Spain Shouldn't Be Numero Uno When it Comes to Spanish

Mon26Mar2007

Spain Shouldn't Be Numero Uno When it Comes to Spanish

There has always been debate among the Spanish speaking community as to who speaks better (meaning proper) Spanish, with the Spain via its Real Academia Español claiming to be the uncontested voice of reason. But that is about to change.

Ignacio Bosque, professor of the Autonomous University of Madrid and author of Nueva gramática de la lengua española told El Pais that the ‘New Spanish Grammar’ is grammar which has been put together by 22 different academies representing Spanish-speaking countries.

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain attended a special conference in Medellin, Colombia this past weekend on the matter. Today the issue will be pushed further at the 4th International Congress on the Spanish Language in Cartagena de Indias.

Until recently Spanish speaking countries around the globe never discussed what the linguistic commonalities , instead focusing on the differences. Remember, the reason Spanish, like other languages, spread was because of conquest. Every former Spanish colony from Puerto Rico to Peru developed their own version of the language which followed the basic Spanish grammar rules but also included indigenous language words and patterns.

According to experts this is one of the most important advances for the Spanish language in all its history. Once final approval has been achieved efforts will be made to edit the text. The RAE hopes that the ‘New Spanish Grammar’ will be published by Spring next year. It will be divided into 4 sections: General Questions, Phonetics and Phonology, Morphology and Syntax with 55 chapters. There will also be a DVD on differences in pronunciation between countries to accompany the book.

Now if only Spanglish could get the Real Academia's stamp of approval.

Via / Euroresidentes

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Maegan la Mala

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1. Don ~ Monday, Mar 26 2007 | 15:40H:

Very interesting article, thank you. I'm happy that it seems there will be more respect for the different varieties of Spanish and not, "If it's not from Spain it's not proper Spanish". I have to take issue with your last statement, though.

"Now if only Spanglish could get the Real Academia's stamp of approval."

The Academia's approval as what? "Standard Spanish"? You may as well say that Ebonics is standard English or that Creole is standard French. The Academia will never approve of Spanglish as a whole and they shouldn't. When an accepted word exists in Spanish (or any other language) and a slang word is invented it should not have the same validity of the previously accepted word UNLESS there is a wide enough usage of the new word to warrant it. In some cases this has happened with words such as boicotear or cóctel. However, accepting Spanglish as a whole would make about as much sense as throwing out all the rules of grammar and spelling. There is a reason for such standards. If everyone's invented language was accepted as standard, how would anyone understand anyone else? Dáme un break!

2. Maegan la Mala ~ Tuesday, Mar 27 2007 | 10:41H:

With all due respect all languages are invented in some sense and are a reflection of social, economic and political factors. While I was being slightly tongue in cheek about Spanglish being recognized as an official form of Spanish by the Real Academia, its use and development are significant and reflective of modern Latino culture. And believe it or not we use more Spanglish than is readily admitted.

3. Jose Luis ~ Monday, Apr 02 2007 | 17:21H:

I do not agree with your central premise. No one thinks that the Spanish spoken in Spain is the "correct" one (for starters, in Spain there is an incredible variety of accents and dialects, so we would have to agree on which Spanish from Spain first).

As for the Real Academias claiming to be the "only voice of reason", there are Academias in all Spanish speaking countries and they have been working together for quite some time now.

The role of the Academia is to see what is happening and accept a use after it has become standard, so it has to be conservative by nature, waiting for fads to pass. There is not a single correct way to speak a language.

Spanglish is another code, mixing languages willy-nilly. I think individual words will be accepted in the corpus of Spanish vocabulary, but I would hate to see them accepting things as "te llamo para atrás" (that does not make sense at all.

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