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  1. Dec 2017
    1. Spanish is highly interesting to us, as the language spoken by so great a portion of the inhabitants of our Continents, with whom we shall possibly have great intercourse ere long; and is that also in which is written the greater part of the early history of America.

      I am currently taking an anthropology course on "Language and Culture" and I find this excerpt very interesting due to the fact that in the present day, Spanish isn't highly valued in the American society as shown by Mock Spanish and the legal attempts to establish English as the official language as many monolingual English American speakers see Spanish as a threat to the American identity. In Mock Spanish, American English speakers hyperanglicanize Spanish words—such as the mispronunciation of gracias and adobe—and use semantic pejoration—such as the context usages of "pesos" and "Hasta la vista"— to convey negative connotations of Spanish speakers as lazy, dirty, politically corrupt, etc. Additionally, the use of Mock Spanish occurs in a humorous and joking environment, leading to convey Spanish as a "non-serious" language among American English speakers. I wonder when between the 19th century to the 21st century the value of the Spanish language changed and whether this has to do with American-Mexico diplomatic relations with the complex history concerning Mexican-American war all the way to the immigration issues with the shared border. -Kristin Putman