"It's not advantageous to speak it," she said. "It's learning something in a mediocre way."

Some young people living in a Spanish-speaking household within an American community have developed Spanglish for certain phrases.

"'Mommy, pero, I don't want to' is one I say a lot," said Melissa Gutierrez, daughter of Martha Gutierrez. "My mouth just spits out stuff that kind of confuses the languages."

Some communities in the country speak Spanglish regularly. Gutierrez witnessed this while living in California.

"In suburbs surrounding Portersville, it's pure Spanglish," Martha Gutierrez said. "You can't say that it's English or Spanish. The translation done for my nephew's graduation was done in Spanglish."

There is proof enough to support Gutierrez:

• California linguist Susana Chavez-Silverman has written a book incorporating both Spanish and English, "Killer Cronicas: Bilingual Memories/ Memorias Bilingues."

• A Spanglish dictionary has been published and a Spanglish course is taught at Amherst University in Massachusetts.
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• An Adam Sandler film titled "Spanglish" was released in 2004, and Spanglish advertisements have been broadcast over national television. Dora, a popular TV show and doll, makes companies millions by speaking both Spanish and English, influencing native-speaking children of both languages.

Spanglish, it seems, is here to stay. Bienvenidos everyone.

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E-mail: amarshall@desnews.com