International Spanish

At an international conference held in Valladolid 15 years ago, “Spanish and the Media”, the then director of a Miami newspaper commented on the various nationalities of the newspapers’ readers and editors, all Spanish speakers, to which she added that the Spanish used could be described as international Spanish, understanding by this that it belongs to no one and to everyone at at the same time.

At that same conference, another speakers said that “U.S. Spanish consists of a set of subsystems that reflect the Spanish of the countries of origin of each group, which is also subject to English influence. Bilingual speakers tends to simplify their language to compensate for the effort made when operating in two different languages. But this simplification also extends to the discourse Hispanics have with each other, they tend to avoid regionalism, word plays or terms that may hinder the understanding of a message. ”

Among the members of the Spanish press in the U.S., there are journalists from different Spanish speaking countries who, gradually and almost without realizing it, cease to use their own idioms and write in a more unified Spanish that everyone can understand.

The decisions that can be made in regards to the variation of Spanish, should be made through the use of a general rule, the use given by all members of the Hispanic community. For example, a demographic data base could help decide which words are most common in Hispanic countries.

The vocabulary used in international news programs on television is part of what is considered to be neutral Spanish. In regard to pronunciation, it is appropriate and corresponds to everyday language use. And in regard to the text itself, there is little disagreement about the syntax. For television, instead of thinking of a standard unit, the essential unity within variety should be fomented instead. Talk models of proper speech are are within each country or region.

One study analyzed the major news channels across the Spanish speaking world. The result showed that the number of different words, uncommon words or country specific words is relatively minimal, only 1 to 2%. Therefore, it was concluded that television is as important as any other media, regarding the unification of Spanish vocabulary.

In my next and final article, I will continue to share other aspects of this issue.

Can anyone stop the ever growing Spanglish movement in the U.S.? After all, Spanglish is not a language but rather people who speak English and Spanish badly. The North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE, for its initials in Spanish) has taken on this challenge. Seen by some as the “language police”, the Academy has teamed up with the U.S. government to improve and standardize the use of Spanish particularly in government public service communications. Their mission is to help implement the use of correct Spanish for the 40 million Hispanics living in the U.S.

For more information, please visit: www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/05/14/2009-05-14_academy_to_become_spanish_inquisitor_.html