Hal Guggolz

           Bi-lingual Nicknames in South Texas examines a current trend in South Texas involving the mixing of both English and Spanish in the formation of nicknames.  This paper highlights the implementation of Spanish linguistic characteristics used by native English speakers from the result of language contact in the South Texas area.  The Bi-lingual nicknames base their formation from an already existing convention used in Spanish that uses a suffix added to a name to create a diminutive.  In Spanish, the name+ito or ita signifies that the individual is being referred as little, however this is not used to put down or make fun of the individual but is used affectionately.  For example, in Spanish: Pablo+ito -> Pablito.  The current generations in South Texas have adopted this name or root plus “little” suffix structure used in Spanish for their American born and American named children.  The interesting result linguistically is a truncated form combining the right most consonant of the English name with the “little” affix in Spanish, and this truncation is used as the commonly referred name for the individual.  Examples appear below:

English       Spanish Base        English+Spanish Compound                   Truncated Bilingual form

George          ito                                   Georgito                                              Gito
Hal                ito                                   Halito                                                  Lito
Marshall        ito                                    Marshallito                                          Lito
Albert            ito                                    Albertito                                              Tito
Robert           ito                                    Robertito                                             Tito
Eloise            ita                                    Eloisita                                               Sita
 

            The data are analyzed within Downing (2006) morpheme based template theory.  Specifically, it is shown that the truncated forms are subject to a binary foot prosodic restriction.  Furthermore, truncation is right edge dominant as evidenced by the fact that the truncated forms retain English-Spanish Base right edge segments.  (halito-> Lito not * Hito).  The bi-lingual nicknames in South Texas represent a relevant linguistic development that places equal value and importance of both Spanish and English languages and therefore allows the child to be distinguished individually through his bi-lingual nickname. Native English speakers have borrowed this piece of Spanish grammar and have incorporated it into their own language with the result that they have created their own grammatical form that can be included in Tex-Mex dialect.  The analysis of this linguistic occurrence emphasizes that American born English speakers in South Texas, through trends like bi-lingual truncation, are willingly and consciously adopting Spanish linguistic culture into their own lives due to close linguistic contact in this culture area of South Texas.