Since the 1930s English has created numerous portmanteau words using the word English as the second element. These refer to varieties of English that are heavily influenced by other languages or that are typical of speakers from a certain country or region. The term can mean a type of English heavily influenced by another language (typically the speaker's L1) in accent, lexis, syntax, etc., or to the practice of code-switching between languages.
In some cases, the word refers to the use of the Latin alphabet to write languages that use a different script, especially common on computer platforms that only allow Latin input such as online chat, social networks, emails and SMS.
The practice of forming new words in this way has become increasingly popular since the 1990s. James Lambert lists 510 such terms, known as "lishes", with many of which sourced from user-generated wikis.
The following is a list of lishes that have Wikipedia pages.
Common lishes
Arablish - a mixture of Arabic and English Banglish Bislish – a mixture of Visayan and English Brunei English Chinglish – a mixture of Chinese and English; Chinese English Czenglish – a mixture of Czech and English Danglish – a mixture of Danish and English Denglisch – a mixture of German and English; Germlish Dunglish – a mixture of Dutch and English Espanglish = Spanglish Finglish – a mixture of Finnish and English Frenglish – a mixture of French and English; Franglais Greeklish – a mixture of Greek and English Heblish – a mixture of Hebrew and English, also commonly known as hebrish Hinglish – a mixture of Hindi and English Hunglish – a mixture of Hungarian and English Itanglese – a mixture of Italian and English; Itanglese Wasei-eigo – a mixture of Japanese and English; Wasei-eigo (not to be confused with Engrish) Kanglish – a mixture of Kannada and English Konglish – a mixture of Korean and English Maltenglish – a mixture of Maltese and English Manglish – a mixture of Malay and English Namlish – Namibian English Nepalese English – a mixture of Nepali and English Nihonglish – a mixture of Japanese and English; Janglish Paklish – Pakistani English Pinglish (disambiguation) – Pakistani English; Palestine English; Persian English; Polish English; Punjabi English Ponglish - a mixture of Polish and English Porglish - a mixture of Portuguese and English Runglish - a mixture of Russian and English Siculish - a mixture of Sicilian and English Singlish - Colloquial Singaporean English Simlish - Fictional Language in The Sims Video game series Spanglish - a mixture of Spanish and English Swenglish - a mixture of Swedish and English Taglish - a mixture of Tagalog and English Tanglish - a mixture of Tamil and English Tenglish - a mixture of Telugu and English Tinglish - a mixture of Thai and English Uglish - Ugandan English Vietglish - a mixture of Vietnamese and English Wenglish - a mixture of Welsh and English; Welsh English Yinglish - a mixture of Yiddish and English
See also List of dialects of English List of portmanteaus
References
Further reading