"Get down from the car" is among Miami expressions influenced by generations, study says
MIAMI — Have you ever heard the expression "Get down from that car"? According to research published in English World Wide by Florida International University (FIU), this distinct dialect is evidence of the unique expressions emerging in South Florida.
The dialect is a result of "borrowing" Spanish sayings and directly translating them into English, which is then passed down and used by bilingual generations.
Lead author of the study and FIU sociolinguist, Phillip Carter, explained that borrowing is an inescapable reality of the world's languages.
"When we conduct research like this, it's a reminder that there aren't 'real' words or 'pretend' words. There are only words. And all the words come from somewhere and someplace," Carter said. "Every word has a history, and that goes for all words spoken in Miami."
Carter has researched Miami English for almost a decade, which is a variety of English with subtle structural influence from Spanish and is mostly spoken by second-, third-, or fourth-generation native English speakers.
In this study, he examined how words are used, specifically calques, when a speaker directly translates an expression from one language, considered the "source language," into another language.
"There's not a single language that doesn't have words borrowed from another language," Carter said.
Spanish expressions are being introduced into English in Miami, and the translations can be subtle.
Several groups in Miami with bilingual speakers, primarily focusing on Cuban immigrants and Cuban Americans in two groups: first-generation Cuban Americans born in Cuba who immigrated to Miami after the age of 12, and second-generation Cuban Americans born and raised in Miami who use English more than Spanish, were given a series of expressions commonly used in the 305.
Most of the examples were phased out and no longer used by the second-generation participants.
More than 50 sentences were rated to determine how these calques were perceived by people in Miami versus outside of South Florida.
Locals found Miami expressions more favorable than English speakers outside of South Florida. "Get down from the car" and "make the line" sounded "awkward" to national audiences, while people in Miami said it sounded either "perfect" or "okay."
Carter says the data suggests there's a thin line separating what sounds "foreign" from what's acceptable in Miami, with some inherent language bias at play.
The question remains whether these phrases will stick around, which is entirely up to the people in Miami.
