Researchers Identify A New Language Developing In America
The Evolution of Miami English
There’s something linguistically fascinating happening in Miami. Over the years, a unique dialect has been taking shape, one that mixes elements of Spanish and English into something new and distinctly local.
This blend hasn’t sprung up overnight; it’s the result of decades of cultural and linguistic interplay in one of the most bilingual regions in the United States. Miami’s demographics tell the story: a large Hispanic and Latino population, many of whom have roots in Spanish-speaking countries, has influenced the way English is spoken there.
Linguists at Florida International University (FIU) have spent years studying how this mix of languages has formed its own expressions, phrases, and patterns. What they’ve found offers a fascinating glimpse into the way languages evolve when people and cultures meet.
“All words, dialects, and languages have a history,” said Professor Phillip M. Carter, Director of the Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment at FIU. “In Miami, there are many ways of speaking English. 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.”
Carter explained that Miami English shows subtle differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, shaped by the area’s long-standing Spanish influence.
This dialect uses "calques"
One notable feature of this dialect is the use of “calques.” A calque happens when a phrase from one language is translated directly into another, often keeping the original language’s structure.
For instance, a common Spanish expression like “bajar del carro” translates to “get down from the car,” rather than the standard American English phrase “get out of the car.” Interestingly, these calques don’t just appear in the speech of immigrants who are still mastering English.
Their children have also embraced them, bilingual individuals who grow up speaking both English and Spanish. In some cases, even monolingual English speakers in Miami have adopted these phrases, showing how the local linguistic environment influences everyone who lives there.
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In 2022, Carter teamed up with linguist Kristen D’Allessandro Merii to conduct a study documenting Spanish-origin calques in Miami English. They asked 33 local residents, ranging from first-generation Cuban Americans to non-Cuban Hispanic individuals, to evaluate more than 50 sentences that represented this emerging dialect.
The participants rated each sentence as “perfect,” “okay,” “awkward,” or “horrible.” Carter and his colleagues then compared these reactions to responses from people outside Miami, highlighting how language that feels completely natural in one region can seem unfamiliar, even alien, elsewhere.
The study revealed that for many Miami locals, these phrases sounded perfectly normal, while outsiders often found them strange or incorrect. This discrepancy illustrates how dialects form: minor differences accumulate until people from outside the region perceive them as ungrammatical or non-standard.
Yet, for those who grow up with it, Miami English is simply the way they communicate, it’s how they express their thoughts, share their culture, and define their identity.
Carter defends marginalized dialects like Miami English as valid parts of identity that deserve respect.
Carter is passionate about challenging the stigma surrounding Miami English and other dialects that arise from marginalized communities. He argues that these linguistic forms deserve recognition and respect, not dismissal.
“It’s the language that person learned from their parents, that they used in school, that they hear in their community. It’s the language variety they developed their identity in, developed their friendships in, found love in. Why should that be stigmatized?” Carter asks.
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His work, along with D’Allessandro Merii’s, provides a strong case for embracing Miami English as a legitimate and meaningful way of speaking. Their study, published in English World-Wide, adds to a growing understanding of how language reflects and shapes the communities that speak it.
For Miamians, their dialect isn’t just a quirky blend of Spanish and English—it’s a reflection of who they are and where they come from.
Damjan
