Ana Celia Zentella | |
---|---|
Born | 1939or1940(age 83–84) [1] New York City, New York, U.S. |
Occupation | Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies |
Awards |
|
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Ph.D., Educational Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania M.A., Pennsylvania State University, Romance Languages and Literatures B.A., Hunter College (Bronx), SpanishContents |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Hunter College;University of California San Diego |
Ana Celia Zentella (born 1939/1940) is an American linguist known for her "anthro-political" approach to linguistic research and expertise on multilingualism,linguistic diversity,and language intolerance,especially in relation to U.S. Latino languages and communities. [2] She is Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies at the University of California,San Diego. [3]
Her 1997 book Growing up bilingual:Puerto Rican children in New York [4] was honored by the British Association for Applied Linguistics and the Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists of the American Anthropology Association. Zentella was honored as a 2005 Frank Bonilla Public Intellectual of the Year by the Latino Studies section of the Latin American Studies Association. [5] She was also recognized by the Society for Linguistic Anthropology for her Public Outreach &Community Service. [6]
In 1996,Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger declared October 30th as "Doctor Ana Celia Zentella Day" in honor of "her leading role in building appreciation for language diversity and respect for language rights". [7]
Zentella was born in the South Bronx,New York City to a Puerto Rican mother and a Mexican father. Growing up in the 1950s,she was exposed not only to multiple languages but also to multiple varieties of Spanish in the community. [8]
She attended Hunter College,CUNY in the Bronx as an undergraduate,obtaining a B.A. degree in Spanish. [3] She went on to complete a M.A. in Romance Languages and Literatures at Pennsylvania State University,and obtained a PhD in Educational Linguistics in 1981 at the University of Pennsylvania,with a dissertation was titled "Hablamos los dos. We speak both":Growing up bilingual in el barrio. [9]
Zentella was Professor of Black and Puerto Rican Studies (now the Department of Africana/Puerto Rican/Latino Studies) at Hunter College,CUNY from 1990 to 2001. She was Chair for the Language and Social Justice Committee of the American Anthropology Association from the 2010 to 2012. [10] [6] At the time of her retirement,she was Professor of Ethnic Studies at University of California,San Diego.
Zentella's research adopts a political perspective on linguistic anthropology that "places language in its social context and acknowledges that there is no language without power. In other words,issues of power are deeply embedded in all aspects of language." [11] Much of her research focuses on U.S. varieties of Spanish,English,and Spanglish,practices of language socialization in Latinx families,and the societal impact of “English-only" laws. She notes that when English and Spanish speakers interact,it can be difficult to decide which language to speak. Sometimes when non-Spanish speakers use the few Spanish words in their vocabularies to communicate,they come across as genuine and considerate,while at other times their use of phrases such as “no problemo”and “comprendee”comes off as offensive or mocking of Spanish speakers. [12]
She has explored how specific linguistic features may shift in their distribution when different groups of speakers converge. As an example,she and her colleagues have explored the overt use of pronouns as a marker of the linguistic identities of different groups of Spanish-speakers residing in New York City. [13] In another study,she recorded the language practices of high school and college students who live in Tijuana,Mexico,but travel to San Diego,California on a daily basis to attend school. Through interviews with these students,known as transfronterizos,she documented the conflicts they experience around language use and identity,and stigma associated with their use of Spanglish. [14]
Spanglish is any language variety that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is mostly used in the United States and refers to a blend of the words and grammar of the two languages. More narrowly,Spanglish can specifically mean a variety of Spanish with heavy use of English loanwords.
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States. Over 41 million people aged five or older speak Spanish at home. Spanish is also the most learned language other than English,with about six million students. Estimates range from 41 million to over 50 million native speakers,heritage language speakers,and second-language speakers. There is an Academy of the Spanish Language located in the United States as well.
In linguistics,code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages,or language varieties,in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism in that plurilingualism refers to the ability of an individual to use multiple languages,while code-switching is the act of using multiple languages together. Multilinguals sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other. Thus,code-switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner consistent with the syntax and phonology of each variety. Code-switching may happen between sentences,sentence fragments,words,or individual morphemes. However,some linguists consider the borrowing of words or morphemes from another language to be different from other types of code-switching. Likewise,code-switching can occur when there is a change in the environment one is speaking. Code-switching can happen in the context of speaking a different language or switching the verbiage to match that of the audience. There are many ways in which code-switching is employed,such as when a speaker is unable to express themselves adequately in a single language or to signal an attitude towards something. Several theories have been developed to explain the reasoning behind code-switching from sociological and linguistic perspectives.
Ethnolinguistics is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language and the nonlinguistic cultural behavior of the people who speak that language.
Dr. Luis Rafael Sánchez,a.k.a. "Wico" Sánchez is a Puerto Rican essayist,novelist,and short-story author who is widely considered one of the island's most outstanding contemporary playwrights. Possibly his best known play is La Pasión según Antígona Pérez,a tragedy based on the life of Olga Viscal Garriga.
Pura Teresa Belpréy Nogueras was an Afro-Puerto Rican educator who served as the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York City. She was also a writer,collector of folktales,and puppeteer.
Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican poet,novelist,dramatist,and scholar. Her notable works include Empire of Dreams (1988),Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) and United States of Banana (2011).
Mock Spanish is a loaded term used to describe a variety of Spanish-inspired phrases used by speakers of English. Spanish-inspired phrases are generally used in a humorous way,but at least one person has asserted that it could lead to unfavorable or stereotypical views of Spanish speakers. The term "mock Spanish" has been popularized by anthropologist-linguist Jane H. Hill of the University of Arizona,most recognizably in relation to the catchphrase,"Hasta la vista,baby",from the film,Terminator 2:Judgment Day. Hill argues using pseudo-Spanish terms like "hasty banana","buenos nachos","el cheapo","no problemo","hasta la bye-bye",and other words is covert racism. It is also seen as a manifestation of linguistic racism.
Shana Poplack,is a Distinguished University Professor in the linguistics department of the University of Ottawa and three time holder of the Canada Research Chair in Linguistics. She is a leading proponent of variation theory,the approach to language science pioneered by William Labov. She has extended the methodology and theory of this field into bilingual speech patterns,the prescription-praxis dialectic in the co-evolution of standard and non-standard languages,and the comparative reconstruction of ancestral speech varieties,including African American vernacular English. She founded and directs the University of Ottawa Sociolinguistics Laboratory.
Luz María "Luzma" Umpierre-Herrera is a Puerto Rican human rights advocate,New-Humanist educator,poet,and scholar. Umpierre-Herrera works on the topics of activism and social equality,the immigrant experience,and bilingualism in the United States,and Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual,and Transgender (LGBT) issues. Umpierre has published six poetry books and two books of literary criticism and has had numerous essays published in academic journals.
Sandra María Esteves is a Latina poet and graphic artist. She was born and raised in the Bronx,New York,and is one of the founders of the Nuyorican poetry movement. She has published collections of poetry and has conducted literary programs at New York City Board of Education,the Caribbean Cultural Center,and El Museo del Barrio. Esteves has served as the executive director of the African Caribbean Poetry Theater. She is the author of Bluestown Mockinbird Mambo and Yerba Buena. She lives in the Bronx.
Susan Gal is the Mae &Sidney G. Metzl Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology,of Linguistics,and of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago She is the author or co-author of several books and numerous articles on linguistic anthropology,gender and politics,and the social history of Eastern Europe.
Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) is a postmodern novel in English,Spanish,and Spanglish by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. The cross-genre work is a structural hybrid of poetry,political philosophy,musical,manifesto,treatise,memoir,and drama. The work addresses tensions between Anglo-American and Hispanic-American cultures in the United States.
Lourdes Vázquez is a Puerto Rican poet,fiction and essayist writer born in Santurce,Puerto Rico in 1949 and a resident of the United States. Her poetry,short stories and essays have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. Her many collections,which have been translated into English and Italian by writers such as Bethany Korps-Edwards,Rosa Alcalá,Enriqueta Carrington and Brigidina Gentile have received excellent reviews. She is Librarian Emeritus of Rutgers University.
Kathryn Ann Woolard is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California,San Diego. She specializes in linguistic anthropology and received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.
The bibliography of code-switching comprises all academic and peer-reviewed works on the topic of code-switching. It is sorted by category,then alphabetically.
Iris López is a contemporary professor,anthropologist,sociologist,and author,whose work focuses on feminist,Latino,and Latin American studies. She has one full-length book published,an ethnography about sterilization within female Puerto Rican populations,titled Matters of Choice. She received both her Masters and Doctoral degrees in Anthropology from Columbia University. Currently,López teaches sociology at the City College of New York,part of the City University of New York (CUNY),where she has been the Director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program since 2016.
Marcia Elizabeth Farr is an American sociolinguist and ethnographer;she is an Emerita Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago,as well as an Emerita Professor of Education and English at the Ohio State University.
Yarimar Bonilla is a Puerto Rican political anthropologist,author,columnist,and professor of anthropology and Puerto Rican studies at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Bonilla’s research questions the nature of sovereignty and relationships of citizenship and race across the Americas.
Ofelia García (Otheguy) is Professor Emerita in the Ph.D. programs of Latin American,Iberian,and Latino Cultures (LAILAC) and Urban Education at The Graduate Center,CUNY. She is best known for her work on bilingualism,translanguaging,language policy,sociolinguistics,and sociology of language. Her work emphasizes dynamic multilingualism,which is developed through "an interplay between the individual’s linguistic resources and competences as well as the social and linguistic contexts she/he is a part of." Rather than viewing a bilingual's languages as autonomous,García views language practices as complex and interrelated,as reflecting a single linguistic system.