ABSTRACT: In order to understand what happens when languages are in contact in a community, it is necessary to observe that community's acceptance or rejection of the changes that are occurring. Lexicon is the logical area for this analysis since of all the components of language, it changes the fastest. The present study of language contact in Puerto Rico found that the degree of acceptance of lexical change in English due to contact is dependent not only on the type of lexical deviance from established norms but also on the speakers’ self‐evaluation of language dominance. Four types of lexical deviance arising from languge contact were identified: deceptive cognates, false cognates, accidentally similar cognates and accidentally created cognates. Of these, deceptive cognates had the highest percentage of acceptance. The findings indicate that the lexical characteristics of this new contact variety of English, Puerto Rican English, are determined by the particular type of lexical deviance interacting with the linguistic self‐evaluation of the speakers.