Miami English

A Muscovy duck saying "ay, paquetero. The seatbelt isn't choking you. Get down from the car."

The sentence in the picture was created with the help of r/miami on Reddit, but I did not get a lot of response, so corrections are appreciated.

“Ey, paquetero. The seatbelt isn’t choking you. Get down from the car.” Translation into my own English English: „Hey, drama queen. The seat belt isn’t choking you. Get out of the car.” “Paquetero” is not a regular Spanish word, but a local “invention”. “Get down from the car” is a literal translation from Spanish.

Bird: the Muscovy duck is (apparently)  a very common sight in Miami

Resources for Miami English

Though Miami English is currently the focus of quite a lot of research and attention (for a world English variant, anyway), there is not yet a Wikipedia page or Oxford English Dictionary page that summarises the knowledge.

Media resources on Miami English

I received the following links from professor Philip M. Carter, lead researcher on most things Miami English

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/18/1182941050/in-south-florida-a-new-dialect-is-forming-in-real-time


https://www.wlrn.org/podcast/sundial/2023-06-22/miami-dialect-phillip-carter-fiu


https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2023/07/10/ai-has-language-diversity-problem


https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/miami-english-unique-only-in-dade-dialect-emerging-in-south-florida-fiu-study-finds/3061572/

Example

I could not find an example of naturally spoken Miami English, but comedian Jenny Lorenzo often uses her family’s Miami (exaggerated) dialect in her videos.

Articles from my newsletter

Here are all the articles about Miami English that have appeared in my newsletter English in Progress about world Englishes and English language change up to now.

October 2023

The Linguistic Magic of “Miami English”

This one didn’t make it into my newsletter, because of overrepresentation 😉

July 2023

Miami English should be recognised as an American-English dialect

In Miami, more than 60 years of steady immigration from Spanish-speaking countries have heavily influenced the local English’s vowel system, grammatical structure and lexicon. The result is a version of English that is just as worthy of recognition as other widely accepted dialects.

Reading time: 5 minutes/ New York Times (USA, archived)

June 2023

All about Miami English

Linguistics professor Philip M. Carter describes the linguistic history of Miami, features of Miami English (such as such as “get down from the car” instead of “get out of the car.”) and his own research into the subject.

Reading time: 6 minutes / The Conversation (USA)

May 2023

to get down from the car – Miami English for to get out of the car (from Spanish “bajar del carro”) (click on underlined for article)

Heddwen Newton is an English teacher and translator. She is fascinated by contemporary English and the way English changes. Her newsletter is English in Progress. 1100 subscribers and growing every day!

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