SPAIN’S rich linguistic history is being lost as Spaniards are increasingly ignoring the words of great writers Cervantes and Lorca in favour of a simpler, more limited vocabulary.

Spanish has become ‘something of a street language’ believes the country’s leading linguist Victor Garcia de la Concha.

The boss of the respected Cervantes Institute believes it has become ‘fashionable to speak badly’ after analysing the nature and evolution of the current Spanish language.

He believes it is constantly changing and claims it has developed an ‘unusual’ energy and liveliness.

Speaking in Casares, he insisted that this energy is not always a positive thing and he blames the waning sophistication in Spanish speech on the ‘predominantly audio-visual’ culture.

“There is a great deal of neglect in the manner of speaking,” he said. “It is a rather shabby period.”

The Cervantes Institute is the world’s largest organization for the promotion of the study and teaching of Spanish language and culture.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Unlike ver, you know, English, wot, at the end of the dey, shpeak it lovely, are ya wiv me.
    The oddest thing is the second-generation Brits with poor or uneducated backgrounds, who may speak good Spanish, but will often speak even worse (regional) English than their parents… What’s the use in that?

  2. This piece ignores the fact that much of the Spanish used in official communications is unintelligible, that educated Spanish speakers use vocabulary to impress, rather than to communicate, and that accuracy is often sacrificed for the sake of variety (examples: el primer ministro ingles, even when the holder of the office was a Scot like Blair or Brown; el ejercito judio (instead of israeli); el presidente norteamericano (instead of estadounidense).

    If Spanish speakers are starting to use vocabulary that others can understand, instead of trying to show how many big words they know, if they are seeking to communicate what they mean, instead of showing how many lines they can write without a full stop or new paragraph, if they are using the correct words for things, that would be a good thing.

  3. Having written two books on the Story of Spanish and The Story of French, I may add something to this discussion. I find Mr. Garcia de la Concha typical of a generation shift. The changes he describes are real and show the clear linguistic impact of La Movida. The culture of language is moving from purisme to casualness and this is what he describes.

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