“Miami English” A Professor Explains What Exactly It Is

Phillip M. Carter stands in front of the Green Library at FIU. Photo Courtesy of the College of Arts, Sciences & Education website.

Irina Barneda / Staff Writer

It’s no secret that Miami has a unique style of spoken English. One FIU linguistics professor has been studying what makes the culturally rich dialect so distinctive. 

“We know from our research that a lot of times, people aren’t aware that they speak a unique variety of English or that their variety of English marks them as being from Miami until they leave Miami,” said professor Phillip M. Carter. 

Carter specializes in studying the interplay between society and language. An area otherwise known as sociolinguistics. 

His research on the Miami dialect was recently published in American Speech, a peer reviewed linguistics journal. 

“I started hearing structures in English that I thought were interesting, and I started writing them down,” said Carter. “I respect the language scene in Miami. I respect people who were born here, grew up here, and speak this variety of English.”

Carter said  that he became a sociolinguist because he wanted to contribute to the social good, and being a multilingual person himself, was interested in language.

“I saw, in my own life, how language ended up being a site of social injustice, a place where people where social injustices play out through language and because of language,” said Carter. “I think those twin issues pushed me into this career and guide the work that I do now.” 

Vowel sounds such as “o” and “a” have distinctive pronunciations for Miami speakers, according to the research published in American Speech.

There is also a little pull to the “a” sound because it is a value produced in the front of the mouth while “o” is made in the back.

“I’m not saying that the Spanish vowel replaces the English one or anything like that, but we can measure the location of the vowels inside people’s vocal tracks using acoustic technology,” said Carter.

A second study, which focused on word choices and turn-of-phrase, has been accepted into English Worldwide, another peer-reviewed industry journal. 

“The second study is about the lexicon, which is words–specifically, words borrowed and translated from Spanish into English,” Carter said. “For instance, instead of saying ‘get out of the car,’ you may hear people in Miami who say ‘get down from the car.’”

Most people notice their “Miami accent” as soon as they leave the city. Similarly, Carter first realized that there was a distinction in the way Miami-born people spoke English when he moved here from Los Angeles.

“There are stereotyped features of what we call in our research, Miami English,” said Carter. “We know that when people from a place start to joke about their language and stereotype it, then they know that there’s something about their way of speech.” 

According to Carter, while there are a few similarities, the Miami dialect is different from the dialect of other latinx people living in other parts of America, such as San Antonio or Los Angeles.

“The variety of Spanish spoken in Miami comes from the Caribbean, which is very different from Spanish varieties spoken in Texas and California,” said Carter. “It’s not only a question of what are the two languages that are in contact, Spanish and English, but it’s also how many Spanish speakers versus how many English speakers there are, bilingual education, and how quickly the Spanish and English came in contact with each other.” 

Carter plans to keep studying the Miami dialect, look at more structures, and answer more sociological questions about the language writing. 

“We just need students,” said Carter. “I need graduate students, and I need money. So we’re applying for federal grants, this type of research costs money.” 

He hopes that Miami becomes a place where people can think critically and speak openly about language and language differences–that language variation will become a source of pride and not of shame.

“It’s all about this language ecosystem,” said Carter. “Here in Miami, where there’s so much linguistic richness, there are so many identities tied to multilingualism… my sense is that we don’t do enough to celebrate that and to cherish that and to let that grow.”

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