Frespañol

Frespañol or frespagnol (also known as frañol or fragnol) is a portmanteau of the words français (or francés in Spanish) and español, which mean French and Spanish mixed together, usually in informal settings. This example of code-switching is a mixture between French and Spanish, almost always in speech, but may be used in writing occasionally. Spanish and French are Romance languages and share similarities in morphology and syntax. Such code-switching may be used or has been used in places where both languages meet, for example in Equatorial Guinea, among Haitians in the Dominican Republic, by first-generation Spaniards in France, or Latin American community in Montreal, Canada. This code-switching has historical and current presence in North, Central and South America. Historically, the Isleños in Louisiana were also exposed to and accustomed to living with both languages, as were numerous French emigrant communities across Latin America (e.g. French Argentines), whose descendants have overwhelmingly adopted Spanish. During World War II many French immigrant communities flourished in the Americas, maintaining frañol a historically and currently observable example of code-switching in English, Spanish, and French-speaking countries. Frespañol forms part of a structure of sociolinguistics, it is a social and cultural code born from the contact of French and Spanish speakers. In its early days, the Frespañol was used in individual form meaning there was no set form to follow, everyone used their own variant of it. Now, it is more commonly used amongst the first generation of immigrants who use it more so when speaking Spanish. Calques are introduced by bilinguals, switching from one language to another, words are borrowed. For example, in this phrase in French "Je m'assome à la fenêtre” we see the Spanish word "asomarse" adapting to the sentence. These code changes are adapted to the context of the speaker. Some ways that the two languages are implemented together is sometimes minute.