• What is a barbarism?
• Types of barbarisms

We explain what a barbarism is in language and various examples. Also, what types exist and the characteristics of each one.

Barbarisms are usually very common in colloquial speech.

What is a barbarism?

We call barbarisms to those errors or inaccuracies when pronouncing or writing a word or phrase, or when using certain foreign words (foreigners) not yet incorporated into its own idiom. It is a type of linguistic error that is usually very common in the speaks colloquial and popular, but from the point of view of rule Language is considered a sign of a lack of culture or education.

The term barbarism comes from the word barbarian, coined in the Ancient Greece to refer to the persian, their eternal rivals, whose language was incomprehensible to the Greeks.

The Greeks scoffed through onomatopoeia "Pub, Pub”Because that was how the entire Persian language sounded to them. Over time they created "barbarian" (barbaroi) as a derogatory way of referring not only to them, but to all foreigners who they considered politically and socially inferior, that is, to "people who speak ill."

The term was inherited into the language of the Romans (barbarus) and used in a similar way during its imperial times, to refer to neighboring peoples who did not speak Latin.

That is why the term barbarism can also be used as a synonym for barbarism or barbarity: a violent, brutal, uncivilized act or saying. Perhaps remembering that the Roman Empire, precisely, ended up falling to the invasions of those peoples who were branded as barbarians.

Nowadays, however, we understand barbarisms as a phenomenon typical of speaking and writing the same language, when they contradict its syntactic or grammatical order, that is, its ideal norms.

However, it is not always possible to easily distinguish barbarisms from neologisms (new contributions to the language) or foreign words (loans from other languages). For this reason, many barbarisms end up being accepted and incorporated into the language.

Types of barbarisms

There are three different types of barbarism, depending on the aspect of the language in which the error occurs: prosodic (sound), morphological (form) or syntactic (order). Let's see each one separately:

Prosodic barbarisms

They occur when there are alterations or inaccuracies in the way of pronouncing or articulating the sounds of the tongue. Bad pronunciation often responds to criteria of the economy of the language, that is, to the least possible effort in pronunciation; other times, to simple vice.

That is why they must be differentiated from the dialect variants of the same language, since a language is not always pronounced the same in all its communities speaking.

Examples of prosodic barbarisms in Spanish are:

• Pronounce the "g” as if it were "and”, imitating the loudness of other languages: yir instead of spinning.
• Do not pronounce certain intermediate consonants: go why you went, criminal per offender.
• Pronounce an "s” at the end of second person verbs: you ate for you ate, you arrived instead of you came.
• To pronounce syndrome instead of syndrome.
• To pronounce tasi instead of taxi.
• To pronounce aigre instead of air.
• To pronounce captus instead of cactus.
• To pronounce bisted instead of steak.
• To pronounce insepto instead of insect.
• To pronounce you came instead of you came.
• To pronounce gummy instead of vomiting.

Morphological barbarisms

They take place when the alteration occurs in the very construction of a word, both at the level of its spelling and its pronunciation. This is why they are also often considered misspellings, and often lead to the erroneous creation of non-existent words.

Examples of morphological barbarisms in Spanish are:

• The use of open instead of opening.
• The use of downloada instead of downloading.
• The use of American instead of American.
• The use of cape instead of fit, from the verb fit.
• The use of i walked instead of walked, of the verb to walk.
• The use of i drove instead of of I drove, of the verb to drive.
• The use of estuata instead of statue.
• The use of strict instead of strict.
• The use of haiga instead of beech.
• The use of died instead of dead.
• The use of sofales instead of sofas.
• The use of I know or sepo instead of I know.

Syntactic barbarisms

They take place when the alteration occurs in the order of the terms of a sentence, or in their agreement (in terms of gender, number, etc.).

Examples of syntactic barbarisms in Spanish are:

• The use of the phrase "roughly", When it would have to be"roughly”.
• The use of "the first" instead of "the first".
• The use of "more better" or "more worse" instead of "better" and "worse".
• The use of “de que” where “that” corresponds (dequeísmo), as in: she told me about what... or I think about what…
• The use of “that” where it corresponds “of that” (queísmo), as in: we realize that ... orWhat were you two talking about?
• The use of "in relation to" instead of "in relation to" or "in relation to".
• The customization of the verb have, as in: there are people who ... or there were thousands of homicides.