web (the Web) instead of la Telaraña.

Such tongue twisters as hacer un golpecito seco (click) have left Spanish-speaking computer users less than loyal to Spanish-only. At the same time, many computer-savvy Latinos also speak English, giving them both the opportunity and the means to create CyberSpanglish. Working with "English-speaking machines," these generally well-educated Cyberlatinos are continually creating new ways to talk about the infobahn. Technology has taken on the lexicon of its creators: U.S. speakers of English, straining the vocabulary limits not only of Spanish, but local languages around the world.

 To some, the change threatens the purity of cultures. Others embrace it as a necessary evolution, a way of communicating what has to be communicated. The Internet and its lingua franca, English, have arrived in Spanish-speaking on-line communities, and two cultures have become more intertwined. The transformation could even be compared to other crossroads that shaped other languages: the Arab/Berber invasion of Iberia, which gave Spanish speakers Arab words they used in a Latin way, or the Norman conquest, which gave English so many French words to use in a Germanic language. Like the Spanish and the English, Cyberlatinos are borrowing, but they are using terms in their own, uniquely Spanish, way.

 In the middle of conversations, on-line messages, and computer documentation, Cyberlatinos spring forth with CyberSpanglish terms, creating hybrids of English and Spanish to fit their needs. Just like Puerto Ricans in New York or Mexican Americans in the Southwest, Latinos on-line use elements of both English and Spanish while maintaining the basic Spanish word order and pronunciation of the borrowed terms. Users of CyberSpanglish often make use of words without translation; as English verbs conjugated in Spanish (emailear); and as Spanish words with new meanings because they sound similar to the English word (fuentes for fonts). The phenomenon has become so prevalent that forums exist on the Internet on the subject.

 As technology evolves, so will Spanish. There's little doubt CyberSpanglish will remain a dynamic phenomenon throughout Latino on-line communities at the office, at school, and even at home. While some may argue that CyberSpanglish is some type of impure language, in order for the Spanish-speaking world to keep up with technology, it must be able to communicate its concepts. Evaluating CyberSpanglish terms aids in the design of new computer terminology that is needed in the Spanish language. The innovation of new terms will encourage Spanish-speakers to use more formalized vocabulary as opposed to hybrid terms, which are often improvised without much thought.

 Latino on-line communities are choosing to move forward with the technology. Language is changing at the pace of technology.

Editor's Note: As part of a CyberSpanglish project, author Yolanda Rivas, a University of Texas-Austin graduate student and the associate editor of HISPANIC Online, collected more than 500 terms and organized them on a World Wide Web site. Point your Web browser to http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/~seagull/ spanglist.html to find English, CyberSpanglish, and Spanish equivalents of more than 500 computer terms. HISPANIC Online is the Web site of HISPANIC Magazine and can be accessed at http://www.hisp.com.

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