The East L.A. accent

[Nancy Friedman]

Article in today's L.A. Times about "Chicano English" and about Pitzer
College linguistics professor Carmen Fought, who studies it.



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-eastla-accent-20111025,0,987605.stor
y



>>The accent - also known as Chicano English - crosses racial and ethnic
lines and inspires a certain pride even in those who have long since left
the neighborhoods where it prevails, most notably East L.A., Boyle Heights,
Lincoln Heights, El Sereno and City Terrace.<<



It appears to have some distinctive grammatical elements:



>>In a slightly Canadian-sounding twist, some people will add "ey" to the
end of a sentence, in a vaguely questioning tone: "Someone's on the phone
for you, ey."<<

>>The word "barely" is often used to indicate that something just happened,
as in: "I barely got out of the hospital."<<



(Could that "barely" come from the Spanish verb acabar-"to just finish"?)



Nancy

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Nancy Friedman

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