Author: Nina Thomas | Major: International and Global Studies; Latin American and Latino Studies; Spanish | Semester: Fall 2024
Exploring Portugal in between classes and research
Hello! My name is Nina Thomas, and I’m a senior graduating in May 2025 from the Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences. I’m an Honors student triple majoring in International & Global Studies, Spanish, and Latin American & Latino Studies, with minors in German and Arabic. My honors thesis is a sociolinguistic analysis of Portuñol, the hybrid language of Spanish and Portuguese. I began this research in August of 2024, with my grant spanning the Fall 2024 semester when I also happened to be studying abroad in Portugal. My mentor is Dr. Heather Offerman in the Spanish Department, who specializes in Hispanic Linguistics. Looking ahead, I plan to pursue a master’s in Iberian and Latin American Studies and later work in the Foreign Service.
Traditional Portuñol is most present in South America along border communities between Brazil and its Spanish-speaking neighbors. My research takes this idea a step further to investigate how Spanish and Portuguese speakers improvise this common language to communicate in shared online gaming servers. Because of the linguistic and geographical proximity between Spanish and Portuguese, the languages and furthermore its speakers interact in fascinating ways. My goal is to show the importance of Portuñol, especially in an ever-expanding online world, and advocate for its standardization and therefore legitimacy, much like Spanglish already benefits from. Existing research seems to leave Portuñol out of the internet linguistics space, which is something I hope to change, if even only slightly.
As someone passionate about foreign languages, I wanted my thesis to reflect my interest. My time studying in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries led me to want to explore Portuñol. After taking Dr. Offerman’s Hispanic Linguistics course my junior year, I asked if she would be my mentor, and we pivoted my project more in the direction of sociolinguistics. Dr. Offerman’s guidance has been invaluable throughout this journey. Before starting my thesis, I had limited experience with long-form academic writing. She helped me structure my work, provided examples and resources, and offered consistent feedback. Most of our communication took place via email along with some video calls, but I’m excited to resume in-person meetings as I wrap up my research this spring.
When I began this project, I thought that there would be more research on Portuñol, but the existing literature is sparse, outdated, or overly general. I hoped to find studies on Spanglish in online contexts, but those turned out to be limited as well, leaving me to develop my own frameworks. With the help of some friends from my time abroad in Argentina, I was able to find videos of gameplay which would provide me with great examples of Portuñol. I have been sourcing samples of Portuñol usage from video recordings posted by streamers who play in servers shared by Portuguese and Spanish speakers, namely in Latin America. As I moved into analyzing my own language samples, I had to learn to identify linguistic patterns, have correct notation, and express these ideas in a way that is understandable to any reader, even when it was new to me. It was very important that I manage my time well to have a good balance between academic and personal responsibilities both in Portugal and at home, making adjustments as I went.
Being in Portugal offered me unexpected insight into Portuñol. I have made great improvements in my Portuguese abilities, and I have had the chance to bounce my ideas off of some of my Portuguese professors, both within and outside of linguistics. While traditional Portuñol is more prevalent in Latin America’s border regions and not so much between Spain and Portugal, I still saw how Spanish speakers navigate the Portuguese language with their existing Spanish knowledge. In my Portuguese language class, I could tell when the other international students, especially the Spaniards, improvised their Portuguese by borrowing from Spanish, which was sometimes successful, sometimes not. Hearing this unmistakable Portuñol firsthand, though not in the online setting I am researching, was still very insightful to me.
As my final semester approaches, I’m focused on completing graduate school applications, finishing and defending my thesis, and preparing for graduation. This research has been an incredible learning experience, and I hope to continue exploring similar topics in my graduate education. While there are few expenses related directly to my research, this grant along with thesis hours allowed me to really invest my time in my topic and still take full advantage of my semester abroad. Portuñol is just one example of the fascinating ways languages evolve and adapt, and I’m eager to contribute further to this field.