CENTRO JOURNAL Volume xx Number I SPRING 2008
PUERTO RICAN LANGUAGE USE ON MYSPACE.COM KEVIN S. CARROLL
ABSTRACT
The social networking site MySpace.com has quickly become a venue in which Puerto Ricans are able to communicate among themselves within a larger global community, resulting in an interesting range of language use. After examining the amount of Puerto Rican users, the researcher uses five aspects of MySpace.com profiles to analyze language use in fifty profiles of Puerto Ricans ages i8 to
22.
The final portion of the paper is a case study
of three profiles highlighting current use of Puerto Rican Spanish and netspeak. The paper concludes that many Puerto Rican users of MySpace.com live in a bilingual linguistic reality floating between Spanish and English. [Key Words: Puerto Rican netspeak, MySpace.com, Internet language usage, social networking, Puerto Rican Spanish]
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THROUGHOUT THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD, technology, and specifically the internet, has overwhelmingly changed the way we think and talk about language. crystal (2004) argues that the internet has had the biggest impact on language change since the advent of the written word. as language has changed via its use on the world wide web, so too have the ways in which people create and maintain their identity through language. this paper looks to document language use among Puerto Rican myspace.com users and identify social networking sites as vibrant and legitimate sites for continued research regarding the use of language. this research will look specifically at the language(s) that puerto ricans age i8 to 22 use to create their profiles and how these linguistic features signify in-group identity. With inexpensive computers and Internet access, Puerto Ricans are taking to the Internet in droves. Currently, approximately 25 percent of Puerto Ricans have Internet access (Miniwatts Marketing Group 2006). While this number is substantially lower than percentage of users in the U.S., Puerto Rico ranks highest in Internet usage among islands in the Caribbean, with more than a half a million people. Although access to the Internet is tied to socioeconomic status, younger generations of Puerto Ricans are often able to connect to the Web at school, and those studying in various universities are required to frequently access the Internet. As a result of younger generations having a better knowledge of computers and the Internet, it is no surprise that the average MySpace.com user in Puerto Rico is under 25 years of age. Through MySpace.com, these young adult users have found a space where they can communicate with the larger global community and still maintain their own local identity,which they signal by their use of language. Functions of English and Spanish in Puerto Rico Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island populated by approximately four million people (World-Gazeteer 20o6), was originally colonized by the Spanish and currently holds a unique commonwealth status with the United States. Puerto Ricans are given U.S. citizenship, are eligible for federal aid, and are granted a majority of the other liberties afforded by being part of the United States. Puerto Rico's citizens do not pay U.S. federal income tax, however, nor do they have voting rights in U.S. federal elections. Since the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico in 1898, English education, to different extents, has been a mandatory part of public education. Despite U.S. occupation for [981
the past iio years, 21 percent of Spanish speaking Puerto Ricans report that they do not speak English well, and 45 percent report that they do not speak English at all (U.S. Census Bureau 2003). Despite overt movements on the part of the U.S. to create an English-speaking island, Puerto Ricans have been very successful in maintaining and bolstering their own dialect of Spanish known as Puerto Rican Spanish (PRS) (Algren de Guti6rrez 1987; Morris 1995). Morris (1995) describes the use of Spanish as a deeply rooted aspect of Puerto Rican identity and one that Puerto Ricans cling dearly to. Furthermore, Morris explains how within the context of politics language "serves as a rallying point for Puerto Rican identity, in direct opposition to the Englishspeaking United States" (1995: 162). It is difficult, if not impossible, for Puerto Ricans to detach politics from the debate over language instruction because one's opinions on the importance of English education often align with political parties and their support or animosity towards statehood. Hence, any language discussion in Puerto Rico is inherently political (Morris 1996). Consequently, it is often assumed that promoting bilingual education or educational programs that place a significant importance on English education is in some way moving away from "true" Puerto Ricanness and in the direction of statehood (Algren de Guti6rrez 1987; Morris 1995; Morris 1996). While language policies in Puerto Rico are politically charged, many Puerto Ricans acknowledge the importance that English has as a gatekeeper to upward social mobility and therefore continually stress the importance of English education for their children. This is exemplified by the many parents who have the resources to send their children to private schools, where there is often a greater emphasis put on English education (Schweers and Hudders 2000). While there is not currently a wide body of literature examining Puerto Rican language use, hence the publication of this edition of CENTROJournal,there are publications in the area of applied linguistics that examine different functions between English and Spanish on the island. Fayer (20oo) documented the various places where English is used on the island and compiled results from three studies spanning from 1976 to 1996 to analyze the different functions of English on the island. Not surprisingly, there was a high correlation between knowing English and a person's income. Furthermore, the study highlighted an increased access to and use of media among Puerto Ricans, primarily movies and television. Fayer's findings point to an increased exposure to media, which has continued to grow and now undoubtedly includes the Internet. Similarly, V61ez (1993) compared English service encounters in San Juan with those he collected in Austin, Texas, and found that the English used by Spanish speakers in Sanjuan was more direct and followed particular Spanish discourse patterns, which could be interpreted by a non-Puerto Rican as rude or too informal. Other less formal work on Puerto Rican language use may be found in master's and doctoral theses and dissertations (Nickels 2005). hile Spanish is the language of choice by the vast majority of Puerto Ricans living on the island, islanders have their own unique dialect of Spanish (PRS), which has been well documented. PRS is often categorized with other Caribbean Spanishspeaking countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic (Morales 2000). As is customary with different dialects, there are a number of different linguistic differences between PRS and other varieties of Spanish. Some of the more commonly cited and noticed aspects of PRS are phonological, such as: minimal distinction between /I/ and /r/, final /s/ deletion, and using a uvular /x/ in the place [991
of a traditionally trilled r sound in a word like arroz, which could be pronounced as la:xol (Nash i977; Hochberg 1986). In addition to the unique aspects of PRS, English in the United States has influenced Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico. As a result of the vaiven' (Garcia, Morin, and Rivera zooi) amongst Puerto Ricans to and from the United States, as well as influences from U.S. popular culture, Spanglish (Zentella 1997) is commonly used, especially among youth. Spanglish is often marked by consistent code switching and insertion of words that were once English but have been adopted into Puerto Rican Spanish and are pronounced accordingly. Venues such as MySpace.com, where Puerto Ricans are part of both a local and international community provide (and in some instances necessitate) the use of different registers to create and maintain their diverse linguistic identities. Puerto Ricans are known throughout the Spanish-speaking world as having their own unique dialect. The data in this study have been analyzed using a theoretical framework couched in linguistic anthropology, where language is viewed as playing a major role in the development of personal as well as cultural identity (Bailey 2ooo; Bucholtz 1999; Eckert 2000). Language thus equally affects the development of society and the particular culture(s) within which it has contact. The field of linguistic anthropology is founded on the work of scholars like Franz Boas, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf, whose work led the field to view language use as a determiner of how one sees and acts in the world (Duranti 1997). As language and culture are inextricably intertwined, the two obviously have an impact on the creation and maintenance of one's identity. The purpose of the remainder of this research is to highlight a new space where Puerto Ricans are using language as an identity marker. This new space is known as MySpace.com. The MySpace.com phenomenon As the Internet has grown in accessibility and speed over the years, so too have programs of computer-mediated communication (CMC). In general terms, CMC stands for the broad type of social networking website that allows Internet users from diverse geographic areas to communicate in virtual worlds. The fourth mostvisited English language site in the world, with over io6 million users, MySpace.com is currently the most popular social networking website (Wikipedia 20o6). MySpace. com reports that, on a daily basis, more than 230,000 new users join (Wikipedia 20o6). Typically a phenomenon for youth and college students, MySpace.com allows its users to create their own profiles using a myriad of different semiotic aspects. Other sites allowing users to do similar things are: Facebook.com, Friendster.com, and Hi5.com. These virtual communities allow users to reconnect and keep in touch with old friends and meet new people, as well as share pictures and music with anyone who is interested enough to open a profile. Started in 2003, MySpace.com is now a space where millions of people around the world spend hours a day creating, maintaining and browsing profiles. MySpace.com has not operated without controversy. Some secondary schools and even universities, primarily in the United States, have banned access to the website in order to protect younger users from pedophiles and to keep students on task while studying. MySpace.com also seems to permeate many social aspects of current school life, as exemplified at a school located in a suburb of St. Louis, where 12 students were expelled for a fight that was organized via MySpace.com (Suhr 20o6). While there have been many attempts to curb the websites' use by [IO01
parents, school administrators and record labels (because you can listen to music for free), many parents, school administrators and companies have decided to join the MySpace.com phenomenon by creating their own profiles and managing it that way (Wikipedia 20o6). Many famous celebrities, including actors, athletes and musicians, have used the website to their advantage and are able to provide free advertisements for new releases, upcoming shows and new songs, all of which can instantly be viewed by the website's millions of users.
MySpace.com is now a space where millions of people around the world spend hours a day creating, maintaining, and browsing profiles. Puerto Rican profiles on MySpace.com range greatly in appearance and theme, and its users' ages, occupations, interests and purposes are equally diverse. The interface also makes it easy to find people through a variety of query options such as the person's name, email, country and many more. User profiles themselves often deviate from the standard white and blue template provided when they first create their profiles. Among the profiles I examined, most were rich with both visual and sound effects. As far as language use is concerned, I have defined a standard MySpace.com profile to have all five of the following aspects that use language: a personal quote (usually a few words, a greeting or quote from a friend or famous person), a personal description (all profiles examined were at least a paragraph long), an interest section (a list of movies, TV shows and different things of interest to the user), at least one song or music video and a comments section where friends can asynchronously2 leave postings. Collectively, these five aspects make up the linguistic criteria analyzed in this study. Non-language components of the profiles differ in their complexity, but often include elaborate slideshows of pictures, wallpapered pictures, Top Friends pictures and even custom pointers for one's cursor (e.g. the user has changed the standard cursor or pointer into a Puerto Rican flag). MySpace.com's popularity is immense and growing, but it has just recently caught on as one of the primary social networking websites in Puerto Rico. On 31 October 20o6, when I started looking specifically at Puerto Rican MySpace.com, there were approximately 26,047 users between the age of 18 and 6o who registered as being located in Puerto Rico. As of ii December 20o6, there were 53,262, a 104 percent increase in such users in roughly a month and a half (see Table i and 2). I estimate there would be at least a few thousand more if it were possible to browse profiles of users under I8, which is restricted for reasons of safety and privacy. As social networking sites like MySpace.com have become more popular, Puerto Ricans have been able to display their cultural and individualistic identities for the world to see. Methodology In order to gauge language use among Puerto Rican MySpace.com users, I conducted this study in three parts. The first portion estimates the amount of Puerto Ricans using MySpace.com; this was made easy by the browse function on MySpace.com, which allowed me to search for profiles from Puerto Rico. In order to do so, I set my search criteria in the browse function of MySpace. com for male and then female profiles for each age individually, from eighteen [ioil
to sixty. The maximum amount of users that Myspace.com will display is 3,000 so breaking my query up into females and then males for each age allowed me to get a more accurate idea of how many users there are. I first collected data on 31 October 2006, and repeated this process on ii December 2006, to show how fast the site is growing among Puerto Ricans. The purpose of the second part of the study was to conduct a general survey of language use among fifty Puerto Rican MySpace.com pages. It was not my intent to describe every specific linguistic nuance of MySpace.com users, but to promote the site as a legitimate place where more research can and should be done. In this section, I was interested in the language that Puerto Ricans were using on their profiles and whether or not they were using Spanish, English or a mixture of the two. For this paper, I chose only to look at the language criteria on the profiles, i.e. the user's quote, his or her personal description, the interests section, the song/video and the comments section. From the first part of the study I realized that the bulk of MySpace.com users TABLE 1 MYSPACE USAGE IN PR AS OF 11:00 PM 31 OCT. 2006
TABLE 2 MYSPACE USAGE IN PR AS OF 6:00 PM 11 DEC.2006
MALES 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
MALES 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
USERS 1460 1380 1144 934 787 723 587 518 493 329 334 272 196 188 139 97 93 103 67 62 46 40 29 28 16 19 23 17 12 8 12 7 9 11 7 3 2 4 2 6 1 3 5 10216
FEMALES 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
USERS 2641 2380 1907 1541 1209 1040 835 710 600 427 405 310 272 220 174 127 127 119 103 75 70 64 59 53 42 39 30 32 32 28 23 21 21 15 18 15 8 14 8 3 3 6 5 5831
26047
[ 1021
USERS 3000 2951 2498 2152 1736 1651 1306 1223 1109 824 777 691 452 437 333 310 257 241 197 162 128 113 96 87 62 65 56 48 40 29 34 39 35 28 23 13 10 13 12 13 9 12 11 23283
FEMALES 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
USERS 3000 3000 3000 3000 2743 2348 1731 1728 1522 1068 1011 782 657 532 459 341 356 303 307 208 210 173 194 168 138 121 87 103 84 83 63 73 73 60 43 43 35 35 36 17 17 13 14 29979
53262
in Puerto Rico were between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. Consequently, I looked at five male and five female profiles for each age from eighteen up to twenty-two. In order to have a random sample, I selected every sixth profile. If the profile that I opened did not have all of the five language components of the page, I would return to the browser, count six profiles and try again. For the final part of the data analysis, I selected three profiles, two of which were primarily in English and one solely in Spanish. I chose the two profiles that are primarily in English because both represented the many profiles that were in English but had comment sections primarily in Spanish. The third profile, which is all in Spanish, was chosen to represent the non-English Puerto Rican users of MySpace.com. These three profiles were not chosen randomly. Instead, I browsed different MySpace.com profiles and chose three profiles that I thought were complete and representative of the various linguistic aspects that were attested on other profiles. The analysis of these three profiles provides specific examples of language use among Puerto Rican MySpace.com users, while simultaneously prompting ideas for future research on this fascinating website. Puerto Ricans using MySpace.com As the MySpace.com phenomenon has hit the United States, it has also attracted millions of people from around the world, including Puerto Rico. At the time of my research, I estimate that there were more than 53,000 users of MySpace.com on the island (Tables i and 2). It is impossible get an exact count because the profiles of users who register as under M8 are not accessible to the general public. As noted above, however, from 31 October 20o6 to ii December 2oo6 almost all of the categories of users had grown exponentially (Tables i and 2). What is not clear is whether the MySpace.com phenomenon will continue to thrive or whether another website (such as Facebook.com, on which it is easier to share pictures but which does not yet have a music component) will become more dominant. I think is safe to say, however, that Puerto Ricans (and Internet users in general) are not going to stop spending time on social networking websites in the near future. In order to get a better idea of who uses MySpace.com in Puerto Rico, I compiled the number of female and male Puerto Rican users from age I8 to age 6o. After counting only the first six years (age I8-23), it was apparent that the majority of Puerto Rican MySpace.com users are part of the "technology generation," who more than likely have grown up with computers or at least have had access to them. MySpace. com limits searches to 3,000 users. When I did my search on 31 October 2006, neither the male nor female categories were more than 3,000 users for any particular age. However, when I repeated the search on ii December 2006, I found the M8-year-old male and 18- to 22-year-old female categories showing the maximum of 3,ooo users. One would assume that by then there were many more users than I was able to count due to the limitations of the browser function (see Table 2 for details). MySpace.com is a site where the users are in charge of self-reporting. Thus, it is inevitable that there are users who do not report their real ages. The number of users claiming to be i8 to 20 years of age, however, is indicative that this is a youth and young adult phenomenon (see Table i). It is hard to tell whether or not there are a substantial number of youth under age eighteen who use the web page. In my research at a local middle school in Tucson, Arizona, I have found that MySpace.com consumes the better part of many of the students' after-school activities. I am not clear whether MySpace.com in Puerto Rico is used primarily by college students, who have faster
[1031
and more accessible Internet access, or whether MySpace.com usage is similar to the United States, where there is a significant group of users under eighteen. Another interesting aspect of this study was that there were many more female users than male users. Similarly, while I did not keep an exact tally of those pages I deemed to be incomplete (i.e. they lacked one or more of the five language components being analyzed), it was much easier to find female user profiles that did meet the five component criteria than their male counterparts. Moreover, the female user pages were much more detailed and had substantially more text than their male counterpart's pages. Language division When examining the fifty selected MySpace.com pages, I was surprised by the number of aspects of each profile that were categorized in English. For example, twenty-eight out of fifty pages (56 percent) had a quotation and/or a song in English (see Table 3), and all of the five different language components (except the comments section) were in English for at least seventeen out of fifty pages (35 percent). Moreover, the four areas where I saw the most English were generally the least changed aspects of a person's profile. In other words, when a user creates his or her profile, the user fills in the different components, but rarely goes back to change them. If the user does go back and change them, it is generally to edit or add something new. Therefore, the quotation, personal description, interests and music/video categories are all relatively stagnant aspects of the typical MySpace.com page. 3 The only way I have been able to explain the amount of English language use on the stagnant aspects of Puerto Rican MySpace.com profiles is that Puerto Rican users are doing so in an attempt to appeal to the larger, English-using MySpace.com community. I believe that the amount of profiles in English stems from Puerto Ricans' understanding of English and its role as a lingua franca on the Internet. In using English in their profiles, especially in the description portion, users can automatically appeal to the sites' worldwide network of users. Moreover, having portions of one's profile in English gives family members and friends living in the United States, who may or may not speak Spanish, a better opportunity to interact with users on the island. Another reason Puerto Ricans would use English in their quotations or their music is a result of the strong American influence on popular culture in Puerto Rico (Negr6n-Muntaner 2004). Moreover, the interests sections of the majority of the profiles I examined used the English titles for movies. In other Spanish-speaking countries, such movies would often be dubbed, and consequently, the titles would be in Spanish, which is rarely the case in Puerto Rico. The language component that exhibited the most amount of Spanish was the comment section. Twenty-three out of fifty (46 percent) of Puerto Rican users had comment sections that were entirely in Spanish, and another forty percent were mixed Spanish and English (mostly with more Spanish than English, but with enough English to be categorized as Mixed and not purely Spanish). In contrast to the other language usage criteria areas, the comments portion of a general profile is the aspect of the page that changes the most frequently. The comment board serves as an asynchronous chat site where friends can say hello to friends, post messages about parties, post pictures or videos and publicly remind a friend of shared experiences. It should be noted that it was very difficult for me to quickly and systematically distinguish between Spanish and Mixed pages. The primary reason for this difficulty was the amount of copied and pasted postings in English. Postings such as "Happy Halloween," "Happy Thanksgiving," "thanks for the add," and "I love you," among
[ 104 1
3 9 October 2006 Data Results: N= 50 18- to 22-Year-olds The percent of a profile was calculated as the researcher read through the text and determined whether it was primarily in Spanish, English or had at least 30 percent of either language to be considered Mix TABLE
QUOTE:
DESC.
INTER:
SONG:
COMMENT SECTION:
OVERALL PAGE:
SPANISH
ENGLISH
MIX
NA
19
28
2
1
38%
56%
4%
2%
SPANISH
ENGLISH
MIX
22
18
10
0
44%
36%
20%
0%
SPANISH
ENGLISH
MIX
12
23
15
0
0%
24%
46%
30%
SPANISH
ENGLISH
MIX
19
28
2
I
38%
56%
4%/0
2%
SPANISH 23
ENGLISH
7
MIX 20
0
46%
14%
40%
0%
SPANISH 15
ENGLISH 13
MIX 22
0
30%
26%
44%
0%
others, were all very common postings that were obviously copied and pasted from other profiles. When a user's comment section was full of commonly used phrases, I tallied them as a "Mix." While it could be argued that the posting of these commonly used phrases and proper nouns are not true examples of the users' (or those of their friends, who are actually posting the comments) language use, I believe that the user's exposure to this text is indeed significant. The use of Spanish on the comments portion of the majority of Puerto Rican MySpace.com profiles is significant because this is the part of the site that is subject to the most change and consequently, the area that returning users view most. Language use on specific pages The next part of this paper will take an in-depth look at three Puerto Rican MySpace. com pages viewed on 28 November 20o6. I chose these specific pages because I thought they offered a glimpse of many of the linguistic aspects used on many Puerto Rican profiles I viewed. In the interest of space, I have decided to discuss some of the similarities in language use, specifically: the division of language use (in the two profiles with English descriptions), Puerto Rican netspeak, spelling and lexical borrowings. The profiles examined come from two males, Roberto (age 20 from Ponce) and Angel (age 19 from Camuy) and a 19-year-old female from Mayagiiez named Veronica. The profiles for Veronica and Angel were predominantly in English with both of their quotations, descriptions, interests and music being in English. Roberto's profile, on the other hand, was almost ioo percent in PRS (with the exception of a few common English expressions like "I love you"). Roberto and Veronica study at different campuses in the University of Puerto Rico system, and it is unclear whether Angel is in school or not.
[1o15
Division of English and Puerto Rican Spanish Puerto Rican MySpace.com pages vary in the way their users use both English and PRS. However, even those whose pages are primarily in English consistently have comment sections that are primarily, if not ioo percent, in PRS. As noted above, Veronica's and Angel's quotations, descriptions, interests and song sections were all in English. Veronica's description reads: HEY! whats up? im Veronica, im from Mayaguez, P.R., im a college student ii UPRM and mayoring (for now) in Sociology, but want to mayor in Psychology. im a pretty fun, loving, friendly, liberal, and cool person to chill with. im into fantasy, music, reading, jokes, STAR WARS, and having tons of fun with my ppl. anything else u wanna know just ask ;)! ciao!!!:) Angel's description reads: ohh well my name is angel but my friends call me junito,juno,june or like i call my self U_KNow hehehe i am from a litte island call Puerto Rico (remember we beat the dream team in basket ball at the olympics?) i am very shy person if u want to talk to me u have to come to me because i am not going to walk to u. when i am whit my friends i want to be center of entertainment the funny guy of the group ( i dont have idd) i just like too see my friends laugh of me and have a good time whit them. i also play soccer is my new luv <3 i play midfilder and i luv it my favorite player is snoop dog ......................................... ( i am not good whit jokes) is zinadine zidane he is harry potter whit the ball aaaaaaaand i dont know what more to say just ask me... One might think, after reading the description portions of Veronica's and Angel's pages, as well as viewing their English use in the interests, quote and music sections, that their comments sections would also be in English, but this is not the case. While the comments on Veronica's and Angel's pages are not their own (users do not generally post on their own comment section), the fact that their friends write to them in Spanish, despite the fact that the rest of their profiles are in English, is telling of how Puerto Ricans actually communicate. In order to confirm that Veronica uses Spanish with her friends, I viewed one of 1her friend's profiles to see how she was posting with her friends. This is what I found: heyyyy nikole todo bn chika aki bn clava cn el test d manana...pero pssss....sabes hay q janguiar tomorrow night! me tengo q desquitar por la mierda d semestre q tuve....ahhh!! jejeje..dale babe me dejas saber a dnd vas k??? muax cdt mucho chika. ...ciao (retrieved from: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user. viewprofile&friendid=16857524 on 7 December 2006) The only English words that Veronica uses in her response to her friend's posting are "heyyy," "test," "tomorrow night," and "babe." When writing to her friends, she deviates from the English-speaking persona that she presents in her description section and uses PRS as a gesture of solidarity with her friend. Her use of this form of netspeak is evidence that Spanish is the daily language of Puerto Ricans regardless of their knowledge of English. Furthermore, Veronica's comments also highlight an emerging form of communication that the three users all appear to be well versed in: Puerto Rican netspeak. f io6 I
Puerto Rican netspeak Netspeak, as explained in Crystal (2004), is a complex form of language usage that is vastly different than the traditional forms of communicating, i.e., writing and speaking. Crystal highlights how the Internet has taken away many aspects of traditional communication, such as facial expressions, tone, intonation and other semiotic aspects of language. Furthermore, as a person types to communicate, speed is also a factor resulting in many localized abbreviations. Both Veronica and Angel use many features of netspeak, including the lack of capitalization and apostrophization in words like "im" and the shortening of "you"Ă˝ to "u" or "people" to "ppl."This manner of communication undoubtedly allows them to type faster, but it simultaneously deviates from standard written Spanish and English text. As a result, this creates an in-group who understands the language being used and an out-group who does not. Also researching in-group language use are Bailey (2ooo), Kiesling (2004) and Mendoza-Denton (t999), all of whom discuss the importance of language variation that sets particular subcultures apart from those who do not belong. Thus, Veronica and Angel's use of Puerto Rican netspeak and the mixing of Spanish and English sets them as well as other similar Puerto Ricans apart from MySpace.com users who are not Puerto Rican. Specific aspects of Spanish, and Puerto Rican netspeak, were seen in the comment sections of all three profiles. The use of "tambn" for the word "tambi6n" and "CDTM"for "cuidate mucho," in Roberto's profile are examples of what I would label Puerto Rican netspeak, which is so new that I am not sure if these usages are common in other Spanish- speaking countries. Similar to English netspeak, users often signify a change in subject or a pause by writing three dots such as "...".For example, the posting on Robert's profile reads: "Gracias por el comment...Espero q estes bn...Te cuidas...bye." Traditional aspects of U.S. or English netspeak are also exhibited on these profiles, for example, smiley faces written as :) and using "'lol" to mean laughing out loud (Internet Slang & Translator 2006). Again, this is just a small glimpse at the complexity of netspeak in Puerto Rico. As an active user of MySpace.com, one would consistently be in contact with a variety of both U.S.-coined netspeaks as well as less documented PRS netspeaks. Puerto Rican netspeak is a fascinating aspect of everyday Puerto Rican language use on the Internet. In my experience taking Spanish classes at universities in Puerto Rico as well as my experiences in other Spanish-speaking countries, there is great importance and attention placed on proper spelling (especially accents), pronunciation and the use of proper grammar. Reproducing the ideals of Spain's Royal Academy of Spanish, many Spanish-speaking countries and people for that matter work against the "pollution" or loss of what is deemed to be correct or traditional Spanish. However, the usage of Puerto Rican netspeak appears to be a venue in which traditional language use is consciously and consistently ignored and in a sense frowned upon. Spelling Netspeak also pertains to the spelling of particular words. All three profiles examined in this section used unconventional forms of traditional Spanish spelling. All three of the pages, for the most part, are absent of accents and tildes, which are customary in standard varieties of Spanish, but can take additional time to type in on
t 107 1
a standard English keyboard (the primary keyboard used in Puerto Rico). Additionally, all three users consistently substitute a "k" when the word requires a "qu," as in Roberto's usage of"Cualkier" and "aunke." This is an aspect inherent to netspeak, where users substitute letters that make the same sound in order to cut down on the time spent writing. The use of unconventional spelling is evidence of in-group language usage because it is very difficult to read and understand what a person is saying if one is not aware of these consistent spelling changes. While I personally speak a very non-formal "street variety" of PRS, I have not spent an equal amount of time chatting online with friends in Puerto Rico. As a result, I initially had a difficult time understanding the different spellings and abbreviations. My feelings as an outsider reading these profiles is additional evidence as to how language creates and bolsters in-group identity or keeps others out. As is evident in Veronica's posting to her friend, she has refused to spell words in their conventional manner by inserting a "k" for all words with a /k/ sound, which would traditionally be spelled with a "c" or "qu" in Spanish. Furthermore, her abbreviations of Spanish words such as donde as "dnd" and cuidate as "cdt" provide more examples of her sophisticated use of Puerto Rican netspeak. English use on the three pages would not be considered standard English either. Roberto spells a variety of words incorrectly, such as "basket ball" "litte" and "whit." Similarly, Veronica spells some of the English words as if she was writing in Spanish, for example, "mayoring," where she inserted the y (which in Puerto Rican Spanish is pronounced as a "j"in juror)or in the writing of wanna for "want to." Lexical borrowings Some of the examples of words tallied as English words were originally English words now incorporated into PRS. Such words include: el shot; el turkey; or the word "break" in "T vere Hoy si me da BREAK." The borrowing of English words in PRS is commonly associated with pop culture and can be seen to varying extents throughout the three profiles. The two profiles with descriptions in English had many more words borrowed from English. On the other hand, Roberto's profile (which was all in Spanish) only had a few English words in the comment section, such as "cheque" used at the end of a posting meaning "check you later" or "see you later." It is important to remember that while I am examining a particular person's profile, the comment section of the profile is composed of many comments from other MySpace.com users, so the language on this portion of the profile is representative of many more users. One aspect of lexical borrowing that all of the profiles had, was technical MySpace.com interface words. Because the interface of MySpace.com is in English, much like most Microsoft Windows interfaces on Puerto Rican computers, users refer to the different aspects of the page in English. So a user might write "gracias por el pic comment" (Angel's page) or "gracias por add" where the person commenting is thanking the profile owner for adding the person to their list of friends. Another example of using technical terms borrowed from English came from Veronica's comments section where her friend wrote "lokilla hiciste ese slideshow..." (referring to a slideshow of rotating pictures that is common to many profiles). Thus, the MySpace.com interface itself has changed the way users use their language, just as Microsoft Windows has influenced the way many people talk about computers. Puerto Ricans generally refer to aspects of the Windows interface in English, despite the fact that the interface can be changed to Spanish. [ 1081
Puerto Rican identity in language Puerto Ricans on MySpace.com are part of a larger community of users, and thus many choose to present themselves as people who are able to communicate in a language of wider communication, i.e., English, and do so by creating a variety of different aspects of their profile in English. One specific example came from Angel's profile, when he wrote "i am from a litte island call Puerto Rico." This is an example of how Angel appeals to MySpace.com users living outside of Puerto Rico. At the same time, Angel's comments section is almost entirely in PRS, exemplifying his everyday language use and his identity as a Puerto Rican. Thus, Angel uses two different languages in two parts of his profile in order to appeal to different audiences. Angel's shift to appeal to different audiences draws resemblance to Wilson, the Domincan-American participant in Bailey (2ooo), who was able to jump from English to Dominican Spanish in order to foster the identity of a Dominican-American or an AfricanAmerican, depending on which identity suited him at the time. Wilson's ability to play both identities to his advantage is similar to what Puerto Ricans are doing on their MySpace.com profiles when they write their descriptions and quotations in English. I would argue that they are trying to appeal to and attract other off-island English users with English in their descriptions, while simultaneously keeping their ties to locals by exchanging PRS messages in comment sections. The division of Spanish and English language use on these pages suggests that English is being used by more Puerto Ricans than was reported in the 2ooo census. Or because one must have access to the Internet in order to create and maintain a MySpace.com page, the amount of English we see on these pages could instead be evidence of the division of the haves and have-nots as described in Schweers and Hudders (2ooo). In other words, those with higher socioeconomic status are able to attend private schools where more emphasis is put on English, and they also have increased access to Internet and the millions of other users who are also connected. Similarly the language use on these MySpace.com profiles indicates a change in language use among the younger ages of the general Puerto Rican population. I believe language maintenance of PRS has been highly successful because of Pueto Ricans' acceptance and creativity in embracing new forms of expression. While Puerto Rican Spanish is inherently "Spanish," it has its own linguistic nuances, which have developed over the past five hundred years and are much of the reason why Puerto Rican identity is so entrenched in the dialect of Spanish spoken on the island. Puerto Ricans' understanding of the relationship between their dialect of Spanish and their identity as Puerto Ricans is one of the principal reasons for such successful language maintenance (Morris 2003: 15g). The Internet and emerging PRS netspeak is a current venue which will continue to reinforce language maintenance on the island. Hence, PRS and particularly PRS netspeak, creates a community of users that is different to other users, e.g., those in the United States, who can only limitedly tap into the identity structure at play due to the rampant use of PRS netspeak. Thus, the use of Spanish in the comment sections, as well as the code switching and borrowing of English words, forms an aspect of Puerto Rican identity among MySpace.com users that ultimately aids in the maintenance of PRS as the primary language on the island. Given the vastness of the Internet, the use of Spanish could have potential implications for language maintenance among Puerto Ricans living off the island as well. Despite the amount of English use in the profiles, only seven out of fifty (i4 percent) comment sections were primarily in English, and only one out of fifty (2 percent) was entirely in English. This is evidence that Puerto Ricans continue to identify as PRS [fo0I
speakers and users. Furthermore, the Internet and specifically, websites like MySpace. corn have provided a forum in which PRS can continue to change and evolve into a language that is representative of the people and culture that use it. In addition to the use of both Spanish and English, the pages exhibited a plethora of examples of an emerging area in Puerto Rican netspeak, namely non-traditional ways of spelling and lexical borrowings. The complex uses of these features constrains what it means to be a "true" Puerto Rican user of MySpace.com and, in doing so, continues to construct Puerto Rican identity for this group of i8- to 22-year-olds. Conclusion English language use in Puerto Rico has been a politically charged topic since the United States' takeover in 1898. Throughout the past century, Puerto Ricans have been successful in maintaining and bolstering Puerto Rican Spanish at the expense of English. As mass media has taken a stronger hold on everyday life on the island, Puerto Ricans have more access to English than ever before. As is evidenced on MySpace. com, Puerto Ricans are cognizant of their place in a multilingual world where English is the lingua franca. However, despite the use of English, Puerto Rican MySpace.com users prefer to interact with their friends and family members in PRS and Puerto Rican netspeak. As more and more Puerto Ricans start using the Internet, the creativity and ingenuity of PRS will become even clearer as it is used on different social networking sites. Likewise, it appears that MySpace.com profiles are a site where traditional Spanish prescriptivist language ideals are blissfully ignored and innovative, and where contemporary Puerto Rican netspeak is substituted for those conservative ideals. While the language use documented in this research deviates from standard varieties of Spanish, it is representative of how a particular group of Puerto Ricans actually use language and therefore can be understood as an in-group marker of Puerto Rican identity. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge my family and friends who have helped me throughout this process, as well as those at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagiiez and the University of Arizona, without whom this would not have been possible. NOTES I
The continual movement between Puerto Ricans between Puerto Rico and the
United States 2 Friends post comments in the comments section at different times. Often times a user will post a question or comment on a person's comment section and the receiving friend will later respond on their same friend's profile. 3 An argument could be made that the music/video sections change often, but in my experience users rarely change the genre and language their songs are in and thus this change is not as relevant for this study. REFERENCES
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TITLE: Puerto Rican Language Use on Myspace.com SOURCE: Cent J 20 no1 Spr 2008 The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited. To contact the publisher: http://centropr.org/journal/